Does the U.S. Government Have a Project to Recover Crashed UFOs?

That's quite a question! For years - decades, in fact - there have been rumors to the effect that there's a secret U.S. program to quickly retrieve damaged, malfunctioning and crashed alien spacecraft. Many UFO researchers point their fingers in the direction of a project that goes back to the 1950s. For years, it was titled Project Moon Dust (also spelled Moondust). Today, however, it has a classified title. Mention the operation to a lot of Ufologists and they'll tell you that Moon Dust is the key to the secrets of where crashed Saucers and dead aliens are stored away. But, are their thoughts and conclusions correct? Nope. Time and again I have seen UFO researchers say that the available Moon Dust documentation (via the Freedom of Information Act) proves that UFOs have crashed. Actually, in relation to aliens, it doesn't prove anything at all. If you do what I have done - namely, to go through all of the declassified Moon Dust papers (which amounts to thousands of pages) - you'll see that for the U.S. military, government, and intelligence community, the term "UFO" meant something very different. For most people, if you use the term "UFO" they will assume you are talking about extraterrestrial spacecraft. And that's totally understandable. A careful and close look at the available files, however, shows that for the Moon Dust teams, "UFO" - on almost every occasion - meant captured Soviet hardware: aircraft, parts of satellites, missiles gone off-course and so on. It did not mean "extraterrestrials." That doesn't take away the fact that the history of the program wasn't fascinating. It certainly was. Now, with that all said, let's take a look at some of the cases under the Moon Dust microscope.

One now-declassified Moon Dust document states:"On 30 September 1960, a TWX report was sent to the Pacific Air Forces on a sighting of an unidentified object that entered the water near the village of Ctaru. The report originated with the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force (GSDF) headquarters and was relayed to us by the Japanese Air Self Defense Force (JASDF). According to the report, a fiery object fell from the sky and into the sea, making a fountain of water which was described as looking like a 'geyser.' Technical intelligence personnel from Tokyo took over the case, but were unable to locate or reclaim the object." Additional documentation was that the most likely scenario was space debris. Another document says: "On 11 October 1960, a pilot over the beach east of Kisawa observed an orange flash on the horizon. He described the phenomenon as being distinct and looking like a great bubble. The area in which the phenomenon could be observed was along the southern coast of the Soviet Kuril Islands." And, there's also this one: On 14 September 1960, a pilot was flying an F-86D between an overcast above and below him when a greenish-white object appeared from the overcast above him. The object fell straight down, and disappeared in the overcast below. The object was described as looking like a green pea. Preliminary investigation could not identify any balloons or other known objects in the area which could have accounted for the sighting." Eventually it was shown to have been a balloon.

A 1965 document declassified by the CIA, a copy of which is in the Moon Dust files, is titled: "Fragment, Metal, Recovered in the Republic of the Congo, Origin Believed to be an Unidentified Flying Object,." It provides the following: "The purpose of this report is to present the results of the exploitation of a metallic fragment recovered near the town of [illegible] in the Republic of the Congo. Fragment recovery was the result of a ground-level search which was coordinated after an unidentified flying object exploded and fell to earth in the area. The sighting and recovery took place sometime between 10 and 15 October 1965. Other than a reported east-to-west direction of flight for the UFO, specific observation and recovery details are lacking." The final outcome was something that had come off an aircraft that had caught fire in the air." Yet again, we see the use of the word "UFO," but not in the context of an alien ship.

Then, there is a Department of State telegram of August 1967 from the American Embassy at Khartoum to Washington. It states: "Local press 17 Aug 1967 reported that a satellite, cube shaped, weighing approximately three tons discovered 3 August 50 miles from Kutum. Satellite described as made of soft metal presumably light aluminum in oblong cubes measuring two inches by one inch tightly fastened together and covered by a silky material. Nationality not identified as no inscriptions evident on outer surface. Local authorities in El Fasher have photographs and with difficulty cut samples." It did indeed amount to parts from a space satellite. But, the recovery was handled by Moon Dust, whose teams used the word "UFO." Thus, a UFO legend was created. Now, is it possible that the Moon Dust teams really did recover fallen alien technology? Yes, it's possible - and, certainly, Moon Dust would have been the perfect project to perform such retrievals of UFOs. If only there were some evidence. There isn't. So, in finality, if you happen to see the term "UFO" in a government report, remember that it doesn't necessarily mean the references are to "aliens," extraterrestrials," "non-humans," or...well, the list goes on.

PS: In my next article, we'll see how a near-identical situation took place in the U.K. - and, if needed, still does.