Timeline of Modern UFO Investigations: AAWSAP to AARO

Compiled and edited by Justin Snead | Last Update: December 2024

The following is a concise history of modern era UFO investigative efforts that are officially or unofficially affiliated with federal US Government agencies in the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense.

1995

Robert Bigelow founds National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), with two primary areas of investigation, UFOs and consciousness studies - Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, 14

1996

July - Bigelow purchases Skinwalker Ranch; Eric Davis, Colm Kelleher, George Onet begins working for NIDS" - Skinwalkers at the Pentagon

August 3 - Harry Reid attends NIDS fifth board meeting; Jacques Valee presented; Reid became hooked on the topic - Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, 15

Mid-June - Alleged meeting with Admiral Thomas Wilson, Deputy Director of DIA and the three members of the "watch committee" at an aerospace company about an off-the-books black program related to retrieve UFOs - Wilson/Davis Memo

2002

October 16 - The alleged Eric Davis and Admiral Thomas Wilson Meeting in Las Vegas, where the story of the 1997 meeting was recounted - Wilson/Davis Memo; In Plain Sight, 262

2004

November 10-16 - USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group engagement with the Tic Tac UFOs

Bigelow's NIDS is disbanded - Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, 32

Robert Bigelow connects "senior official at the Defense Intelligence Agency" [most likely Jim Lacatski] with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to discuss UFOs. Senators Reid, Stevens and Inouye insert into the 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Bill: $22 million awarded to BAAS, a Bigelow Aerospace subsidy was the only bidder - Lewis-Kraus New Yorker article

Reid: “In 2007, while serving as Senate majority leader, I worked with Senators Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska, and Daniel Inouye, a Democrat from Hawaii, to secure $22 million in funding for what would become known as the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program. We wanted to take a close, scientific look at the technological implications of reported U.F.O. encounters.” - New York Times op-ed

May 2008 - Senators Reid, Inouye, and Stevens met with a Project Manager with the Defense Intelligence Agency “to express their interests to establish a research program involving ‘exotic sciences.’” - Kona Blue docs

July 2008 - Senator Reid briefed LTG Maples, Director of DIA, on congressional funds of $10 million in start up funds for the proposed project.- Kona Blue docs

September 22 - BAASS awarded AAWSAP contract, Jim Lacatski is named Program Manager - Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, 43

November - BAASS hires Colm Kelleher as Deputy Administrator - Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, 44

December - BAASS hires Colonel Douglas Kurth, who was witness to Tic Tac - Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, 44

Early 2009

• Jay Stratton vets Lue Elizondo for a role in AAWSAP over three separate meetings in Elizondo’s Pentagon office.

• Elizondo was recruited to join AAWSAP, a Defense Intelligence Agency program; his role was senior intelligence officer to set up counterintelligence and security for the program.

• Elizondo was brought into AASWAP’s administrative offices to meet Dr Jim Lacatski, who hired Elizondo for the job

• First full staff AAWSAP meeting; dinner in a hotel in Roslyn, Virginia; first meeting of program leadership and contractors. Attendance (mentioned by Elizondo): Robert Bigelow, Hal Puthoff, Jim Lacatski, General Paulo Roberto Yog de Miranda Uchoa (Brazil); his daughter, and translator. - Imminent, 13-19 & Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, 48-51]

June 24 - Senator Reid letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Lynn recommending a Special Access Program status for AATIP. This was due in part to the fact that he personally could not get classified access to retrieved UFO crash materials from the Pentagon. The SAP request was denied in November 2009 - Kona Blue docs, New York Times

June 24 - AASWAP investigator Jonathan Axelrod files a report on AAWSAP’s Tic Tac investigation: "no known aircraft... in the inventory of the United States or any foreign nation...advanced propulsion capability..." - Skinwakers at the Pentagon, pg 113

Fall of 2009 - meeting with Stratton, Lacatski, and Elizondo in which they discussed dropping paranormal investigations and focusing on the UAP threat. Imminent, 83

November 2009 - DIA completed a review of Reid’s AATIP “at the request of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence… based on classification levels of current and projected deliverables, insufficient ground existed to classify the program” However they recommended that AARIP “could be of merit” to other departments. - Kona Blue docs

December 2009 - LGT Burgess, Director of DIA and former DOD Deputy Secretary William Lynn informed Reid that the DIA program--AAWSAP--could not be conducted by the Intelligence Community; initial efforts “were insufficient to classify the program or establish a special access program and recommended that the program could be better suited for another agency or component.” - Kona Blue docs

Spring - Lakatski, under pressure to end AAWSAP, meets with Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn to “allay any of DoD’s fears and concerns.” That afternoon “Devon Woods” (pseudonym), who worked at the Office of Director of National Intelligence and previously for the CIA, warns Elizondo that he is “opening a can of worms playing with this stuff.” He described UFOs this way: “It’s demonic. There is no reason we should be looking into this. We already know what they are and where they come from. They are deceivers. Demons.” (Imminent, 84)

August 9 - James Clapper becomes Director of National Intelligence; he brings “Devon Woods” (pseudonym) in as deputy director at DIA.

September - “Within thirty to forty-five days of my mentor’s reassignment to DIA [Clapper], the atmosphere at the agency changed with respect to our work.” (83)

“tides were shifting… AAWSAP detractors now worked at the senior level within DIA. … The powers that be in the ivory tower now actively tried to kill the program. If the slightest glimmer of the truth of Jim’s work got released in a broader report destined for the eyes of others in power, it got kicked upstairs, where DIA’s bureaucrats killed it, filed it away, or ignored it.” (60)

December - AASWAP contract expires and the office is closed. - Skinwalkers at the Pentagon

March - Michael G. Vickers becomes USD(I)

Kona Blue docs for all following: the year long effort to convert the defunct AAWSAP to a DHS Special Access Program.

In 2011, the DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology (S&T) established KONA BLUE as a Proposed SAP based on claims that relevant information and material existed and required this level of protection. - AARO’s History and Origin of KONA BLUE

April 2011 - presentation of a program briefing to Joel Wall, DHS S&T Director, and Steve Cover, DHS Management, inviting DHS to take on Kona Blue SAP.

May 2011 - DHS Under Secretary for S&T Tara O’Toole receives briefing on Kona Blue

July 11, 2011 - Memo from Joel Wall to DHS Under Secretary for S&T Tara O’Toole, requesting approval of Kona Blue as a DHS SAP. The Kona Blue Prospective Special Access Program was established by Under Secretary O’Toole on this date.

October 2011 - O’Toole met with Senators Liberman and Reid to discuss Kona Blue

November 21, 2011 - Special Access Program Oversight Committee meeting for Kona Blue between committee members and O’Toole; formal slide deck presentation on Kona Blue is given; Deputy Director of DHS requested more information about the “It” of the investigation.

November 28, 2011 - O’Toole sends a memo to Deputy Secretary (S2) recommending Kona Blue SAP; “A SAP is proposed as we have been informed there is a body of previous work held by other entities that requires a SAP level classification to access it.”

December 8, 2011 - “a progress review of the PSAP was conducted in the office of the Deputy Secretary. In attendance were Deputy Secretary Lute; General Counsel Fong; Under Secretary Wagner; SAPCO Chief Cover; and Associate General Counsel Kronisch. Under Secretary O’Toole was invited but was unable to attend. …Lute directed that the PSAP be terminated immediately.”

“Those questions included whether the justifications for establishment of the SAP (e.g., assessment of threat/vulnerability) were adequate…”

December 12, 2011 - O’Toole notified via memo of the PSAP termination.

~Around 2010 or 2011~

Elizondo and Stratton transition from AAWSAP to AATIP.

End of 2009 - “we openly talked about the wisdom of Jim dropping the investigations AAWSAP had gotten involved with that many considered to be dealing with the paranormal and instead focused solely on UAP threats. I was convinced that if we produced some solid work under the AATIP banner, there wasn’t a person in the Pentagon or Congress who could look away.” - Imminent, 83

2010 - Luis Elizondo is put in charge and forms AATIP to study national security implications of UAP - Lewis-Kraus New Yorker article

2010 - “In 2010, as a Staff member for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), he assumed the lead role and senior officer for this endeavor [AATIP].” - the page Pentagon & AATIP on Elizondo’s personal webpage https://luiselizondo-official.com/ when it launched in April 2024. The year 2010 was later removed.

2010-2011: “AAWSAP Was Not AATIP… After AAWSAP was shut down, the AATIP designation was used to describe a completely separate, small initiative that was underway at the Pentagon to study UAPs encountered by military personnel.” - Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, xxiv

Year unclear - Will Livingston, Colm Kelleher and Jacques Vallee meet with Garry P. Nolan, immunologist at Stanford University, at his Stanford office, sharing MRI images of the brains of UFO experiencers. - Imminent, 111-112

-Los Alamos sighting of orbs and discs exhibiting “out-of-this-world performance characteristics.” AATIP was “boxed out” by one or more federal agencies. Imminent, 118

April 25 - UAP recorded flying around Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. “Around the time we [AATIP] were working on our first list” of UAP observables: hypersonic velocity, instantaneous acceleration, low observability, transmedium travel, antigravity. - Imminent, 127

June - start of regular sightings USS Roosevelt/ Carrier Strike Group 12 in east coast training ranges - New York Times, Grave's own account

January 1 - John Podesta begins serving in the White House as Counselor to the President. - Wikipedia

Late 2014 - USS Roosevelt, pre-deployment workups off coast of Virginia to Florida, 22 separate encounters with UAP; scores of UAP operating in exclusive-use airspace - Imminent, 139

January - The operations officer of Fleet Forces Command sent an email regarding the USS Roosevelt training exercise on the Navy’s secure network addressed to all subordinate commanders, subject: URGENT SAFETY OF FLIGHT ISSUE. A paraphrase of the email text read: “If any of you know what these are, tell me ASAP. We are having multiple near-midair collisions, and if we do not resolve it soon, we will have to shut down the exercise.” The email was removed from the server a day later. - Admiral Tim Gallaudet congressional statement, November 13, 2024

Early 2015 - Tom DeLonge exits the band Blink-182 to pursue his UFO efforts - wikipedia, In Plain Sight, 167

• DeLonge MC’d a Lockheed Martin Skunk Works employee event, held a 5 minute private discussion about UFOs with Skunk Works general manager Rob Weiss -In Plain Sight, 168-169

• DeLonge claimed to have been invited to a second meeting with Skunk Works at Area 51 - In Plain Sight, 169

• DeLonge claimed that two weeks later he was introduced to senior military, intelligence and NASA leaders, Air Force generals, and senior White House officials - In Plain Sight, 169

• DeLonge claimed that at a meeting with a general and a colonel at Colorado Springs, his soft disclosure media campaign was greenlit - In Plain Sight, 179

• DeLonge claimed he was told to fly to a regional airport, where he met with “The General’ at a restaurant who said to him: “It was the Cold War and every single day we lived under the threat of nuclear war. Every single day, we believed and really thought in the deepest part of our souls that nuclear war could happen at any given moment. And somewhere in those years, we found a lifeform. And everything that we did and every decision that we made with that lifeform was because of the consciousness of that time.”- In Plain Sight, 180-181

February 13, 2015 -John Podesta, Counselor to the President, tweets the following on his last day serving in the White House, before taking on the role of campaign manager for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign:

March 5 - Podesta/Bob Fish email exchange containing a description of a UFO being tracked entering the atmosphere from space then entering the ocean off the coast of Florida (revealed by Wikileaks October 7 2016) - David Bates Medium article; Wikileaks

March 11 - Roosevelt Departs homeport of Norfolk, Va for 10 month deployment in Persian Gulf - cpf.navy

After March 11-- “Jay [Stratton] received a string of emails from senior leaders with the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia” describing numerous USS Roosevelt UAP incursions during 2014, including the cube encased inside a transparent orb that split a formation of Hornets. Stratton, from his seat at Naval Intelligence, initiated the first formal reporting of UAP. - Imminent, 141

• AATIP sources in Fleet Forces Command send Stratton two videos from the Roosevelt UAP incursions, GO FAST and GIMBAL.

• Meeting: Elizondo presents the two videos to an interagency group (CIA, NSA, and Navy), all became convinced they represented off-world technology. - Imminent, 149-150

April 30 - Michael G. Vickers steps down as USD(I) - New York Times

September 24, 2015 - DeLonge tells Podesta he has a scheduled dinner meeting with “current commanding officers at the Air Force Space Command in couple days in Colorado Springs to discuss how to move this project forward.” - In Plain Sight, 193; Wikileaks

October 26, 2015 - DeLonge emails John Podesta to set up a meeting between them and two “A-Level officials” in DoD Classified Science divisions. - In Plain Sight, 188; Wikileaks

November 23: USS Roosevelt returns to new homeport in San Diego, California - cpf.navy

2015 - AATIP’s “Aha Moment”:

Lue Elizondo presenting his Imminent book lecture, October 28, 2024 (Philadelphia)

AATIP team holds a briefing in a Pentagon SCIF; Hal Puthoff shares his theory on how the UFO propulsion system creates a warp bubble around the craft, which would also explain each of the five observables. The briefing lasted several hours. Elizondo described the team’s collective realization during their discussion as “historic moment”:

• “We realized we [humans] are on a path to exploiting the energy levels needed to possibly warp space-time ourselves, and UAP have been observing (essentially conducting ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance]) and been concerned with our progress.”

• “All of us realized at once that we may have just cracked some of the greatest mysteries of all time… the chain of logic was unassailable and obvious--blindingly obvious.”

• We now had a working hypothesis of why we are being visited. Why we are being watched. Why they are testing our technology. We had good, solid ideas about how their technology works… and a motive for their interest in our planet. And we had reached the sobering truth that humanity is quickly approaching the danger point. A point of no return.”

• Analogy: Gorilla with a shotgun escapes from the zoo and shows up at the biologist's house: “You have two choices: learn to communicate with the gorilla right away, or shoot it dead.”

• “Everyone was lost in thought. Everyone sensed the implications.”

• “Humanity is approaching a moment that nothing in our evolution has prepared us for. We are speeding toward a new reality like a bullet train that can’t be stopped. Ahead of us is a crossroad, that moment where we show up on the biologist’s front lawn and a decision has to be made. A decision that could dictate the future of humanity.”

• “Regardless of their motivation, if this tech is cracked by another nation-state with bad intentions it will be an existential threat to our nation and the planet as a whole…. I believe the public has a right to know.” -Imminent, 165-169

Elizondo believes humanity is on the cusp of a major technological leap forward, but that we may not be ready:

• “I felt hyper-alive, overwhelmed, and terrified.”

• “Humanity could truly be facing an outrageous extinction event of our own making because we’re not taking the threat seriously.”-Imminent, 170

• “Everything we’ve seen in the twentieth century could be a prelude to an invasion. It is a possibility that we cannot ignore. …If there was a small chance that they were malevolent, we had to be more prepared. From a national security point of view, we couldn’t take any chances.” Imminent, 173-74

~Around 2015 or 2016~

Jay Stratton develops an operating plan called Interloper, designed to use nuclear assets at sea to lure UFOs so that they can be observed by cameras and sensors - Imminent

Jim Semivan, a former member of CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service, becomes part of Tom DeLonge’s soft disclosure media campaign, which Elizondo described as “a hodgepodge of former senior military and intelligence officials and a rock star… working to wrestle the UAP conversation out of the silos of government and place it into the hands of the American people.” - Imminent, 182

Semivan became connected with Hal Puthoff; met Stratton and Elizondo at the Pentagon; “This was the first time we brought someone into the [AATIP] fold from the outside.” - Imminent, 181

January 24, 2016 - Google Hangout meeting is arranged, with the following attendees: Tom DeLonge, John Podesta, Rob Weiss (Skunk Works general manager), Milia Fisher (Clinton campaign aide), retired Major General Michael Carey, retired Major General William Neil McCasland (commander of the Air Force research lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base until 2013). - In Plain Sight, 189; Wikileaks

March 27, 2016 - Tom DeLonge does a 4 hour interview with George Knapp’s Coast to Coast AM, describing his soft disclosure media campaign and senior government access, which he claimed caused him to be interrogated for two days by an intelligence agency trying to figure out how he knows what he claimed to know. - Coulthart, 179

May 10, 2016: “Hillary Clinton Gives U.F.O. Buffs Hope She Will Open the X-Files” - New York Times (See Ross Coulthart’s Hillary Clinton theory for the motivation of the UFO “gatekeepers” to work with Tom DeLonge, In Plain Sight, 194-197)

Late 2016 - Joint Staff rejected Stratton’s OPLAN Interloper. Rejection of Interloper made Stratton/Elizondo realize they had to go directly to the public: “The decision stung… We talked it over and formulated a new plan. What if Jim Semivan was right? What if we needed to somehow bring this topic to “the people”? - Imminent, 187

January 20 - Jim Mattis becomes Secretary of Defense; Marcell Lettre steps down as UDS(I), replaced by two acting directors until December.

• Throughout 2017 there was an ongoing effort by Elizondo to place AATIP within the formal DoD chain of command, thus making it an official program.

• Elizondo: White House advisor Brad Byers “was hesitant to brief Mattis until my office, OUSD(I), had a permanent appointment. … was filled with either ‘acting’ or temporary people. The position required a Senate-confirmed person and so the Pentagon was still searching for the right individual. A permanent person in the USD(I) meant we could keep everyone informed.” - Imminent, 190

Early 2017 - Jim Semivan revealed AATIP’s existence to Chris Mellon and told him where to find Lue Elizondo in the Pentagon, leading to their first meeting. Chris Mellon described the dominant view within the DoD on UFOs as “unremitting contempt and disdain…irrational beliefs in subjects like poltergeists or astrology.” - from forward to Imminent

On or before Aug 22 - Elizondo working with Neill Tipton to assume official leadership of AATIP; “He was now among the top three senior officials in the OUSD(I), the equivalent of a three-star general.” - Imminent, 191

Fall - Mellon meets Lelsie Kean in a parking lot in the D.C. area, hands over an envelope filled with CDs encoded with data, including the three Navy UAP videos. - Imminent, 199

October 3 - Luis Elizondo last day at the Pentagon, submits resignation letter effective October 4 - Black Vault

October 4 - Christopher Mellon introduces Elizondo to reporter Leslie Kean at a confidential four-hour meeting in a Pentagon City hotel with several present and former intelligence officials and a defense contractor, and is told about AATIP.

Present: Mellon, Semivan, Puthoff, Elizondo, Kean- New York Times, Imminent, 203

October 11 - Tom DeLong launches To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences with a press conference - YouTube

Elizondo joins the advisory board; describes the group as providing “fresh approaches to UAP science and engineering, educating laymen and journalists, and generating film/TV/publishing content about the UAP phenomenon, based on true stories, all to educate the public and put an end to the stigma.” - Imminent, 205

Late October - Elizondo meets with Kean and Blumenthal in Philadelphia; interviewed him about UAP and AATIP for the New York Times - Imminent, 207

December 1 - Joseph D. Kernan becomes USD(I)

December 16 - New York Times story on AAWSAP/AATIP breaks on-line on Saturday, by Kean, Blumenthal, and Helene Cooper - New York Times

2018

Elizondo moves to California to work at offices of TTSA. - Imminent

January - ONI taps Jay Stratton to lead the unofficial UAP Task Force (UAPTF 1.0)

“...leadership in Navy intelligence, who understood the national security threats related to UAP and now felt public and congressional pressure to do something about it, tasked Jay with quietly building out a whole-of-government interagency task force, a program with more authorities than AATIP ever had.”

Elizondo describes Stratton’s efforts and partners, adding “this would go on to become the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force.” - Lewis-Kraus New Yorker article; Imminent, 223; Greenstreet interview with Kirkpatrick

Stratton, in his role at Office of Naval Intelligence, begins receiving requests from members of Congress for briefings on UAP. Elizondo: “Jay, Chris, and I all funneled credible members of the military and intelligence community who had knowledge of UAP to Congress.” The military pilots “made the most impact on Congress at first.” -Imminent, 212

January 1 - Jim Mattis resigns from his position as Secretary of Defense

May - Unidentified, with Elizondo and Mellon, premiers on The History Channel

June - The Wilson-Davis memos appear online

June 11, 2019 - The Senate Armed Services Committee introduces the National Defense Authorization Act for 2020 with a classified Annex related to UAP. The legislation directs the USD(I&S) to stand up a UAP Task Force “to investigate UAP activity.” The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is to lead the investigations. - Snead’s Congressional Timeline

June to December - Office of Naval Intelligence regularly summoned to Capitol Hill to present detailed briefings on UAP. These briefings presumably involved Stratton’s UAP Task Force 1.0 - Snead’s Congressional Timeline

October - Staffers for the Senate Armed Service Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee receive a briefing on “unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) detections” from ONI, OUSD(I), and Federal Aviation Authority. Briefings also included history of AAWSAP and AATIP efforts, and a presentation by Eric Davis, who told staffers that UAP were of “off world” origin - The Debrief; Mellon blog post

January - Scott Bray becomes Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence - NATO biography

March to September - Office of Naval Intelligence UAP briefings to Congress are ongoing, but now led by Scott Bray

During this period of UAP briefings that the Office of Naval Intelligence presented on Capitol Hill, internal Navy emails identifies members of Congress as either “UAP Advocate” or “UAP Cynic” - Snead’s Congressional Timeline

April - UAP Security Classification Guidance approved by Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray; the three Navy sensor videos, GO FAST, GIMBAL, and FLIR, initially procured by AATIP are officially released by the Pentagon - Black Vault, New York Times

Summer - Elizondo relocates to Wyoming. - Imminent

August 4, 2020 - Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist approved the establishment of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force (UAPTF). The Department of the Navy, under the cognizance of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, will lead the UAPTF. - DoD press release

Late December 2020 - Tom DeLong informs Elizondo is fired from for TTSA - Imminent, 219

According to Elizondo, someone in the defense establishment blocked funding that Congress appropriated to the UAP Task Force; Stratton decided to retire, ending 16 years of UAP investigations for the government. All AAWSAP and AATIP members are now out of government and unaffiliated with the DoD’s now official UAP investigation - Imminent, 233

Elizondo increases his media presence, especially on the podcast circuit, doing one or more interviews a week for nearly the entire year. - Interview list

March 2021 - UAP Task Force org chart (procured through FOIA)

May 16, 2021 - CBS 60 Minutes Report on UFOs, featuring Chris Mellon, Lue Elizondo, and Ryan Graves - CBS

June 1 - Ronald Moultrie becomes USD(I)

June 25, 2021 - ODNI releases the report Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, the first congressionally mandated annual UAP report. - Report

September - The House Armed Services Committee approves its version of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. Among other provisions, the approved amendment requires the Secretary of Defense to: “Establish an office to carry out the mission currently performed by the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force (in coordination with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence)”--this office would become AARO. - The Debrief; HR 4350

October 30, 2021 - The Galileo Project Welcomes Christopher Mellon and Luis Elizondo as Research Affiliates - GP press release

November 23, 2021 - Pentagon announces that the UAP Task Force will become the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) - DoD Order; NYT article

March 2022 - OUSD(I) taps Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick to be the director of AOIMSG; officially hired by mid-May

May 17, 2022 - the House Intelligence Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee, chaired by Congressman André Carson (D-Ind.) holds an open hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena. Scott Bray and Ronald Moultrie respond to questions in an open and closed hearing. - YouTube; Transcript; CSPAN

May 18, 2022 - Elizondo announces last podcast

June 9, 2022 - NASA to Set Up Independent Study on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - NASA Announcement

July 20, 2022 - DoD announces new name and director: rebranding its UAP office from the Airborne Object Identification and Management Group (AOIMSG) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), and broadening the official scope of its activities. An official announcement was also made that Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick - Link

To The Stars Academy sheds its R&D operation to become exclusively an entertainment company. In October, DeLonge announces he has rejoined Blink-182 - Eghigian’s After the Flying Saucers Came; Wikipedia

December 16, 2022 - Ronald Moultrie and Sean Kirkpatrick brief reporters on AARO. This is Kirkpatrick’s first press interview - DOD transcript

January 12, 2023 - The DNI releases the 2022 UAP Report - Report link

February 2, 2023 - Elizondo met with the AARO director Sean Kirkpatrick and his staff for three hours in a secure facility, and gave them classified information about the history of the crash retrieval program for AARO’s historical report on UFOs - Kean/Blumenthal NYT book review

April 7, 2023 - David Grusch resigns from government in order, he said, to advance government accountability on UAP through public awareness. - Debrief link

April 19, 2023 - Sean Kirkpatrick responds to questions as Senate subcommittee hearing - AARO Senate hearing

May 31, 2023 - The NASA UAP Study Team holds a public meeting, Sean Kirkpatrick and others present - NASA UAP Panel Discussion

July 26, 2023 - United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability holds its first UAP hearing. Witnesses: David Grusch, Ryan Graves, Dave Fravor - House Oversight Committee on UAP; transcript

August 31, 2023 - AARO website goes online; Deputy Def Sec Hope Hicks takes over management of AARO, away from ODSDI&S - DefenseScoop, Brandi Vincent article

August 2023 - Scott Bray becomes Acting Director of Naval Intelligence. In November he left ONI to become NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security. - NATO biography

September 14, 2023 - NASA releases UAP Panel report, and announces a UAP director within NASA - New York Times; NASA press release

December - Sean Kirkpatrick resigns from government; leadership of AARO is taken over by deputy director Tim Phillips

January - Kirkpatrick begins his 2024 media campaign, conducting one or more interviews a month for the rest of the year - Snead’s archive: AARO’s Historical Report & Sean Kirkpatrick's Media Campaign

March 8, 2024 - AARO historical vol 1 report released

First week of April - Elizondo launches his personal website, in anticipation of his book coming out later this year.

August 26, 2024 - DoD announces Dr. Jon Kosloski as Director of AARO - DoD Press Release

August 20, 2024 - Imminent book release, and Elizondo commences a book tour

September 10, 2024

Jat Stratton announces he is publishing a book on his UFO investigations: “We are at the beginning of a new chapter for humanity. The process of disclosure is complex but it has begun.”

November 13, 2024 - United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability holds its first UAP hearing. Witnesses: Admiral Tim Gallaudet; Lue Elizondo, Mike Gold, Michael Shellenberger - Hearing link

November 15, 2024 - AARO released 2024 UAP Report - Report link

November 19, 2024 - AARO director Jon Kosloski presents UAP data to Senate subcommittee Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats & Capabilities in a public briefing. - Hearing Link; Transcript

2025

Will be updated as relevant events unfold…