OAN Staff Blake Wolf
2:38 PM – Sunday, June 8, 2025
The Pentagon deliberately spread UFO conspiracy theories surrounding Area 51 in an attempt to conceal secret weapons programs, according to a newly released report.
A report released by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) found that an Air Force colonel visited a bar near Area 51 in the 1980s – providing the owner fabricated material depicting flying saucers around the highly classified military base, according to the Wall Street Journal’s review of the report released in 2024.
The Pentagon reportedly intentionally ran a disinformation campaign on American citizens in an attempt to hide the development of the F-117 Nighthawk, the world’s first ever stealth warplane.
The 1980s were marked by a tense and dynamic period in the Cold War, with the Pentagon concluding at the time that spreading false information was the most effective route at concealing its cutting edge technology from the Soviet Union.
Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, a former chief scientist at the Missile and Space Intelligence Center was chosen to lead the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in 2022, which delved into the mass trove of government documents and memos pertaining to UFO sightings and encounters.
The Wall Street Journal recounted Kirkpatrick finding that the Air Force would haze members by informing them of a fake project known as “Yankee Blue,” in which they were told was centered around reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology.
The individuals were told never to mention the project to anyone, and many of the individuals were never informed that the project was not actually real. During the course of Kirkpatrick’s investigation, the prank was reportedly still being passed down, leading the DOD to issue an order to stop the practice in 2023.
“Investigators are still trying to determine why officers had misled subordinates, whether as some type of loyalty test, a more deliberate attempt to deceive or something else,” the outlet’s report continued.
The report also reveals instances of military officials being kept in the dark regarding advanced military projects.
In one instance in 1967, Air Force captain Robert Salas, who was in control of 10 Montana nuclear missiles, recounted seeing a hovering “glowing reddish-orange oval” over the military base which disabled all 10 nuclear missiles, according to the report.
The next morning Salas was never told to speak of the incident, never informed that the glowing orb was actually a cutting edge electromagnetic generator being tested to disable the nuclear weapons.
“There is a gigantic coverup, not only by the Air Force, but every other federal agency that has cognizance of this subject,” he stated in an interview, still believing that he witnessed an extraterrestrial object disable the nuclear warheads. “We were never briefed on the activities that were going on, the Air Force shut us out of any information.”
The AARO was founded in 2022, designated to analyze and release information surrounding reports and footage of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).
An additional follow-up report about AARO’s findings is expected to be released later this year.
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