Yankee Blue
| Part of Pentagon UFO disinformation campaign | |
| Date | 1950s–2023 |
|---|---|
| Location | United States Air Force |
| Type | Internal hazing / loyalty test; disinformation ritual |
| Outcome | Discontinued by DoD in 2023 |
Yankee Blue was the codename for a fake United States Air Force UFO program. It was purported to involve the reverse-engineering of alien spacecraft, but was in fact an elaborate hazing and misinformation practice, part of a broader Pentagon disinformation campaign intended to obscure classified weapons development under the guise of UFO mythology. The ritual persisted from the Cold War era until its formal discontinuation in 2023.
In June 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon's All‑domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), led by Sean Kirkpatrick, had discovered that for decades personnel in classified Air Force units had been shown images of flying saucers and told that they were from a top-secret alien‑technology recovery program called "Yankee Blue". The incoming members were shown "UFO" photos and told they'd be helping reverse-engineer alien tech. However, it was a fictional program. Participants were bound by non‑disclosure agreements and sometimes threatened with execution if they leaked information. The strategy originated as a security measure to protect sensitive programs from Soviet intelligence and to divert attention from advanced weapons like stealth aircraft.[1][2][3] Because of strict secrecy orders most participants believed the program to be real, even after retirement. AARO's internal review discovered that the ritual continued for decades but was put to a halt by a memo from the Secretary of Defense in spring 2023.[4]
The Defense Department acknowledged that the AARO findings were correct in 2025. DoD spokeswoman, Sue Gough, explained that the department didn’t include the information in its 2024 UFO Report because the investigation wasn’t completed, but expects to provide it in another report scheduled for later in 2025. “The department is committed to releasing a second volume of its Historical Record Report, to include AARO’s findings on reports of potential pranks and inauthentic materials,” Gough said.[5]
See also
References
- ^ Schectman, Joel; Viswanatha, Aruna. "The Pentagon Disinformation That Fueled America's UFO Mythology". WSJ. Retrieved 2025-08-08.
- ^ "To Hide Top-Secret Weapons, the Pentagon Planted Myths About UFOs at Area 51—Then Things Spun Out of Control". Popular Mechanics. 2025-06-27. Retrieved 2025-08-08.
- ^ Prada, Luis (2025-06-13). "Did the Pentagon Make Up UFO Sightings To Hide Secret Government Projects?". VICE. Retrieved 2025-08-08.
- ^ "Pentagon secretly planted Area 51 UFO conspiracy theory to hide secret weapons program". New York Post. 2025-06-08. Retrieved 2025-08-13.
- ^ Schectman, Joel; Viswanatha, Aruna. "The Pentagon Disinformation That Fueled America's UFO Mythology". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2025-08-15.