Wheless memo on UFO impostors (1967)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
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| Date | 1 March 1967 |
|---|---|
| People | Hewitt Wheless, John Keel, Albert K. Bender |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 70 |
| Year | 1967 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1967 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 8 |
In early 1967 Lieutenant General Hewitt Wheless, the U.S. Air Force's assistant vice chief of staff, sent a memo to commanders warning that people claiming to be Air Force officers were visiting UFO witnesses. The memo is often cited in the history of the "Men in Black".[1][2]
The memo
According to the memo, in one case a man in Air Force uniform claiming to be from NORAD had asked a witness for UFO photographs and taken them. Wheless asked commanders to report any such cases to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and said the impostors were not from the Air Force.[1][2]
The Heflin photographs
The best-known case was that of Rex Heflin, who had photographed a UFO in California in 1965. A man with NORAD credentials later visited him and demanded his original prints; NORAD denied involvement, and its chief of staff told Representative James Utt that it did not evaluate UFOs and would not knowingly collect UFO pictures. The originals were never returned, and the man was never identified.[3]
Public reports
On 3 February 1967 writer John Keel reported in the Orlando Sentinel that a Project Blue Book spokesman, Colonel George Freeman, had said men claiming Air Force or government credentials were silencing UFO witnesses, and that "these men are not connected with the Air Force in any way". Keel later said the impostors usually drove black Cadillacs, wore insignia in the wrong places, used licence plates that had never been issued, and gave names that his Pentagon contacts could not trace.[3]
The Men in Black
The memo came as Keel and others were popularising stories of mysterious, oddly behaved men who visited UFO witnesses. The idea had begun in the 1950s with Albert Bender's tale of three men in black suits who told him to stop his UFO research.[2][4]
Significance
The Wheless memo is often cited because it shows the Air Force itself was worried about impostors. It does not explain who they were; theories range from pranksters and other UFO enthusiasts to other government agencies, and the "Men in Black" went on to become a pop-culture staple.[2][4]
People and topics
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Hewitt Wheless — Air Force general whose 1967 memo warned of impostors visiting UFO witnesses.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- NORAD — The U.S.–Canadian air defence command.
- Air Force Office of Special Investigations — The Air Force's criminal investigation and counterintelligence agency.
- John Keel — Writer and author of The Mothman Prophecies who popularized the Men in Black.
- Men in Black — Mysterious visitors said to intimidate UFO witnesses.
- Albert K. Bender — Founder of the International Flying Saucer Bureau whose 1953 silencing story began the Men in Black legend.
On the Timeline
- Robert Wood's McDonnell Douglas study (1967) — McDonnell Douglas physicist Robert Wood says he was tasked with gravity propulsion research.
- Camp Pendleton Marine's crash-site claim (1967) (3 July 1967) — A Marine says he flew to a crash retrieval site in the desert in 1967.
See every 1967 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Lawrence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood, Clear Intent (1984), p. 237, Internet Archive · archive.org · archived copy
- Lieutenant General Hewitt T. Wheless, U.S. Air Force biography · af.mil · archived copy
- "The Men in Black: a history", Liberty Birb · libertybirb.substack.com · archived copy
- Men in black — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Men in Black — background · qsl.net · archived copy
- Robert Goerman reviews 'Men in Black' (Nick Redfern) · goodreads.com · archived copy
- Project Blue Book in 1967 — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- citeseerx.ist.psu.edu · citeseerx.ist.psu.edu · archived copy
Further reading
- NORAD — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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