Midwest engineers group claim (1974)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Date | 10 December 1974 (journal entry) |
|---|---|
| Recorded by | Jacques Vallée, Forbidden Science, vol. 2, p. 277 |
| Source | Dr Christopher "Kit" Green, CIA scientist, over lunch |
| Claim | A group of 15 engineers in the Midwest was secretly doing UFO research for the CIA under cover of "aeronautical research" |
| Vallée's assumption | McDonnell (McDonnell Douglas) in St. Louis |
| Also in the entry | Green's check of data behind a supposed Holloman AFB landing film |
| Status | Company not named; no documents found |
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Christopher "Kit" Green, Jacques Vallée, Robert M. Wood |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 80 |
| Year | 1974 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1974 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 12 |
On 10 December 1974, according to Jacques Vallée's journals, the CIA scientist Kit Green "reluctantly confirmed" to him over lunch that a group of 15 engineers in the Midwest was secretly doing UFO research for the CIA under cover of "aeronautical research". Vallée assumed this meant McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis.[1][2] It is one of the more specific statements in Vallée's journals about where hidden UFO research might be taking place. No company was named, though, and no documents describing such a group have surfaced.[1][2]
The entry
Keith Basterfield's blog UFOs – scientific research quotes the entry in a 2011 series on Green's appearances in Vallée's journals.[1]
- The Holloman data. "Over lunch Kit told me he'd been able to reconstruct all the data alluded to by Emenegger. 'Everything checks out, but I can't find out if the Holloman movies actually exists.'"
- The engineers. "...Kit reluctantly confirmed there was a group of 15 engineers in the Midwest (I assumed it was McDonnell in St Louis) secretly doing UFO research for CIA under cover of 'aeronautical research.'"
- Their sources. "They're getting data through leaks from CUFOs and other amateurs."
- Vallée's reaction. "I congratulated myself for working alone, keeping my own counsel."[1]
Basterfield's 2010 post on aerospace companies gives the page as 277 of volume 2.[2] "Emenegger" is the documentary producer Robert Emenegger. With Allan Sandler he was trying to obtain film of a supposed 1964 UFO landing at Holloman Air Force Base.[1] In April 1975 Vallée recorded Green telling him the Holloman film had been withdrawn from a library by a "Captain Harner", since transferred. Green could find no trace of Harner or of the film at the Pentagon.[1]
Kit Green
Christopher "Kit" Green is a physician. According to a source quoted by Basterfield, he ran "the Life Science desk in the CIA's Office of Strategic Intelligence".[2] Writer Tanner Boyle describes him as "a longtime CIA employee and intelligence contractor... with a particular interest in military medicine".[5] Vallée's journals record several encounters with him in 1974–75:[1][2]
- 11 February 1974. Green agreed there "must be a secret effort somewhere", saying: "In my group we've wondered if it wasn't being run within private industry."
- June 1974. Green took Vallée to meet "Sams", introduced as a member of a new "Group of Twelve". Vallée found them "space cadets". Green had dropped out of the group by July.
- 1975. Green discussed cults, cattle mutilations and other fringe subjects with Vallée. In Basterfield's words, he was "taking an interest in a broad range of topics, including UFOs".
Green later studied injured patients said to have been near UAP. The Stanford immunologist Garry Nolan said Green "was in charge of studying some of these individuals", around 100 patients who were almost all defence, government or aerospace personnel. Nolan has described MRI scans showing brain damage in some of them.[6][11] A TweakTown article and a forum thread on the same subject could not be read for this article.[7][12] The Wikipedia article linked below under the name "Kit Green" is about a different person, the English performer Kit Green, and has no bearing on this subject.[10]
McDonnell Douglas
Vallée's guess fits other accounts.[2]
- Wood's study. From 1966 to about 1970 the engineer Robert Wood ran a small company-funded UFO and propulsion study at McDonnell Douglas. Wood said its only government contact came in 1970, when "one of the intelligence agencies" showed interest.
- Vallée in 1978. A McDonnell Douglas employee told Vallée he was compiling a close-encounter database. Vallée suspected the company was continuing a "quiet but well funded study" monitored by the CIA.[2]
Basterfield himself asked the obvious question: "If the McDonnell Douglas study headed by Wood was between 1966 and 1970, who was conducting the research mentioned in Vallée's diary entry of 10 Dec 1974?" If it was McDonnell Douglas, he noted, Wood apparently did not know of it.[2]
The journals
Vallée's Forbidden Science journals, now in six volumes, record his private research from 1957 onward.[3][4][8] Commentators value them as a contemporaneous inside record that is also an intimate personal diary.[4][9]
Assessment
Green did not name the company, and the identification with McDonnell Douglas was Vallée's own assumption.[1] No documents describe a CIA-funded engineering group doing UFO research in the 1970s, and the one documented McDonnell Douglas study had ended by 1970.[2] The entry shows what Vallée was told by a well-placed contact. Whether the contact's information was accurate, and what group he meant, remains unconfirmed.[1][2]
People and topics
- Christopher "Kit" Green — CIA physician and analyst who became a long-time contact of Jacques Vallée and studied UAP-related injuries.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- McDonnell Douglas — The aerospace company that ran several quiet studies of UFOs and propulsion.
- Robert M. Wood — McDonnell Douglas engineer who ran an in-house UFO study and later promoted the MJ-12 documents.
- AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
- BAASS — The Bigelow Aerospace division that carried out the AAWSAP contract.
On the Timeline
- Army missile exercise phenomena (1973–74) (17 July 1974) — An Army spokesman says unexplained aerial phenomena were seen during missile exercises.
- Unmarked helicopter claim (1975) (14 March 1975) — An Air Force officer says unmarked helicopters are sent to UAP-related sites.
See every 1974 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Jacques Vallée — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
References
- "Christopher 'Kit' Green, part four", UFOs Scientific Research (Jan 2011) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- "Aerospace companies and UFOs — 2", UFOs Scientific Research (Jan 2010) · ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Forbidden Science — the journals of Jacques Vallée (Anomaly Archives) · anomalyarchives.org · archived copy
- Forbidden Science series — Anomalist Books · anomalistbooks.com · archived copy
- Kit Green in Vallée's journals — Forbidden Science Dispatches · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- Kit Green, Garry Nolan and UAP-related injuries — IBTimes · ibtimes.co.uk · archived copy
- Former CIA officer on UFO-related injuries — TweakTown · tweaktown.com · archived copy
- Review of Forbidden Science 6 — SFCrowsnest · sfcrowsnest.info · archived copy
- Forbidden Science Dispatches — Tanner Boyle (journal summaries) · tannerfboyle.substack.com · archived copy
- Kit Green — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Garry Nolan on UFO materials and Kit Green's patient studies (Vice interview) · exo.substack.com · archived copy
- abovetopsecret.com · abovetopsecret.com · archived copy
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia article “Kit Green”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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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