Steve Wilson and Project Pounce
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
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| Date | 19 August 1997 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic), Propulsion & physics (topic) |
| People | Steve Wilson, Richard Boylan, Steven Greer |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 130 |
| Year | 1997 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1997 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 8 |
Steve Wilson, who described himself as a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, claimed in correspondence with UFO researcher Richard Boylan in 1997 to have headed Project Pounce, a secret Air Force unit that recovered crashed UFOs and their occupants.[1]
The claims
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In an email exchange dated 19 August 1997, which Boylan published with his own comments, Wilson signed himself as director of a group called Skywatch International. He said Project Pounce did not exist as a standing unit: its members had other jobs and came together only to secure crash sites and seize craft and occupants. He also claimed that the United States shot down at least one UFO a day and Russia two — figures Boylan himself doubted — that military astronauts flew reverse-engineered two-seat craft launched from Vandenberg and Beale Air Force Bases in California, that Henry Kissinger and Edward Teller were members of a 36-member MJ-12, and that he had reached a clearance level of 27, "as far as I could go".[1]
Credibility
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None of Wilson's claims, including his rank and career, has been independently confirmed, and the account is known mainly through Boylan, a psychologist and hypnotherapist whose own credibility has been widely questioned. The Majestic 12 documents that underpin much of this lore are widely regarded as hoaxes.[1][2]
Later Vandenberg reports
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The testimony places Wilson's account alongside later reports about Vandenberg. At a House Oversight subcommittee hearing on 26 July 2023, former Navy pilot Ryan Graves described a 2003 incident in which Boeing contractors reportedly saw a very large red square object hover over a launch facility at the base for about 45 seconds. That report was second-hand and has not been officially confirmed, and it does not support Wilson's specific claims.[3]
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.
- Steve Wilson — Self-described retired colonel who claimed Project Pounce shot down UFOs.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Richard Boylan — Psychologist and UFO researcher who interviewed Steve Wilson.
- Vandenberg Space Force Base — The California missile and space launch base.
- Steven Greer — Physician who founded CSETI and the Disclosure Project.
- Disclosure Project — Steven Greer's campaign for UFO disclosure, best known for its May 2001 press conference.
On the Timeline
- CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90 (3 August 1997) — A CIA history by Gerald Haines covers the agency's role in UAP study from 1947 to 1990.
- James Cox antigravity classification (1998) (January 1998) — An antigravity newsletter proposes seven possible types of antigravity devices.
See every 1997 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Richard Boylan, "Colonel Steve Wilson, USAF (ret.) on Project Pounce and military astronauts" · drboylan.com · archived copy
- Majestic 12 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Big red UFO hovered over Vandenberg in 2003, congressional witness testifies", Santa Barbara Independent (Aug 2023) · independent.com · archived copy
- 'Group calls for disclosure of UFO info' — ABC News (2001) · abcnews.go.com · archived copy
- Greer's Disclosure Project — Patrick Gross · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- A historian on the Disclosure Project — History News Network · historynewsnetwork.org · archived copy
- Disclosure Project briefing document (2001, PDF) — Internet Archive · archive.org · archived copy
- abovetopsecret.com · abovetopsecret.com · archived copy
Further reading
- Majestic 12 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Majestic 12 file — FBI Vault · vault.fbi.gov · archived copy
- Skunk Works — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Laurance Rockefeller — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- UFO documents — NSA · nsa.gov · 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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