Will Miller's offer to Davis and Puthoff

Will Miller's offer to Davis and Puthoff

Date	25 April 2002
Topics	Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Military encounters (topic)
People	Will Miller, Eric W. Davis, Harold Puthoff, Peter Gersten, Thomas Wilson
Testimony	Shellenberger testimony, p. 147
Year	2002 in UFO history
Timeline	2002 on the UAP Timeline
Sources	5

Will Miller's offer to Davis and Puthoff is a two-page letter, attributed to the retired U.S. Navy commander Will Miller, offering to help the physicists Eric Davis and Hal Puthoff research UFO crash retrievals. It surfaced in 2019 among papers from the estate of the astronaut Edgar Mitchell, alongside the disputed "Wilson–Davis notes".^[1] Michael Shellenberger's 2024 UFO timeline, submitted to the House Oversight Committee, dates it to 25 April 2002.^[5] In the letter, Miller offered a list of civilian contractors "most likely" involved in U.S. government work on "alien-derived technologies, crashes, landings and associated events".^[1][5] Asked about it in 2020, Miller said he had "no recollection" of the letter.^[2]

The letter

The researcher Joe Murgia, who considers the letter authentic, quoted from it in a 2021 blog post.^[1]

• The offer. On page one, Miller wrote: "I would be willing to assist you and Hal [Puthoff] with your ongoing research into UFO crash retrievals and the entities within the government (or outside of it) that are involved in that business."
• The contractors. On page two, he offered "a list of civilian contractors who, by virtue of their past and current highly classified work, current capabilities, clearances, specialized personnel, and geographic areas of concern, most likely have current involvement in and knowledge of USG work in alien-derived technologies, crashes, landings and associated events."

Shellenberger's timeline gives a fuller summary of the letter's claims.^[5]

• Unclassified work. Miller offered his services on contract, and said he could do the work without touching classified information.
• A recovery team. He said he had particulars on a special team whose secondary mission was recovering crashed craft, "including the F-117". He said he knew the team, its successor, its parent sponsoring entity and two key officers who could provide information on UFO crash retrievals.
• Alien reproduction vehicles. He said he knew the name and last location of a senior officer with first-hand knowledge of U.S. "alien reproduction vehicles" (ARVs) at Area 51 and associated sites.
• An east coast event. He said he knew the name and current location of a retired senior flag officer directly involved in government interaction with "a significant UFO event on the east coast".

The Wilson–Davis notes

The letter came to light with the notes of an alleged 2002 meeting between Eric Davis and Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, who had recently retired as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Murgia summarised the 15 pages.^[1]

• Denied access. In May 1997, as vice director of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Wilson was refused access to a special access program at a top aerospace contractor.
• The program. The program manager told him it was a reverse-engineering effort with an intact craft "recovered years ago in the past". It was "not of this Earth, not made by man – not by human hands", and progress had been very slow.
• The BIGOT list. Although Wilson had the right clearances, he was not on the program's "BIGOT list". He did not "meet rigorous, access criteria", so "need to know authorization was not being granted".
• Wilson's denial. Murgia notes that Davis has said little about the notes, and that Wilson "has repeatedly and strongly, denied their validity".

Murgia linked Miller's mention of "landings" to a 2019 remark by Davis, and suggested that a landed craft would most likely be intact.^[1]

Miller's earlier briefings

Miller had arranged UFO briefings for senior intelligence officials in the late 1990s. In his 2020 interview with Murgia, he gave the details.^[2][3]

• Wilson, 1997. On 10 April 1997 Wilson, then deputy director of intelligence (J2) on the Joint Staff, was briefed by a group including Miller, Steven Greer, Edgar Mitchell, Steve Lovekin, since deceased, and Greer's assistant, given in the interview as "Shri Adamiak". Miller said Wilson did it at his request. Wilson's aide confirmed to Miller after the meeting that MJ-12 existed but that they had no need to know what it did.
• Hughes, 1998. On 15 September 1998 Lieutenant General Patrick M. Hughes, director of the DIA, was briefed by Miller, Greer and a colonel taking notes. Miller said Hughes's office asked him to "expedite" it. Hughes shared personal information on the subject, which Miller would not discuss.
• "I sparked their interest!" Miller said both men took the briefings as seriously as any national security issue, and both asked questions.

Miller's response (2020)

In the June 2020 interview, Murgia asked Miller directly about the letter.^[2]

• Correspondence. "I have E-mailed Davis with some very mundane correspondence. I have no recollection or information on a 'letter', purportedly written to him by me."
• Fake? Asked whether he was prepared to say the letter was fake, he repeated: "I have no recollection of the 'letter.'" He was not willing to discuss which parts might be problematic or "cut and paste".
• Its topics. Asked whether he had been interested in Roswell, Holloman, MJ-12 and leaked documents, Zamora and Bentwaters, all mentioned in the letter, he said: "All but Zamora – not familiar."
• The Wilson notes. He said he would be "VERY surprised IF ADM Wilson actually granted an interview" on a subject Wilson had tried to distance himself from since their Pentagon meeting.

Miller's views in 2020

The same interview set out Miller's wider beliefs.^[2]

• Contractors. If someone had a crashed UFO, he said, a Defense Department entity would take first control. Civilian contractors such as Boeing, Lockheed and Raytheon would be needed for analysis, and he named Boeing's Phantom Works and Lockheed's Skunk Works.
• Who knows. Heads of agencies, especially "three-letter" ones, are generally not given the whole picture, so that they have plausible deniability. Long-serving senior civilian civil servants retain the "corporate knowledge".
• Deep black programs. "The deepest-black programs have numbers, not names." He said he had been read into four or five special access programs.
• Craft. He believed the U.S. most likely has "entire operational craft" and its own "trans-luminal velocity craft", and that some UFOs are extraterrestrial and others "most likely us from the future".
• A witness. He said a former Air Force security specialist, a Disclosure Project witness, had told him of a crash retrieval and of being threatened with "extreme prejudice". Murgia identified the witness as Jonathan Weygandt, and the event as one in the Peruvian jungle. (See Jonathan Weygandt's Peru crash claim.)
• A fragment. He said he had handled a small jet-black fragment, kept in oil, certified by the Russian Academy of Sciences as metallurgy that could not be duplicated with current technology.

Assessment

Whether Davis or Puthoff took up the offer is not known. Murgia himself wrote that he was "unaware" if they did.^[1] The letter's authenticity rests on the papers from Mitchell's estate, which Murgia believes are genuine. Wilson has repeatedly denied the validity of the accompanying notes, and Miller said he did not remember writing the letter.^[1][2] The DocumentCloud copy cited by Shellenberger's timeline refused automated access.^[4]

Notes on the earlier version

• Source of the papers. The earlier version described the letter as among "papers attributed to physicist Eric Davis that surfaced in 2019". Murgia says the documents were found at the estate of Edgar Mitchell and posted online in 2019.^[1]
• Wilson's post. The earlier version described Wilson as a "former Defense Intelligence Agency official". Murgia describes him as the recently retired director of the DIA at the time of the 2002 meeting, and as vice director of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs in 1997.^[1]
• Dates of the briefings. The earlier version said Miller arranged briefings for Wilson and Hughes in 1997–98. Murgia's interview gives 10 April 1997 and 15 September 1998.^[2]

People and topics

• U.S. Navy — The U.S. naval service, whose pilots reported the UAP encounters revealed in 2017.
• Crash retrieval — The alleged recovery of crashed non-human craft by governments.
• Will Miller — Retired Navy commander who discussed UFO secrecy with researchers.
• Eric W. Davis — Physicist who worked on AAWSAP and has said the U.S. holds recovered craft.
• Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
• Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
• Peter Gersten — Lawyer who directed Citizens Against UFO Secrecy and sued federal agencies for UFO records.
• NIDS — Robert Bigelow's research institute (1995–2004) that studied UFOs and other anomalies.
• Wilson–Davis notes — Wilson–Davis notes
• Defense Intelligence Agency — The Pentagon's military intelligence agency, which ran AAWSAP.
• Thomas Wilson — Former DIA director named in the Wilson–Davis notes.

On the Timeline

• Flickinger autopsy material claim (5 March 2002) — Kit Green says an Air Force physician told him he saw alien autopsy material.
• Thomas Bearden's list of energy researchers (May 2002) — Thomas Bearden lists researchers he says work on related energy technology.

See every 2002 event on the UAP Timeline →

Further reading

References