UCLA (University Of California, Los Angeles)
UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) is a major public research university in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. In UAP research it is primarily significant as the venue for a 1993 alumni conference where Ben Rich, the second director of Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and father of the F-117A stealth fighter, made a series of statements widely interpreted as admissions of classified non-human technology programs.
The 1993 Ben Rich Alumni Conference
At a 1993 UCLA alumni association engineering conference, Rich closed his presentation with a slide of a black disc and reportedly stated: "We now have the technology to take ET home." The fuller quote often attributed to Rich — "We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity" — cannot be verified by audio or video recording.
The primary recorder of the broader quote is Linda Moulton Howe, whom UAP Gerb notes is known to take reportorial liberties. However, the closing statement about taking ET home is corroborated by two independent attendees: aerospace engineer Tom Keller, who published a 2010 MUFON article confirming the quote; and Jan Harzan (then MUFON director), who confirmed that Rich ended his UCLA talk with the disc slide and that statement, though noting most of the audience appeared to miss its literal implication.
A documented July 10, 1986 letter from Rich to researcher John B. Alexander is treated as more reliable primary evidence: Rich wrote that he was "a believer in both categories" of UFOs (man-made and extraterrestrial) and acknowledged "many of our man-made UFOs are unfunded opportunities."
Significance in UAP Legacy Program Context
Rich served as Skunk Works director from 1975 to 1991, overseeing programs including the F-117A, U-2 follow-ons, and classified advanced programs. His UCLA statements, if accurate in substance, would represent one of the most direct on-record admissions by a senior aerospace executive of classified non-human technology programs. UAP Gerb treats the 1993 conference as meaningful circumstantial evidence while applying appropriate sourcing scrutiny to the specific words attributed to Rich. Rich's earlier deathbed conversation with friend James Goodall — in which he allegedly stated the US had "things in the desert 50 years beyond comprehension" — is cited as consistent with the UCLA statement.