People

Eric A Walker

Dr. Eric Arthur Walker (1910–1995) was a physicist, engineer, and longtime president of Pennsylvania State University (1956–1970) who served as a consultant to numerous high-level government science advisory boards and is suspected by researchers of being privy to classified UFO crash retrieval programs, including possible membership in Majestic 12.

Role	Presidential science advisor and alleged MJ-12 member

Walker's cryptic statements to researcher William Steinman about crashed flying saucers and his connections to key figures including Vannevar Bush and Robert Sarbacher make him one of the most significant secondary sources on classified UFO phenomena in the 1940s and 1950s.

Career and Government Work

Walker earned his Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University and became president of Pennsylvania State University in 1956, serving until 1970. During and after his academic career, Walker worked as a consultant to numerous government science boards, including serving as a member of the Research and Development Board under Vannevar Bush. He also served as Executive Secretary of the Defense Research Board from 1950 to 1951, placing him at the intersection of US military science policy precisely when the earliest classified UFO recovery discussions are alleged to have occurred.

Walker also established the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State — a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) created at the behest of the US Navy. The UARC structure is significant in the UAP context: the AARO office under Dr. Klosi admitted to working alongside UARCs and FFRDCs — the same categories of institutions that witnesses and researchers allege were used to house and manage UAP legacy programs.

According to testimony from Robert Sarbacher, Walker attended classified meetings at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the late 1940s to discuss recovered extraterrestrial craft and materials. Sarbacher named Walker alongside John von Neumann, Vannevar Bush, and J. Robert Oppenheimer as participants in these briefings.

Identification by Robert Sarbacher

When Stanton Friedman spoke with Robert Sarbacher in 1983, Sarbacher referenced a man from Philadelphia who attended the Wright Field crash retrieval meetings and "acted very smug about it." Researchers subsequently identified this individual as Eric A. Walker, whose professional history placed him in Philadelphia and whose Defense Research Board role would have granted him access to such meetings. Walker's name becoming publicly known prompted a wave of researcher contact beginning in the mid-1980s.

Conversations with William Steinman

In August 1987, researcher William Steinman telephoned Dr. Walker at his home to ask about the 1948 Aztec UFO Crash Retrieval, Majestic 12, and his relationship with Robert Sarbacher. Walker's responses were cryptic but did not deny the central claims:

On Sarbacher:

"Steinman: I wanted to know if you knew Dr. Robert I. Sarbacher—he was a consultant to the Research and Development Board back in the early 1950s. Did you know him?
Walker: Yes.
Steinman: Do you remember him?
Walker: Slightly, yeah."

On MJ-12:

"Steinman: I wanted to know if you ever heard of a group called 'MJ-12' or 'Majestic 12'?
Walker: Yes, I have.
Steinman: Was there such a group?
Walker: I can't answer that question."

Walker directly confirmed his attendance at the Wright Field meeting described by Sarbacher — the 1949–1950 meeting at which crash retrieval and body recovery efforts were discussed. When Steinman raised the topic of Majestic 12, Walker replied: "Yes, I know of MJ-12. I have known of them for 40 years." He added: "I believe that you're chasing after and fighting with windmills" — an allusion to Don Quixote that researchers have interpreted as either dismissing Steinman's approach or signaling that investigating MJ-12 documents was a misdirection. Walker also cautioned Steinman that he was "delving into an area that you can do absolutely nothing about."

On Crashed Flying Saucers:

"Steinman: Do you know if there were any discs that were recovered in the late 1940s and early 1950s?
Walker: I don't have any idea about that."

The conversation continued across three additional phone calls over the next two years, with Walker never denying the reality of crash retrievals or MJ-12, but consistently refusing to confirm details. At one point Walker acknowledged to Steinman:

"One of the documents was shown to me in which my name appeared and I said it was a phony. I won't tell you any more than that."

Walker's tone suggested he was under a lifetime security oath but frustrated by it, and he indicated that whatever happened in those years was real but beyond his ability to discuss.

Interviews with Dr. Henry Victorian (1990)

In 1990, Walker participated in a series of three recorded phone calls with researcher Dr. Henry Victorian (pseudonym for Armen Victorian). Key admissions and statements from these sessions include:

First interview: Discussion of the 1978 Bolivia UFO crash and the possibility of insect-like occupants being recovered — consistent with Sarbacher's description.
Second interview: Walker confirmed MJ-12 exists but stated that the documents are likely forgeries. He made the cryptic statement: "A couple of people are capable of handling this issue. Unless your mind and ability is like Einstein's or likewise, I do not think you can achieve anything." On the question of ESP and psychic perception: "How good is your Sixth Sense? How much do you know about ESP? Unless you know about it and how to use it, you would not be taken in. Only a few know about it." This statement is often cited as suggesting that UAP knowledge transmission or contact involved non-standard cognitive dimensions.
Third interview: Continued discussion of UAP topics with Walker speaking more cryptically; confirmed Vannevar Bush's involvement in the program.

The Einstein Quote

In April 1990, Walker cryptically suggested to Steinman that understanding the physics of recovered craft was beyond most people's comprehension:

"I tell you, Steinman, unless your mind ability is like Einstein's or likewise, I do not think you can achieve anything."

This statement implied the physics involved in the recovered craft were so advanced that even credentialed scientists would struggle to reverse-engineer them without exceptional intellectual capacity.

Confirmed Presence at Government UFO Briefings

Robert Sarbacher's 1983 letter to William Steinman directly corroborated Walker's attendance at classified meetings:

"About the only thing I remember at this time is that certain materials reported to have come from flying saucer crashes were extremely light and very tough. I am sure our laboratories analyzed them very carefully. There were reports that instruments or people operating these machines were also of very light weight, sufficient to withstand the tremendous deceleration and acceleration associated with their machinery. I remember in talking with some of the people at the office that I got the impression these 'aliens' were constructed like certain insects we have observed on Earth, wherein because of the low mass the inertial forces involved in the operation of these instruments would be quite low. I still do not know why the high orders of classification have been given and why the denial of the existence of these devices."

Sarbacher listed Walker among those present at Wright-Patterson briefings where such materials and bodies were discussed.

Kecksburg Connection

Walker was president of Pennsylvania State University at the time of the December 9, 1965 1965 Kecksburg UFO Crash, which occurred approximately 100 miles from Penn State's campus. In interviews conducted around 1991, Walker directly admitted his presence at the crash site, stating:

"We went there with two from the military but not on duty."

This is an unambiguous admission that Walker, accompanied by two military personnel acting in an unofficial capacity, traveled to Kecksburg shortly after the crash. His presence at the scene, combined with his documented role in classified aerospace matters and his proximity as Penn State president, makes his involvement in the Kecksburg retrieval operation highly plausible.

Walker never publicly elaborated on what he observed at Kecksburg or what role he played in the investigation, but his admission of being present is one of the few confirmed instances of a high-level government science advisor acknowledging direct involvement in a UAP crash retrieval event.

Assessment

Dr. Walker's pattern of behavior — confirming the existence of MJ-12 and his own involvement while simultaneously discouraging investigation and speaking in metaphors — is interpreted by researchers as that of an insider who acknowledged the reality of UAP programs while operating under constraints that prevented full disclosure. His refusal to deny key claims, combined with corroborating testimony from Robert Sarbacher and his documented position on the Research and Development Board, strongly suggest he had direct knowledge of classified UFO crash retrieval programs and may have been a fringe or full member of the Majestic 12 oversight group.

His cryptic comments to William Steinman represent one of the clearest confirmations from a high-level scientific advisor that something extraordinary was recovered and studied during the late 1940s and 1950s. His direct admission of being present at Kecksburg in 1965 further establishes his ongoing involvement in UAP matters throughout his career.