Robert Sarbacher
Dr. Robert Irving Sarbacher was an American physicist, graduate of Harvard University, and student of Albert Einstein who served as a scientific consultant to the US Department of Defense's Research and Development Board during the Truman administration in the early 1950s. He is one of the most significant firsthand sources in early UFO research, having privately confirmed to Canadian government researcher Wilbert B. Smith in 1950 that the study of flying saucers within the United States government was classified at a higher level than the hydrogen bomb — a claim Sarbacher later repeated publicly in 1983 in letters and recorded conversations with prominent UFO researchers.
| Role | Physicist; DoD Research and Development Board consultant; alleged government UFO program insider |
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Background and Career
Sarbacher founded and served as the Dean of the Washington Institute of Technology and was a scientific consultant to the US Marine Corps. His principal area of research was the remote control of rockets. He served as a member of the DoD's joint Research and Development Board under the chairmanship of Vannevar Bush, whose board Sarbacher described as the institutional home for a small group conducting classified UFO analysis.
His son, Robert Sarbacher Jr., later told researcher D.M. Duncan (who located him near the time of Sarbacher's death in 1987) that his father spoke sparingly about UFOs, but confirmed he knew they were real "for the obvious reason that they would be going 600 mph and then make a 90-degree turn in midair without slowing down, separated from all inertia and gravity." According to the son, Sarbacher was called upon to develop a missile equipped with cameras — similar to those on the V-2 rockets — capable of tracking UAP at speed, as conventional aircraft were too slow to pursue them.
The 1950 Smith Confirmation
In 1950, Wilbert B. Smith — a senior Canadian government radio engineer — met with Sarbacher in Washington, DC, and recorded four key claims Sarbacher relayed about the US government's UFO program:
- The matter was the most highly classified subject in the US government, rated higher than the hydrogen bomb.
- Flying saucers exist.
- Their mode of operation is unknown, but a small group headed by Vannevar Bush is actively studying them.
- The entire matter is considered by US authorities to be of tremendous significance.
Smith used these disclosures as the basis for a 1950 memo to the Canadian Department of Transport's Controller of Telecommunications, which directly led to Canada's establishment of two official UAP investigations: Project Magnet and Project Second Story. Historian Arthur Bray later uncovered both the Department of Transport memo and Smith's handwritten meeting notes from Sarbacher's estate, providing documentary corroboration of the meeting.
The 1983 Steinman Letter
In November 1983, UFO researcher William Steinman wrote to Sarbacher requesting details on his UFO involvement. Sarbacher responded with a letter confirming the following:
- He had no personal association with the individuals involved in crash retrievals, nor knowledge of specific crash dates.
- He was invited to participate in several discussions regarding crash retrievals at the Research and Development Board, but did not attend in person.
- Vannevar Bush, John Von Neumann, and Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer were definitively involved in the program.
- He did not receive photographs of UAP but did view official reports at his Pentagon office.
- Materials reportedly recovered from flying saucer crashes were described as extremely light and very tough.
- Instruments or crew operating the craft were described as very lightweight, "sufficient to withstand the tremendous deceleration and acceleration associated with their machinery."
- He recalled an impression from colleagues that the occupants "were constructed like certain insects we've observed on Earth," suggesting that their low mass enabled them to withstand the extreme inertial forces of UAP flight.
Sarbacher's use of quotation marks around the word "aliens" is noted by researchers as suggesting he was not prepared to finalize a conclusion about the non-human or extraterrestrial nature of the phenomenon.
The 1983 Stanton Friedman Conversation
In the same year, legendary UFO researcher Stanton Friedman tracked down Sarbacher after learning of the Wilbert Smith memo. In their recorded conversation, Sarbacher repeated the insectoid occupant description: "One of the fellows said to me that those guys — if they were people — were made like insects. They didn't have any skin on their bodies. So they were saying that's how they were able to accelerate and decelerate without being torn apart." He placed the meeting he was referencing at Wright Field and indicated a crash had occurred out west, consistent with the 1947 Roswell crash timeline. When Friedman pressed on whether the crash occurred in 1947, Sarbacher responded "very likely."
Sarbacher also identified another attendee of the Wright Field meeting whom he disliked — described as someone from Philadelphia who attended all the meetings and "acted very smug about it." This was later identified as Dr. Eric A. Walker.
Connection to the V-2 Rocket Program and Project Twinkle
Sarbacher's son's account of camera-equipped missiles for UAP tracking is partially corroborated by the historical record. Project Twinkle (a 1949 program tasked with observing UFOs alongside green fireballs) documented an incident on August 31, 1950, where the UFO phenomenon was observed following a V-2 rocket launch from White Sands Missile Range. Radar operator Master Sergeant Lloyd Eugene Camp, who performed high-level research on captured German V-2 rockets at White Sands, reported observing two silver discs circling a V-2 via both visual and radar confirmation before the objects turned on their sides and accelerated away. Camp's daughter confirmed her father witnessed similar events multiple times.
Significance
Sarbacher's testimony is considered among the most credible early government insider accounts for several reasons: he was a verifiable, credentialed figure with documented access to the Research and Development Board; his disclosures were made privately (to Smith in 1950) before UFO research had become a public phenomenon, reducing the incentive for fabrication; and his descriptions of recovered materials and insectoid occupants independently parallel other accounts from separate sources. His confirmation of Vannevar Bush's leadership of the small UFO study group is corroborated by the Majestic 12 Documents, which name Bush as a member of the team tasked by President Truman to investigate crashed UAP.