The Wilson Davis Memo and US Secret UFO Reverse Engineering Programs

Overview

In 2018, a controversial 15-page document surfaced from the estate of Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, documenting an alleged October 16, 2002 meeting between astrophysicist Eric Davis and retired Vice Admiral Thomas Wilson in a car outside defense contractor EG&G. The notes describe Wilson's discovery of a hidden crash retrieval and reverse engineering program within the U.S. government, his attempts to gain access as Deputy Director of the DIA, and his subsequent stonewalling by program managers and Pentagon officials despite his senior clearance level. If authentic, the memo represents smoking-gun evidence corroborating decades of claims that the United States government is actively attempting to reverse engineer craft of non-human origin.

The video traces the memo's journey to public release through James Rigny, who obtained the document while helping disperse Mitchell's estate in 2016, explores the backgrounds of Davis and Wilson, dissects the meeting notes line by line, and examines the conflicting statements and confirmations from key figures including Will Miller, Lou Elizondo, Chris Mellon, and Mitchell himself before his death. Central to the account is Wilson's 1997 investigation into special access programs, triggered by a Pentagon conference room meeting with Miller, Mitchell, and Steven Greer, which led him to discover an aerospace contractor-run program with an intact non-human craft—and his denial of access despite his DIA directorship.

The Memo's Provenance and Public Release

Around 2013, James Rigny formed a close relationship with a confidential source while attending a space conference in the U.S. The source maintained close relationships with numerous Apollo astronauts, including Edgar Mitchell. When Mitchell passed away unexpectedly in February 2016, Rigny's source was invited by Mitchell's immediate family to aid in dispersing the estate. Much of the estate's contents were marked for destruction, but the source contacted Rigny about documents referencing UFOs found among Mitchell's belongings.

Mitchell's interest in UFOs was well-documented. Many astronauts and cosmonauts—including Gordon Cooper, Eugene Cernan, James Irwin, Victor Afanasyev, and Mitchell—had publicly discussed UFOs after retirement. Mitchell began talking publicly about his beliefs in 1973, just two years after landing on the moon, claiming in one statement: "I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomenon is real." He took particular interest in UFOs and nuclear weapons, and the validity of the Roswell crash as a native of New Mexico. NASA distanced itself from his statements, claiming they "do not track UFOs" and are "not involved in any sort of coverup about alien life"—a statement the video characterizes as "categorically false."

After being granted access to the materials, Rigny copied numerous documents including the Wilson-Davis memo. His name became public when he appeared on Richard Dolan's podcast discussing the memo's origin and contents.

The Key Figures

Eric Davis is an accomplished astrophysicist with ties to the Department of Defense and the former Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). He served as Chief Science Officer at EarthTech International and has authored papers on advanced propulsion, traversible wormholes, anti-gravity for aerospace applications, and concepts for extracting energy from the quantum vacuum—38 studies commissioned by AATIP and later confirmed by journalist John Greenwald through a 2019 FOIA request. Davis had been investigating an embedded UFO crash retrieval program within the U.S. government when he sought the meeting with Wilson.

Vice Admiral Thomas Wilson served as Deputy Director of the DIA and later Director from 1999 to 2002. During his Navy career, he received numerous awards including the Distinguished Defense Medal and the Distinguished Service Medal. As Deputy Director of the DIA, Wilson would have had access and oversight to all special access programs within the DoD, whether acknowledged or unacknowledged—making his alleged denial of access to the crash retrieval program particularly significant.

The 1997 Investigation and Pentagon Meeting

The story begins in April 1997, when Steven Greer spoke to Wilson, Miller, and Edgar Mitchell in a Pentagon conference room about UFOs, Roswell, and crashed UFOs. Following the conference, Miller and Wilson spoke privately, leaving Wilson intrigued to dig deeper. Wilson subsequently launched a 45-day investigation from April to June 1997, advised by General Marshall Ward and Secretary of Defense Bill Perry to examine records in OUSD(AT)—the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology.

Both Ward and Perry told Wilson of a "special project records group not belonging to usual special access programs"—a special subset of unacknowledged carve-outs and waived programs not belonging to usual SAP divisions, organized in 1994 by Perry himself. Wilson claimed to have found this unusual records group in the index abstracts and called seven program managers, four of whom referred him to the same program run by three people: a security director (former NSA), a program director, and a corporate attorney. These three called themselves "the watch committee."

The four programs that referred Wilson to the watch committee were "part of it in different compartments, placed in different layers of the compartment's pyramid, split up to do different things." They belonged in the same records group but with non-correlative connections—suggesting either adjacency to the crash retrieval program in areas like reverse engineering or material exploitation, or nested compartmentalization of the type later described by whistleblower David Grusch.

Notably, no budget information was listed for the program—purposefully kept secret to avoid audits. Wilson would not divulge the SAP compartment labeling, calling it a "core secret," but mentioned an aerospace technology contractor as project coordinator—"the best one of them," active in defense and intelligence. The video suggests this contractor is likely Lockheed Martin based on subsequent revelations from Grusch and Senator Harry Reid.

The October 2002 Meeting Between Wilson and Davis

On October 16, 2002, Eric Davis—then contracted with the DoD—met with the recently retired Vice Admiral Wilson in Wilson's car. The meeting was facilitated through Oak Shannon, former manager of special projects at Los Alamos National Laboratories and former Department of Energy nuclear physicist, who had requested Wilson speak to Davis. Shannon later confirmed the memo's authenticity in a Jay Anderson Project Unity interview.

The meeting was prompted by a letter Commander Will Miller had written to Davis and physicist Hal Puthoff offering his contractual services for research into UFO crash retrieval programs. Miller claimed knowledge of a special team and two key officers focused on crash retrievals (possibly projects code-named Moon Dust, Blue Fly, or Zodiac), a senior officer with firsthand knowledge of alien reproduction vehicles (ARVs), and a list of civilian contractors who had knowledge of USG work in "alien-derived technologies, crashes, landings, and associated events."

Wilson opened the meeting by referencing the 1997 Pentagon conference and his subsequent investigation. He emphasized the extreme sensitivity of the information, telling Davis that if Davis ever violated his trust, Wilson would "deny the meeting, deny everything said in the meeting, and would never seek to know more or talk more on this topic without clearance." Wilson characterized the program as "absurdly close held subject matter" and said he'd "never seen anything like this program in the black programs community."

Wilson's Meeting with the Watch Committee

At the end of May 1997, Wilson made three calls to the program manager, including a conference call with the security director and corporate attorney. Wilson told them he had read into their program record in the OUSD(AT) SAP records group and wanted to know about their crashed UFO retrieval program, their role, what they had, and whether they had heard of Majestic 12 or similar organizational codes. They met him with confusion and agitation, asking who he'd talked to before calling.

Wilson demanded a formal briefing, invoking his regulatory authority as Deputy Director of DIA/Assistant Joint Chief of Staff J-2. The overseers agreed to meet in person. Wilson flew out to meet the watch committee in their conference room in a secure vault, where all three appeared.

When Wilson inquired about the name "watch committee," they explained they had formed it out of necessity to protect themselves after a near-disaster almost blew their cover. Wilson pieced together that a past audit investigation had nearly outed the program, leading to a tug-of-war over program transparency with Pentagon officials, with money and hiding being central issues. A threat was levied to blow the lid off the program. The investigator was eventually briefed and given a tour, and afterward a formal agreement was struck with SAPOC to prevent future uncovering of the program. Special criteria were established to ensure rigorous access control by the watch committee—no U.S. government personnel could access the program unless they met strict, undisclosed criteria.

The committee informed Wilson that the purpose of the meeting was to tell him he would not be read into the program. While his credentials were valid, he was not on the "bigot list." Wilson argued he was privy to access due to his statutory oversight and regulatory authority as Deputy Director of DIA, but the committee denied his regulatory authority applied to their program.

To prove their point, they showed Wilson pages of the bigot list dated 1990 to 1993, containing program employees' names and titles. Wilson recognized that all were civilians—scientists, technicians, engineers, managers—with no politicians, White House names, presidents, congressional people, or staffers. Nobody from the Clinton or Bush Senior administrations appeared on the list. What Wilson did recognize were names of individuals from OUSD(AT), the National Security Council, and other Pentagon departments.

What the Program Had

The committee told Wilson the program was not a weapons, intelligence, special operations, or logistics program—it did not fit into any standard category. After some hesitation, the security director and attorney said "it's okay to say it." The program was a reverse engineering effort focused on "something recovered in the past"—technological hardware that had been recovered.

Wilson's initial thought was that this was Soviet or Chinese technology and UFOs were a cover story. The committee said no. The program manager stated they had a craft, an intact craft they believed could fly. The manager strictly expressed the craft did not come from overseas—"it was not possible." They did not know where it was from, though they had some ideas on the matter. It was technology not of this Earth, not made by man, not by human hands.

The program had been attempting to understand and exploit the technology for years with agonizingly slow progress and little to no success. This was partly due to painful lack of collaboration—they could not receive help from the wider scientific community and outside experts due to the need to remain isolated, use their own facilities, and utilize only cleared personnel. Only 400 to 800 workers total had been involved since the program's inception.

When Wilson asked about the Roswell crash, Holloman Air Force Base landing, Majestic 12 and subsequent leaked documents, and the Zamora and Bentwaters UFO cases, the committee declined to discuss these topics.

The Denial and Threats

Wilson threatened to complain to SAPOC to gain access, but the committee continued to deny his authority. He later returned to Washington and did complain to the SAPOC senior review group at the Pentagon. The SRG sustained the contractor and their access denial, telling Wilson to immediately drop the matter and let it go.

The SRG chairman, John Deutsch, threatened Wilson that if he did not follow their suggestion, "he would not see the Director of DIA promotion, he would get an early retirement, and lose one to two stars." From June to December 1997, after the meeting with the SRG, Paul Kaminski and Jacques Gansler replaced OUSD(AT) officials. Wilson spoke to Gansler in January 1998 and learned Gansler had been read into the program by someone. Gansler told Wilson: "UFOs are real, so-called alien abductions not real," and would speak no more on the topic.

Davis concluded the meeting by promising Wilson he would keep it private for personal use only, keep his mouth shut, and talk no more about the meeting.

Statements on Authenticity and Denials

Eric Davis refused to directly comment on whether the meeting took place in a now-deleted segment of The Basement Office with Steven Greenstreet, citing security clearances. However, he confirmed the notes were leaked from Edgar Mitchell's estate: "They were leaked out of Ed Mitchell's estate. There's nothing I can say about it... I'm not at liberty to confirm or verify any aspect of those notes... when you have security clearances that's something you don't want to violate because the Department of Justice under the Obama Administration and continued under the Trump Administration policies is they will vigorously prosecute anybody with security clearances who will go out of the way to discuss any classified information."

Admiral Thomas Wilson flatly denied the memo in a 2020 interview with investigative reporter Billy Cox for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune: "It's all fiction. I wouldn't know Eric Davis if he walked in right now... I'm not saying that sometime somewhere I never met Davis, but I certainly don't know him. I don't remember him, and I definitely did not sit with him in a car for an hour in Las Vegas." However, Wilson admitted to meeting with Steven Greer and Edgar Mitchell but claimed he did not follow up on any investigation. The video notes Wilson said in the memo itself he would deny the meeting and everything discussed if his trust was broken.

Edgar Mitchell confirmed the 1997 meeting on CNN's Larry King Live in 2008 before his death, describing going to the Pentagon with "another naval officer" (Will Miller) to speak with "the intelligence committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff." Mitchell recounted: "A vice admiral said to us, well, I don't know about that but I'm going to find out... He called a few weeks later and said he had found the source of the black budget funding for this project... Later he called and said he had found the people responsible for the cover-up and for the people who were in the know and was told 'I'm sorry Admiral, you do not have need to know here, and so goodbye.'"

Will Miller, when interviewed by UFO researcher Joe Murgia, skirted questions about his letter to Eric Davis, saying he had no recollection or was unwilling to discuss it. However, Miller confirmed the 1997 Pentagon meeting with Mitchell, Wilson, Greer, and Dia Hughes, stating that Dia Hughes requested the meeting and it needed to be expedited. When asked about bigot lists, Miller explained: "Bigot list from World War II, British invasion of German-occupied territory. Today it's just a list of SAP/USAP authorization individuals. Lists vary according to the program in question, the types of individuals needed to run the program, and how limited the access needs to be depending on the sensitivity of the program." When asked about Wilson's statements suggesting openness to buried USAPs with no congressional oversight, Miller responded: "Concur, but I'm surprised he said to us that he found it impossible that such a program could not be kept secret for so many years. Strange since it's routine for such programs to persist unknown to most for years."

On the question of intact craft, Miller stated: "It's my firm belief that yes, we, the Russians, probably the Germans, and perhaps the Chinese have at least partial technologies and most likely for the US, entire operational craft. I believe that we have our own transluminal velocity craft that can take us anywhere in space and time. Did we develop this technology independently? Probably not."

Chris Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, confirmed the memo's authenticity in a 2002 website post titled "Unprecedented UAP Legislation," writing: "Wilson-Davis memo provided specific information lending credence to sensational reports that an official US government program is actively seeking to exploit recovered technology that was fashioned by some other species or perhaps advanced AI machines." The video's narrator claims to have spoken to Mellon about the memo and has "further confidence in the memo's authenticity."

Lou Elizondo, former AATIP director, stated in an interview with Ross Coulthart and Bryce Zabel: "That Wilson memo, let me tell you something, that thing isn't going to die. That thing is now out for the public and that is going to start a firestorm, one in which I can't comment on, but you know, DOD should have saw this coming."

Oak Shannon, former manager of special projects at Los Alamos National Laboratories and former DOE nuclear physicist, confirmed the authenticity of the memo in a Jay Anderson Project Unity interview.

The memo was entered into the official U.S. Congressional Record in 2022, lending institutional weight to its significance in UAP discourse.

Related Pages

People: James Rigny, Will Miller, Eric Davis, Thomas Wilson, Edgar Mitchell, Steven Greer, Dia Hughes, Oak Shannon, Lou Elizondo, Chris Mellon, Joe Murgia, Billy Cox, David Grusch, Gordon Cooper, Eugene Cernan, James Irwin, Victor Afanasyev, Hal Puthoff, Richard Dolan, Ross Coulthart, Bryce Zabel, Steven Greenstreet, John Greenewald, George Knapp, General Marshall Ward, Bill Perry, Jacques Gansler, Paul Kaminski, John Deutsch

Organizations: Defense Intelligence Agency, AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program), EarthTech International, OUSD(AT) (Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology), SAPOC (Special Access Program Oversight Committee), National Security Council, EG&G, Lockheed Martin

Concepts: Wilson-Davis Memo, Black Budget, Unacknowledged Special Access Program (USAP), Bigot List, Watch Committee, Crash Retrieval Program, Transluminal Velocity Craft, Need to Know, Reverse Engineering, Alien Reproduction Vehicle (ARV), Special Access Program (SAP), Waived SAP, Compartmentalization, Material Exploitation

Events: 1997 Pentagon Meeting (Wilson, Miller, Mitchell, Greer, Hughes), October 2002 Wilson-Davis Meeting

Locations: Pentagon, Los Alamos National Laboratories

Key Claims

• A 15-page document leaked from Edgar Mitchell's estate in 2018 records notes from an October 16, 2002 meeting between Eric Davis and Vice Admiral Thomas Wilson
• In 1997, Steven Greer briefed Wilson, Will Miller, Edgar Mitchell, and Dia Hughes in a Pentagon conference room about UFOs and crash retrievals
• Following the 1997 briefing, Wilson launched a 45-day investigation into special access programs related to UFO crash retrievals
• Wilson discovered a "special project records group not belonging to usual special access programs" organized in 1994 by Secretary of Defense Bill Perry
• Wilson identified an aerospace contractor (likely Lockheed Martin) running a crash retrieval and reverse engineering program
• The program was overseen by a "watch committee" consisting of a security director (former NSA), program director, and corporate attorney
• The watch committee told Wilson the program had "a craft, an intact craft they believed could fly" that was "not of this Earth, not made by man, not by human hands"
• The program had been attempting to reverse engineer the craft for years with "agonizingly slow progress" and "little to no success" due to inability to collaborate with outside scientists
• Only 400 to 800 workers total had been involved in the program since inception
• Wilson was shown a bigot list dated 1990-1993 containing all civilian names (scientists, technicians, engineers, managers) with no politicians, White House officials, presidents, or congressional members
• Despite being Deputy Director of DIA with oversight of all acknowledged and unacknowledged SAPs, Wilson was denied access for not being on the bigot list
• When Wilson complained to the SAPOC senior review group, chairman John Deutsch threatened him with loss of DIA Director promotion, early retirement, and loss of one to two stars if he continued pursuing access
• Jacques Gansler, who was read into the program, told Wilson "UFOs are real, so-called alien abductions not real" and refused to discuss further
• No budget information was listed for the program to avoid audits
• The four programs that referred Wilson to the watch committee were "part of it in different compartments, placed in different layers of the compartment's pyramid"
• Edgar Mitchell confirmed the 1997 meeting on CNN's Larry King Live in 2008, describing Wilson's discovery of black budget funding and subsequent denial of access
• Oak Shannon confirmed the memo's authenticity in a Jay Anderson Project Unity interview
• Eric Davis confirmed the notes were leaked from Mitchell's estate but refused to comment on the meeting itself due to security clearances
• Will Miller confirmed the 1997 Pentagon meeting and stated his "firm belief" that the US, Russia, Germany, and possibly China possess "at least partial technologies" and the US likely has "entire operational craft" including "transluminal velocity craft that can take us anywhere in space and time"
• Lou Elizondo and Chris Mellon have both confirmed the memo's authenticity
• The Wilson-Davis memo was entered into the official U.S. Congressional Record in 2022
• David Grusch's 2023 whistleblower account of an embedded crash retrieval program mirrors Wilson's alleged 1997 discovery
• Admiral Wilson flatly denies the 2002 meeting with Davis, claiming "it's all fiction" and he doesn't know Davis

Sources

• YouTube — UAP Gerb