--- born: 1957-10-02 category: UFO & Anomalous Phenomena created: 2026-10-03 location: Topeka, Kansas relations: - fn: 10 role: Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and a principal on William Cohen's staff when Cohen was Secretary of Defense, as Elizondo wrote type: employed_by with: '[[Office of the Secretary of Defense]]' - fn: 11 role: intelligence staff work for Senator William Cohen; minority staff director from February 2003 under vice chairman Jay Rockefeller; deputy staff director in Elizondo's account start: 2003-02 type: employed_by with: '[[Senate Select Committee on Intelligence]]' - end: 2020-11 fn: 12 role: paid adviser and National Security Affairs Advisor; with Puthoff and Semivan, aligned with the organization of Tom DeLonge and Jim Semivan after Elizondo's resignation; left with Puthoff and Steve Justice start: 2017 type: member_of with: '[[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]]' - fn: 15 role: presenter at the first Sol symposium, Palo Alto, November 17 to 18, 2023 start: 2023-11-17 type: participant_in with: '[[Sol Foundation]]' - end: 2023-09-15 fn: 28 role: '''Cristopher Mellon'' of Laughlintown, Pennsylvania, one of three initial directors of the Alabama corporation The Sol Foundation (AL SOS 001-041-463) on the Certificate of Formation of September 23, 2022, and ''Christopher Mellon'' on the Statement of Intent to Dissolve of September 15, 2023; the filings state no occupation' start: 2022-09-23 type: director_of with: '[[Sol Foundation]]' - fn: 19 role: subject of the video 'Chris Mellon on SCU's Anomalous Aerospace Phenomena Conference (AAPC),' published by the coalition on June 26, 2023 start: 2023-06-26 type: participant_in with: '[[Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies]]' summary: Christopher Mellon served for nearly two decades in the federal government, holding high-level positions in both the executive and legislative branches. tags: - Person - UFO - Politician updated: 2026-10-04 --- [Christopher Mellon](/people/christopher-mellon/) is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and a key strategist in the modern [Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena](/concepts/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena/) (UAP) disclosure movement. Coming from a prominent American family (great-grandson of the Gulf Oil founder and a descendant of Judge Thomas Mellon; see [Mellon Family](/organizations/mellon-family/)),[^1] he has leveraged his extensive experience in intelligence and national security to bring the UAP issue to the forefront of the U.S. Congress and the public.[^2] ### Government Career Christopher Mellon served for nearly two decades in the federal government, holding high-level positions in both the executive and legislative branches. He was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence during the [Clinton](/people/bill-clinton/) and [George W. Bush](/people/george-w-bush/) administrations, a role that gave him oversight of the entire Department of Defense intelligence apparatus and its most sensitive [Special Access Programs](/concepts/special-access-programs/) (SAPs). Prior to this, he spent a decade on intelligence staff work for Senator [William S. Cohen](/people/william-s-cohen/), whom he followed to the [Pentagon](/organizations/pentagon/) when Cohen became Secretary of Defense, serving later under Secretary [Donald Rumsfeld](/people/donald-rumsfeld/), and from February 2003 he was minority staff director of the [Senate Intelligence Committee](/organizations/senate-select-committee-on-intelligence/) under vice chairman Jay Rockefeller.[^1] [Politico](/organizations/politico/) described him in December 2017 as "a former Democratic staff director for the Senate Intelligence Committee," and the September 29, 2017 offering circular of [To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science](/organizations/to-the-stars-academy-of-arts-science/) describes him as a "private equity investor, political commentator and the Chair of the Science Committee at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History," with 20 years in federal government including service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and as "Minority Staff Director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence," who as an aide to Cohen "drafted the legislation that established the US Special Operations Command," with a B.A. in economics from Colby College and an M.A. in international affairs from Yale University.[^1][^3] His deep understanding of the inner workings of the intelligence community and the legislative process would later prove invaluable to the UAP disclosure effort.[^2] ### Involvement with AATIP and Luis Elizondo In early 2017, while serving as an unpaid consultant for the [Office of Naval Intelligence](/organizations/office-of-naval-intelligence/), Mellon was introduced to [Luis Elizondo](/people/luis-elizondo/) by a mutual friend from the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/), [Jim Semivan](/people/jim-semivan/). Elizondo, who was then secretly running the [Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program](/programs/advanced-aerospace-threat-identification-program/) (AATIP), provided Mellon with a comprehensive briefing on the UAP issue. Mellon was shown incontrovertible evidence, including radar data and pilot testimony from the 2004 [Tic Tac Incident](/events/tic-tac/), that demonstrated advanced, unidentified aircraft were routinely violating sensitive U.S. military airspace with impunity.[^2] Mellon was profoundly disturbed by these revelations, viewing the government's failure to address the issue as a catastrophic intelligence failure reminiscent of the lead-up to Pearl Harbor or 9/11. He was outraged that information of such magnitude was not reaching senior policymakers. He and Elizondo attempted to work through the chain of command to brief Secretary of Defense [James Mattis](/people/james-mattis/), but their efforts were stonewalled by the Pentagon bureaucracy. This failure was a critical factor in Elizondo's decision to resign in protest.[^2] ### The Legislative Strategy for Disclosure Following Elizondo's resignation, Mellon became the primary architect of a multi-pronged strategy to force the UAP issue into the open. Recognizing that direct confrontation with the Pentagon was futile, he devised a plan to leverage Congress and the media. He facilitated the transfer of Navy videos later known as "FLIR" (Tic Tac), "[GIMBAL](/events/gimbal/)," and "[GoFast](/events/gofast/)" to journalists. The landmark front-page [New York Times](/organizations/new-york-times/) story of December 2017, which broke the news of AATIP's existence, carried two of them (FLIR1 and GIMBAL); GOFAST followed in March 2018.[^2][^4] Politico reported in 2021 that the Washington Headquarters Services declassification division approved the videos "for unlimited distribution" inside the government.[^5] The Office of the Secretary of Defense file released to The Black Vault under the Freedom of Information Act in August 2019 contains an August 23, 2017 email in which Luis Elizondo asked Michael Russo of the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review to "consider our request for unrestricted release"; an August 24, 2017 reply from Russo that if the service-level classification authority verified that removing the metadata made the videos unclassified, "please feel free to move forward with release"; and a DD Form 1910 whose publication-data block reads "Not Applicable. Not for publication. Research and analysis ONLY and info sharing with other USG and industry partners for the purposes of developing a database to help identify, analyze and ultimately defeat UAS threats." Joseph Gradisher, a Navy spokesman, said in 2019 that neither the cognizant Navy offices nor the review office had a record of correspondence responding to a request for unrestricted release of the videos in 2017.[^6] The [Department of Defense](/organizations/department-of-defense/) stated on April 27, 2020 that it had authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos, which had been circulating in the public domain after "unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017."[^7] Mellon's own account, in the 2020 film *The Phenomenon*, is that he received the videos "in the Pentagon parking lot from a Defense Department official" and "still [has] the packaging."[^8] See [December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report](/events/december-2017-new-york-times-aatip-report/). Mellon then focused on a legislative approach, using his deep knowledge of Capitol Hill to engage with key staffers on the Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committees. He and Elizondo worked to educate lawmakers and arrange for them to be briefed directly by credible military eyewitnesses like Commander [Dave Fravor](/people/dave-fravor/) and Lieutenant [Alex Dietrich](/people/alex-dietrich/). Mellon's key strategic insight was to draft specific legislative language that would compel the [Director of National Intelligence](/organizations/director-of-national-intelligence/) to produce an unclassified report on UAP. This language, which he championed through op-eds and private meetings, was eventually included in the committee report accompanying the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, signed into law in December 2020. This led to the landmark June 2021 "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena."[^2] His legislative efforts continued, culminating in the passage of even more robust UAP provisions in subsequent National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAAs). This included the creation of the [All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office](/organizations/all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office/) (AARO) and, most significantly, the establishment of a secure whistleblower process, allowing individuals with knowledge of secret UAP programs to testify to Congress without fear of reprisal. This legislative work has been the single most effective driver of the modern disclosure movement.[^2] ### Mellon in Elizondo's account Mellon's foreword, dated May 16, 2024, states that he first met Elizondo "at a closed-door Pentagon meeting early in 2017" while he was "an unpaid consultant for the Office of Naval Intelligence," that the mutual friend was Jim Semivan of the CIA, and that the meeting took place in Elizondo's Pentagon office, where Elizondo presented evidence of unidentified aircraft violating military airspace and a report on the 2004 Nimitz encounter; he wrote that he later took part in debriefings with Commander Dave Fravor and Lieutenant Alex Dietrich.[^9] Elizondo wrote that a member of his staff announced "a former very senior-level DoD official" who "had the Office of Naval Intelligence clearances he needed," that Mellon introduced himself as a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, one step from the Secretary of Defense, and that Senator William Cohen's closest advisor on Capitol Hill had been Mellon, whom Cohen brought to his staff when he became Secretary of Defense. He wrote that Mellon "even knew we were called AATIP"; that Semivan later told him he had told Mellon of AATIP and where to find it, and added that Mellon was an heir of the Mellon family; that Elizondo listed a series of clearances Mellon would need before a briefing and Mellon returned a week later with all of them; and that after a three-hour briefing on "legacy efforts" Mellon "admitted to us that he had zero visibility into the UAP topic" despite years of oversight of Defense Department special access programs.[^10] In a later passage Elizondo described Mellon as a former "deputy staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee" and as a founding author of the bill that created the United States Special Operations Command.[^11] He wrote that Mellon gave his name to senior officials who might reach Mattis; that after the Joint Staff declined an access designation for OPLAN Interloper and Mellon, Stratton and he concluded that Congress and the press were the only route, Mellon handed "a padded envelope filled with CDs" containing the three unclassified videos to a journalist in a parking lot inside the Beltway, having used his Pentagon contacts to obtain copies; that Mellon, Puthoff and Semivan met [Leslie Kean](/people/leslie-kean/) with Elizondo for four hours after the resignation; that Mellon was "the brainchild" of a Politico story by Bryan Bender; and that Mellon, Puthoff and Semivan urged him to join To The Stars Academy.[^12] He wrote that Mellon, Stratton and he set a multiyear plan, the "Five Pillars of Engagement," that Mellon proposed having an oversight committee request an unclassified report from the Director of National Intelligence and drafted language posted online, and that "much of the wording" in Senate Report 116-233, which Senator [Marco Rubio](/people/marco-rubio/) sponsored, "came directly from Chris Mellon's pen"; he gave the language as 422 words, signed with the Covid relief bill in late December 2020.[^13] ### To The Stars advisory board and Sol The Regulation A offering circular of To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science filed with the [Securities and Exchange Commission](/organizations/securities-and-exchange-commission/) on August 15, 2017 names as its Advisory Board "Chris Mellon, Dr. Adele Gilpin, Dr. Norman Kahn, Dr. Colm Kelleher, Dr. Garry Nolan, and Dr. Paul Rapp." Its biography of Mellon calls him "a private equity investor, political commentator and the Chair of the Science Committee at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History," and lists service as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Clinton and Bush administrations and as minority staff director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.[^14] Mellon was among the speakers at the first [Sol Foundation](/organizations/sol-foundation/) symposium, November 17 to 18, 2023 in Palo Alto, California, listed in The Debrief's account as "former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon," beside [Avi Loeb](/people/avi-loeb/), [Jacques Vallee](/people/jacques-vallee/), [Diana Walsh Pasulka](/people/diana-walsh-pasulka/), [Tim Gallaudet](/people/tim-gallaudet/) and [Karl Nell](/people/karl-nell/).[^15] He signed the November 12, 2024 letter to Congress urging enactment of the review-board provisions of the [Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act](/concepts/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-disclosure-act/) as "Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; Former Staff Director, Department of Defense; Senate Select Committee on Intelligence," the signers including [Garry Nolan](/people/garry-nolan/), [Peter Skafish](/people/peter-skafish/) and Luis Elizondo; the letter states that signers joined as individuals and not for their organizations.[^16] The Sol Foundation's website, read October 3, 2026, does not list Mellon among its executive leadership or advisory board, and neither does its 2024 Form 990.[^17] The Sol Foundation's page for its first symposium, as archived in 2023, lists among its confirmed speakers "Christopher Mellon, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Staff Director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence," and gives the organizers as Garry Nolan, "Sol Foundation Chairman of the Board," and Peter Skafish, "Sol Foundation Director."[^18] On June 26, 2023 the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies published a video titled "Chris Mellon on SCU's Anomalous Aerospace Phenomena Conference (AAPC)," whose description reads in part: "Chris spent nearly 20 years in the U.S. Intelligence Community, including serving as the Minority Staff Director of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence under Presidents Clinton and Bush."[^19] The coalition's 2022 conference in Huntsville, Alabama, at which Garry Nolan sat on a June 4 panel, is described on Sol Foundation.[^20] ### Family *Roll Call* described him in 2003 as "yes, of that Mellon family," 45 years old, "whose great-grandfather started the Gulf Oil Co.," and noted that Rockefeller was "the great-grandson of the man who founded [Standard Oil](/organizations/standard-oil/)," under the line "[the Rockefellers](/people/rockefeller-family/) and Mellons are taking over the Senate Select Intelligence Committee." Bryan Bender of Politico wrote in 2021 that he is "a scion of the Pennsylvania oil and banking family." Other bearers of the surname include Paul Mellon, a major in the [Office of Strategic Services](/organizations/office-of-strategic-services/) in Europe, his sister Ailsa Mellon Bruce and her husband the diplomat David K. E. Bruce, and the publisher and donor Richard Mellon Scaife, who funded the Arkansas Project against Bill Clinton and sat on the Heritage Foundation board. No source opened states how these persons are related to Christopher Mellon or that he had dealings with them.[^1][^21] ### The placement of the December 2017 article Per Bender (2021): in 2016 [Tom DeLonge](/people/tom-delonge/) "called me up out of the blue," Mellon said, "and then through him I met Jim and Hal"; Mellon, who kept his clearance, then met Luis Elizondo at a Pentagon briefing; by fall 2017 Mellon "was also a paid adviser to DeLonge's TTSA" and acted as Elizondo's "unofficial public relations manager," who "started dangling the story to the New York Times, POLITICO and several other mainstream outlets." According to Leslie Kean's account to Gideon Lewis-Kraus, on October 4, 2017 Mellon had her called to a hotel bar near the Pentagon where [Hal Puthoff](/people/hal-puthoff/), Jim Semivan and Elizondo briefed her; the Times placement followed. Details and denials are on December 2017 New York Times AATIP Report.[^5][^22] ### Money and affiliations as recorded TTSA: paid adviser (Bender); listed as "National Security Affairs Advisor" (Kloor, 2019); the company's annual report for 2020 states he resigned from the advisory board in November 2020 (vault page for To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science).[^5][^23] The offering circular dated September 29, 2017 lists "Chris Mellon" first among six Advisory Board members and states that in June 2017 the company granted "employees and advisors" 9,000,000 options and 2,500,000 restricted shares under its stock incentive plan; the text read does not itemize grants by person. No source opened shows a payment from Mellon to TTSA, or the amount he was paid as an adviser.[^3] [Galileo Project](/organizations/galileo-project/): research affiliate from October 30, 2021, with Elizondo ([Harvard](/organizations/harvard-university/) release). On April 26, 2024 the Galileo Project announced a 575,000 dollar grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation for a third observatory station in Allegheny or Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, stating that Mellon "was instrumental in stewarding this grant."[^24][^25] The Richard King Mellon Foundation's Form 990-PF for 2024 (EIN 25-1127705), Part XV, lists a grant paid during the year of $575,000 to Harvard University, Boston, with the purpose text "Toward support of Project Argyle." The Foundation's 2024 annual report lists Harvard University, Boston, "Toward support of Project Argyle."[^26] Lobbying and legislation: Lewis-Kraus wrote that the text Marco Rubio added in June 2020 to the 2021 Intelligence Authorization Act, requesting a UAP report from the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense, "drew heavily from proposals by Mellon"; Bender wrote that Mellon, "from his perch on the advisory board of DeLonge's company, ... effectively drafted the legislation later adopted by the Senate requesting the UAP report." Mellon's March 9, 2018 *[Washington Post](/organizations/washington-post/)* op-ed was "The military keeps encountering UFOs. Why doesn't the Pentagon care?"[^5][^22][^23] ### Statements beside denials Kloor (2019) quoted Mellon on *Fox & Friends* on Fox News: "We know that UFOs exist," and wrote that Mellon did not respond to a request for comment on whether he and Elizondo do contract work for a U.S. agency; Elizondo told Kloor he was a government contractor "but it's not what you think it is." Mellon told Kloor by email in late 2018: "I did not claim the objects were alien... Merely real, intelligently controlled and not ours."[^23][^27] ### The Alabama directorship The Alabama Secretary of State record for The Sol Foundation (entity 001-041-463) names "Cristopher Mellon" of Laughlintown, Pennsylvania as one of three initial directors on the Certificate of Formation filed September 23, 2022, with Garry Nolan and Saul Mercado. The Statement of Intent to Dissolve filed September 15, 2023 lists the directors as Nolan, "Christopher Mellon" (spelled with an h) and Mercado. The corporation's registered agent and office were those of [Ignite Fueling Innovation](/organizations/ignite-fueling-innovation/) in Huntsville. The same filing lists Nolan as president, Mercado as secretary and Peter Skafish as treasurer; Mellon holds no office on it. A board consent to dissolve was executed on August 31, 2023, and the Articles of Dissolution, filed September 15, 2023, state that no plan of distribution was adopted. The filings state no occupation or prior office for any director, and none states that the director is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. Laughlintown is also the locality given for "Mellon, Christopher" in the FEC entries below. The California corporation is described on Sol Foundation.[^28] ### Federal Election Commission records [FEC](/organizations/federal-election-commission/) itemized receipts list a "Mellon, Christopher" of Laughlintown, Pennsylvania (employer "Mellon Consulting" from 2008 to 2009, "A&E Networks" in 2020) with contributions to Murtha for Congress (seven entries, March 3, 2008 to December 9, 2009, 500 to 2,000 dollars each), 5,000 dollars to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (June 23, 2008) and 2,400 dollars to [Friends of Schumer](/people/chuck-schumer/) (July 16, 2010), and, on August 25 and 27, 2020, 2,800 dollars to [Biden for President](/people/joe-biden/), 35,000 dollars to the Biden Victory Fund and 32,200 dollars to the Democratic National Committee. Other "Mellon, Christopher" donors in Greenfield Township, Pennsylvania and Conklin, New York list Maines Paper & Food Service as employer. No record read states which of these entries belong to the former Pentagon official.[^29] The same query returns further occupation and employer entries. The entries to Murtha for Congress and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee give "President" of "Mellon Consulting." Two entries read "Christopher K. Mellon": April 5, 2008, "Executive," "Powercast," 1,000 dollars to Citizens for Altmire; and March 3, 2009, "Consultant," "Mellon Strategic Consulting, LLC," 500 dollars to Citizens for Altmire. Three entries under "Mr. Christopher Mellon," "Consultant," "Self-Employed," are to Tim Murphy for Congress: 250 dollars on August 12, 2008, 500 dollars on September 24, 2008 and 250 dollars on April 8, 2009. On March 8, 2015 an entry with occupation "Investor," employer "Self," gives 2,600 dollars to Webb 2016, and on March 16, 2015 the same occupation gives 5,000 dollars to Born Fighting PAC. The five entries of August 25 and 27, 2020, to Biden for President, the Biden Victory Fund and the Democratic National Committee, give occupation "Producer/Subject Matter Expert" and employer "A&E Networks."[^30] [^1]: "Unholy Alliance?" *Roll Call,* February 12, 2003. https://rollcall.com/2003/02/12/unholy-alliance/ [^2]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024. [^3]: To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science Inc. Offering Circular dated September 29, 2017 (Form 253G2, file no. 024-10728). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000114420417050693/v476177_253g2.htm [^4]: Greenewald, John, Jr. "Navy Officially Releases UFO/UAP Videos, Calls Them 'Historical.'" The Black Vault, April 27, 2020. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/navy-officially-releases-ufo-uap-videos-calls-them-historical/ [^5]: Bender, Bryan. "The Hidden History of How Washington Embraced UFOs." *Politico Magazine,* May 28, 2021. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/05/28/ufos-secret-history-government-washington-dc-487900 [^6]: [[The Black Vault]], FOIA release of Office of the Secretary of Defense case 18-F-0644, August 2019 (emails of August 23 and 24, 2017 between Luis Elizondo and Michael Russo of the Defense Office of Prepublication and Security Review, with the DD Form 1910; the form's text is poorly legible in the scan and is quoted as transcribed in the research notes), https://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/18-F-0644.pdf ; Joseph Gradisher quoted in "U.S. Navy Confirms Videos Depict Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, Not Cleared for Public Release," The Black Vault, September 2019, https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/u-s-navy-confirms-videos-depict-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-not-cleared-for-public-release/ [^7]: U.S. Department of Defense. "Statement by the Department of Defense on the Release of Historical Navy Videos," April 27, 2020. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/ (read through the Internet Archive capture, https://web.archive.org/web/2020id_/https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/). [^8]: Banias, MJ. "Ex Intel Official Says He Was the Source of the Pentagon's UFO Videos." *Vice,* October 20, 2020. https://www.vice.com/en/article/this-guy-says-he-was-the-source-of-the-pentagons-ufo-videos/ (sole source for the statement, made on camera to James Fox; Vice could not verify). [^9]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), Foreword by Christopher Mellon, dated May 16, 2024, pp. xiii to xxii. Page numbers are those of the printed index where it lists the passage; the digital copy read carries no pagination, so other pages are interpolated from index entries and may be off by one. [^10]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 180 to 185 (Semivan at pp. 180 to 182 and 184 to 185; Mellon's visit at pp. 183 to 185). [^11]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 222 to 224 (deputy staff director at p. 222; the special operations command bill at p. 224). [^12]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 199 to 209 (CDs at p. 199; Kean at pp. 203 to 204; TTSA at pp. 204 to 205; Bender at p. 209; Mellon leaving TTSA at p. 220). [^13]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 222 to 230 (Five Pillars at p. 222; report proposal at p. 225; Senate Report 116-233 at p. 229; 422 words at p. 230). [^14]: To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science Inc., Form 1-A, offering circular Part II and III, accession 0001144204-17-043466 (filed August 15, 2017), "Advisory Board." https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000114420417043466/v473169_partiiandiii.htm [^15]: Micah Hanks, "The Sol Foundation, Academia's New UAP Think Tank, Releases Videos of Lectures from Its Inaugural Symposium," *The Debrief*, February 12, 2024. https://thedebrief.org/the-sol-foundation-academias-new-uap-think-tank-releases-videos-of-lectures-from-its-inaugural-symposium/ [^16]: Statement of Tim Gallaudet with signatory letter dated November 12, 2024, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, hearing of November 13, 2024. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO12/20241113/117721/HHRG-118-GO12-Wstate-GallaudetPhDRearAdmiralUSNavyRetT-20241113-SD001.pdf [^17]: The Sol Foundation, home page, "People" section, https://thesolfoundation.org/ , read October 3, 2026; IRS Form 990 for 2024, EIN 93-3649160, Part VII, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/933649160/202543269349300004/full [^18]: The Sol Foundation, "Nolan Laboratory (Department of Pathology) and the Stanford School of Medicine Present: The Sol Foundation Initiative for UAP Research and Policy," symposium page of November 17 to 18, 2023, Internet Archive copy. https://web.archive.org/web/2023/https://thesolfoundation.org/event/the-inaugural-annual-conference-of-the-sol-foundation/ [^19]: Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, "Chris Mellon on SCU's Anomalous Aerospace Phenomena Conference (AAPC)," video published June 26, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLAWHErz71M [^20]: Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, AAPC 2022 agenda, https://web.archive.org/web/20220524005545id_/https://www.explorescu.org/_files/ugd/8374d8_ff2696792d7d4d23b1354cf52b031941.pdf [^21]: Review of Lankford, *The Last American Aristocrat. Kirkus Reviews,* 1996; National Gallery of Art, 1999 Paul Mellon press release; *Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 5, 2014 (Scaife obituary). See the footnotes of [[Mellon Family]]. [^22]: Lewis-Kraus, Gideon. "How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously." *The New Yorker,* May 10, 2021. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously [^23]: Kloor, Keith. "The Media Loves This UFO Expert Who Says He Worked for an Obscure Pentagon Program. Did He?" *The Intercept,* June 1, 2019. https://theintercept.com/2019/06/01/ufo-unidentified-history-channel-luis-elizondo-pentagon/ [^24]: "The Galileo Project Welcomes Christopher Mellon and Luis Elizondo as Research Affiliates," October 30, 2021. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/galileo/files/mellon-elizondo_announcement_final_2.pdf (Internet Archive copy). [^25]: "Richard King Mellon Foundation awards $575,000 to Galileo Project," April 26, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://galileo.hsites.harvard.edu/news/richard-king-mellon-foundation-awards-575000-galileo-project [^26]: IRS Form 990-PF for 2024, Richard King Mellon Foundation, EIN 25-1127705, object ID 202503179349103185, Part XV (grants paid during the year), https://gt990datalake-rawdata.s3.amazonaws.com/EfileData/XmlFiles/202503179349103185_public.xml ; Richard King Mellon Foundation, 2024 Annual Report, "Grant & PRI Recipients," https://www.rkmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2024-Annual-Report.pdf [^27]: Kloor, Keith. "UFOs Won't Go Away." *Issues in Science and Technology,* March 1, 2019. https://issues.org/ufos-wont-go-away/ [^28]: Alabama Secretary of State, entity 001-041-463, The Sol Foundation: Certificate of Formation (filed September 23, 2022), board consent (August 31, 2023), Statement of Intent to Dissolve and Articles of Dissolution (both filed September 15, 2023); document copies purchased October 3, 2026, and the entity page fetched the same day. https://arc-sos.state.al.us/cgi/corpdetail.mbr/detail?corp=001041463&page=name&file=&type=ALL&status=ALL&place=ALL&city= [^29]: Federal Election Commission, schedule A receipts, contributor name "MELLON, CHRISTOPHER" (OpenFEC API query run October 3, 2026). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?contributor_name=MELLON%2C%20CHRISTOPHER [^30]: Federal Election Commission, schedule A receipts, contributor name "MELLON, CHRISTOPHER," city Laughlintown, Pennsylvania, 20 rows (OpenFEC API query rerun October 3, 2026; sub_ids include 4020620091107097394, 4040820091113637717, 4101520081097487423, 4032920161281705749, 4073120151248132201, 4060420221494790667). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/schedules/schedule_a/?contributor_name=MELLON%2C%20CHRISTOPHER&contributor_city=LAUGHLINTOWN