--- category: Key Figures created: 2026-10-03 relations: - end: 2017-10-04 fn: 5 role: GS-15 civilian; information-sharing work with DHS and state, local and tribal law enforcement from 2008, counterintelligence and security for AAWSAP from 2009, Director of National Programs, Special Management Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense (Guantanamo portfolio); resignation effective October 4, 2017, as he wrote start: 2008 type: employed_by with: '[[Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence]]' - end: 2020-12 fn: 20 role: chief of security and special programs, in his account; salary cut in half during the period; relationship ended by a call from Tom DeLonge a few days before Christmas 2020 start: 2017 type: employed_by with: '[[To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science]]' - end: 2017-10-04 fn: 20 role: top boss in the Pentagon chain of command, whom Elizondo wrote he kept out of the loop on AATIP; Elizondo wrote that Reid opened an Air Force Office of Special Investigations inquiry after the resignation start: 2017 type: reported_to with: '[[Garry Reid]]' - fn: 12 role: NewsNation reported on June 30 and July 29, 2026 on disputes between Elizondo and its correspondent Ross Coulthart and the researcher UAPGerb over his role in the Legacy Program and a rumored disclosure post start: 2026-06-30 type: subject_of with: '[[NewsNation]]' summary: Elizondo's upbringing was unconventional and deeply shaped by his father, Luis D. tags: - Person - UFO - Military updated: 2026-10-03 --- [Luis Elizondo](/people/luis-elizondo/) is a former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent and former employee of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. He is a central figure in the effort to disclose information about [Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena](/concepts/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena/) (UAP), due to his role leading the [Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program](/programs/advanced-aerospace-threat-identification-program/) (AATIP), a clandestine [Pentagon](/organizations/pentagon/) program that studied the phenomenon.[^1] ### Early Life and Paternal Influence Elizondo's upbringing was unconventional and deeply shaped by his father, [Luis D. Elizondo III](/people/luis-d-elizondo-iii/), a Cuban exile with a revolutionary past. His father had initially fought alongside [Fidel Castro](/people/fidel-castro/) against the Batista regime, but turned against Castro after his alignment with the [Soviet Union](/places/soviet-union/). This led to his participation in the [Bay of Pigs](/events/bay-of-pigs/) invasion and a subsequent two-year imprisonment in Cuba, an experience that left him volatile and deeply anti-authoritarian. This background led him to provide his son with an intense and unusual education in paramilitary skills from the age of seven. Elizondo was taught to assemble and disassemble firearms like the AR-15 and AK-47, build rocket launchers from PVC pipes, read topographical maps, and even how to hot-wire a car. This was all part of his father's preparation for a planned, but never realized, second invasion of Cuba under an operation known as "Alpha 66."[^1] Struggling with dyslexia and bullying at school, Elizondo found structure and camaraderie in his high school's Junior ROTC program, which he credits with saving him from a self-destructive path. Despite his academic challenges, he enrolled in the pre-medical program at the University of Miami, double majoring in microbiology and immunology, before enlisting in the [US Army](/organizations/us-army/) in 1995.[^1] ### Military and Intelligence Career Elizondo began his military career as a counterintelligence special agent, with his first assignment in South Korea. He later worked for the 902nd MI Group out of [Fort Meade](/places/fort-meade/), conducting counterintelligence investigations to protect sensitive U.S. technology. During this time, he was recruited by [Eugene Lessman](/people/eugene-lessman/) into the Army's "Great Skills" program (also known as Grey Fox), a successor to the [Stargate Project](/programs/stargate-project/). There, he was trained in the controversial technique of [Remote Viewing](/concepts/remote-viewing/), a skill involving the use of extrasensory perception for intelligence gathering, which he reportedly utilized throughout his career.[^1] His career as an intelligence officer was extensive, involving missions across the globe focused on counterinsurgency, counternarcotics, counterterrorism, and counterespionage. He held positions within the [Department of Defense](/organizations/department-of-defense/) (DoD), the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (ONCIX), the [Office of the Director of National Intelligence](/organizations/director-of-national-intelligence/) (ODNI), and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). He eventually managed highly sensitive [Special Access Programs](/concepts/special-access-programs/) (SAPs) for the [National Security Council](/organizations/national-security-council/) (NSC) and the [White House](/places/white-house/), including running certain elements of the secret prison at Guantanamo Bay, known as Camp 7.[^1] ### Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) In early 2009, Elizondo was approached by [Jay Stratton](/people/jay-stratton/) and a colleague, "[Rosemary Caine](/people/rosemary-caine/)," for a role in a highly classified [Defense Intelligence Agency](/organizations/defense-intelligence-agency/) (DIA) program. He was introduced to [James Lacatski](/people/james-lacatski/), a rocket scientist who revealed the program's true purpose: the investigation of UAP. The program was initially called the [Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program](/programs/advanced-aerospace-threat-identification-program/) (AAWSAP) and was funded by a bipartisan group of senators: [Harry Reid](/people/harry-reid/), [Ted Stevens](/people/ted-stevens/), and [Daniel Inouye](/people/daniel-inouye/). The primary contractor was [Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies](/organizations/bigelow-aerospace-advanced-space-studies/) (BAASS), owned by [Robert Bigelow](/people/robert-bigelow/), with [Hal Puthoff](/people/hal-puthoff/) serving as chief scientist.[^1] AATIP investigated numerous UAP cases, developing a framework of five key "observables" to analyze their behavior: hypersonic velocity, instantaneous acceleration, low observability, transmedium travel, and antigravity. A sixth observable, biological effects, was also noted. The program explored a wide range of phenomena, from the 2004 [Tic Tac](/events/tic-tac/) to the [Colares Incidents](/events/colares-incidents/) in Brazil and the strange occurrences at [Skinwalker Ranch](/places/skinwalker-ranch/).[^1] The program faced intense internal opposition. Elizondo recounts the existence of a powerful, shadowy group of religious fundamentalists within the DoD he calls the "[Collins Elite](/organizations/collins-elite/)." This group, he claims, believed the UAP phenomenon was demonic in nature and actively worked to sabotage the investigation. This, coupled with the existence of a deeply entrenched "Legacy Program" within the military-industrial complex that allegedly controlled recovered UAP materials and non-human biologics, created a nearly impossible working environment for AATIP.[^1] ### Personal Experiences and the "Hitchhiker Effect" Elizondo's involvement with AATIP was not without personal cost. He and his family began to experience strange phenomena in their own home, including sightings of green, glowing orbs that would float down their hallway and disappear into walls. This phenomenon, which he learned was not uncommon among those who investigate UAP, is known as the "hitchhiker effect." These experiences, along with the immense stress of the job, took a significant toll on his health and family life.[^1] ### Resignation and Public Disclosure Frustrated by the bureaucratic stonewalling, the refusal of the [US Air Force](/organizations/us-air-force/) to cooperate, and the inability to brief senior leadership like Secretary of Defense [James Mattis](/people/james-mattis/), Elizondo resigned from the Pentagon on October 4, 2017. His resignation letter to Secretary Mattis, which was later made public, explicitly stated that the Department was not taking the potential threat posed by UAP seriously.[^1] Working with [Christopher Mellon](/people/christopher-mellon/) and [Jim Semivan](/people/jim-semivan/), Elizondo went public. He was the primary source for a landmark New York Times article in December 2017 that disclosed the existence of AATIP. The article carried the Navy videos later known as "FLIR1" (Tic Tac) and "[GIMBAL](/events/gimbal/)" (the article carried two videos; "GOFAST" followed in March 2018). [Politico](/organizations/politico/) reported in 2021 that the Washington Headquarters Services declassification division approved the videos "for unlimited distribution" inside the government; the Department of Defense stated on April 27, 2020 that it authorized the release of three unclassified Navy videos, which had been circulating in the public domain after "unauthorized releases in 2007 and 2017."[^2][^3] 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 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.[^4] This event ignited a global conversation and marked a pivotal moment for the disclosure movement.[^1] Post-resignation, Elizondo joined [To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science](/organizations/to-the-stars-academy-of-arts-science/) (TTSA), founded by musician [Tom DeLonge](/people/tom-delonge/), and has worked relentlessly to advocate for UAP transparency. His efforts, in concert with Mellon and others, have been crucial in briefing members of Congress, which led directly to the creation of the [All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office](/organizations/all-domain-anomaly-resolution-office/) (AARO) and the passage of historic UAP disclosure legislation within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).[^1] ### Recruitment, offices and resignation, in Elizondo's account Elizondo wrote that in 2008 he returned to the Department of Defense in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, working on information sharing among the department, the [Department of Homeland Security](/organizations/department-of-homeland-security/) and state, local and tribal law enforcement, from an eleventh-floor corner office in a building in Arlington that the Pentagon rented and that housed divisions of Boeing including Phantom Works, at the GS-15 grade, and that in early 2009 his assistant announced two visitors, Jay Stratton and a colleague he calls "Rosemary Caine," who asked for his counterintelligence and security experience for "a highly classified program led out of our office at DIA," which Stratton said he had helped create under the name AAWSAP, later AATIP, and which they said reported "directly to the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and to Congress." After two more meetings he was taken to a tenth-floor office in a Virginia building where he met James Lacatski, who asked "What do you think about UFOs?"; at a second meeting Lacatski told him the program had the support of the DIA director, Lieutenant General Michael D. Maples, and had been funded by Harry Reid, Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye. Elizondo wrote that an Army friend he calls "John Robert," who served with him in Korea in the 1990s and acted as liaison between another intelligence agency and AAWSAP, had referred him.[^5] He wrote that after the program lost support at DIA, in 2010, he moved its remnants into his own portfolio as Director of National Programs, Special Management Staff, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which managed national-level special access programs for the National Security Council and the White House and, in his case, Guantanamo Bay; that his base was office 3C503A in the Pentagon; that he "dual-used" existing funds so that a video sent for analysis could be tested both as a possible Russian MiG-25 and as a UAP; and that the only contractors who remained with Stratton and himself were Puthoff, a physician he calls Will Livingston and [Eric Davis](/people/eric-davis/). He named as his superiors in this period Neill Tipton, whom he described as running the Intelligence Sharing and Foreign Intelligence Relationship Office, and Tipton's boss John Pede.[^6] Elizondo wrote that in 2016 the Joint Staff declined to give Stratton's OPLAN Interloper an Alternative Compensatory Control Measures designation, that in 2017 he sought a briefing of Secretary of Defense James Mattis through a SECDEF liaison, a White House advisor named Brad Byers and a [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) liaison officer he calls "Shari Smith," that Tipton agreed to take over AATIP and accepted a draft memo but delayed signing it; and that he resigned in a letter to Mattis "effective 4 October 2017," after more than twenty-two years of service, with a second, shorter letter to his chain of command.[^7] He wrote that his immediate supervisor on the Guantanamo portfolio, John Garrity, telephoned that day to say that Garry Reid, whom he described as controlling security, law enforcement and security clearances for the department, wanted to see him; that Reid said he would have to tell people Elizondo was "acting crazy"; and that Reid seized his computers and files, questioned his staff and began an inquiry through the Air Force [Office of Special Investigations](/organizations/office-of-special-investigations/) which, he wrote, "found no impropriety in my actions."[^8] After the [New York Times](/organizations/new-york-times/) story of December 16, 2017, Elizondo wrote, the Pentagon spokesperson Dana White confirmed his role in AATIP to Politico, but in 2019 the spokesperson Christopher Sherwood told reporters that "Mr. Elizondo had no responsibilities with regard to the AATIP program," which Elizondo wrote Sherwood privately acknowledged was untrue; that a [Freedom of Information Act](/events/freedom-of-information-act/) response said his electronic files had been deleted as having "no historic value," and that an email transferring AATIP duties to Tipton in 2017 was released in May 2024 after a FOIA appeal; and that after a Defense Department inspector general review Garry Reid was reassigned to DIA as a "special advisor." Elizondo wrote that a Pentagon spokesperson later confirmed that he "provides technical advice on a variety of classified topics for the US Space Force."[^9] The Department of Defense's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office found in 2024 that AATIP "was never an official DoD program" (see Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program). ### NewsNation, 2025 and 2026 NewsNation's January 16, 2025 article on [Jake Barber](/people/jake-barber/) stated that "other whistleblowers, including Lue Elizondo and [David Grusch](/people/david-grusch/), have alleged a secret government UFO program exists but Barber says he knows it's true because he's part of it," and the full-special article of the same month stated that Grusch and Elizondo "say they've been told about it, they believe it exists, but they weren't a part of it themselves."[^10][^11] On June 30, 2026 NewsNation reported that its special correspondent [Ross Coulthart](/people/ross-coulthart/) had said on his "Reality Check" podcast that "There are people who bitterly resent and don't think it's a good idea that Lue be appointed to a position of power in UAP transparency, because they think that he was part of a previous agenda that was essentially to try to control the narrative, to restrict what the public is entitled to know about the UAP disclosure," and "I've spoken to people in the [Legacy Program](/programs/legacy-program/) who knew Lue." Elizondo told NewsNation's Chris Cuomo that "I've committed myself to transparency to the degree that I could," that "I didn't say I worked for the Legacy Program," that "we cannot confirm or deny" statements are not "some sort of implicit 'yes,'" and that "I think Ross is an excellent investigative journalist." The article gives Elizondo's account that he directed the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program and "resigned in 2017 in protest."[^12] On July 29, 2026 NewsNation reported that the anonymous researcher known online as UAPGerb (named Sam in the article), speaking to Coulthart, said Elizondo was part of a "controlled narrative" and noted speculation that he was "being positioned for a role with the National Security Council or as an adviser to the White House"; the article states "Elizondo has not confirmed the rumors." In a YouTube video Elizondo called the claims false, confirmed he was moving to [Washington, D.C.](/places/washington-dc/) because "fighting for UAP disclosure is a full-time job," and told Coulthart "please, for the love of God, be more careful with who you decide to have on your program." The article states that Elizondo said one narrative, which he claims the researcher made up, was that he and [James Clapper](/people/james-clapper/), the former [Director of National Intelligence](/organizations/director-of-national-intelligence/), "had colluded to create a network" for "soft disclosure," and quotes Elizondo: "That is 1,000% not accurate. In fact, we never had such a conversation, and Jim Clapper and I never met to have that conversation."[^13] ### Resignation and the December 2017 placement Elizondo's resignation took effect October 4, 2017, according to the Pentagon; a Pentagon official told Politico that Mattis's receipt of the letter could not be confirmed. His letter to Defense Secretary James Mattis cited "bureaucratic challenges and inflexible mindsets" and the "overwhelming evidence" at "both the classified and unclassified levels," and, Keith Kloor wrote in *The Intercept*, "does not mention AATIP or Elizondo's role as its director."[^14][^15] Gideon Lewis-Kraus wrote that the previous day had been his last day of work, and that on October 4, 2017 [Leslie Kean](/people/leslie-kean/) met him, Hal Puthoff and Jim Semivan in a hotel bar near the Pentagon at the request of Christopher Mellon; Kean told Lewis-Kraus that Elizondo "had incredible gravitas."[^16] Elizondo spoke onstage at the To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science launch later in October 2017.[^16] In an August 2017 email reviewed by Politico he proposed an unclassified "community of interest" database; "Washington Headquarters Services" approved three [Navy](/organizations/us-navy/) videos "for unlimited distribution" within government, and Elizondo, Mellon and others concluded that more was needed. Politico reported in 2021 that the Pentagon "officially acknowledged the existence of the AATIP program and Elizondo's role in it."[^2] In December 2017 Politico quoted Elizondo: "We tried to work within the system. We were trying to take the voodoo out of voodoo science," and he described sightings "often reported in the vicinity of nuclear facilities, either ships at sea or power plants"; the Times quoted his resignation letter's phrase "unusual aerial systems interfering with military weapon platforms and displaying beyond-next-generation capabilities."[^17] ### Pentagon statements beside his account December 2017: Politico's Bryan Bender wrote that Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White "confirmed to Politico that the program existed and was run by Elizondo." June 1, 2019: spokesperson Christopher Sherwood told *The Intercept* that AATIP "did pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena" but that "Mr. Elizondo had no responsibilities with regard to the AATIP program while he worked in OUSDI," that he "cannot confirm" White's statement, and that Elizondo "worked for other organizations in DoD." June 13, 2019: Susan Gough told The Black Vault that Reid's July 24, 2009 memorandum was authentic and "makes no change to previous statements," and that "Elizondo did interact with the DIA office managing the program while the program was still ongoing, but he did not lead it." Bender wrote on June 2, 2019 that he expected "a much more definitive statement from the Pentagon" and that The Intercept's "assertions and innuendo" were wrong. Elizondo, in the Intercept article, did not respond to requests for comment; he told Kloor earlier in 2019 that he was a government contractor "but it's not what you think it is."[^15][^18] ### Galileo Project On October 30, 2021 Elizondo and Mellon became research affiliates of [Harvard](/organizations/harvard-university/)'s [Galileo Project](/organizations/galileo-project/); Elizondo was quoted: "Deliberate and methodical research, along with strict rigor will help ensure the tenets of the scientific method are followed."[^19] The October 2021 announcement credits both with "two years of patient public and private lobbying" behind the June 2021 ODNI report.[^19] [^1]: Elizondo, Luis. *Imminent*. William Morrow, 2024. [^2]: Bender, Bryan. *Politico Magazine,* May 28, 2021. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/05/28/ufos-secret-history-government-washington-dc-487900 [^3]: 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/). [^4]: [[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/ [^5]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 3 to 14 (Caine indexed at p. 5; Reid, Bigelow and Maples at pp. 13 to 14). 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. [^6]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 82 to 93 (Higgins, Tipton and Pede at pp. 87 to 89; Will at p. 90; office 3C503A at p. 93). [^7]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 147 to 202 (Interloper at pp. 147 and 186; Byers at pp. 189 and 217; Tipton at p. 192; resignation letter at p. 202). [^8]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 202 to 203 and 211. [^9]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 209 to 217 and 238 (Dana White at p. 210; Sherwood at p. 217; deletion at p. 212; Space Force statement at p. 238); photograph captions on the email released in May 2024. [^10]: NewsNation, "UAP whistleblower says UFO retrieval program exists: NewsNation exclusive," January 16, 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-whistleblower-ufo-retrieval-program/ [^11]: NewsNation, "Whistleblower reveals UAP retrieval program; object caught on video," January 2025. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/hfr-uap-recovery-video-egg-shaped-object-exclusive/ [^12]: Alicia Sitz, "UAP whistleblower Luis Elizondo neither confirms nor denies he was part of government secrecy efforts," NewsNation, updated June 30, 2026. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/luis-elizondo-denies-uap-secrecy-efforts/ [^13]: Steph Whiteside and Alicia Sitz, "Elizondo responds to researcher's 'controlled narrative' role rumors," NewsNation, updated July 29, 2026. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/elizondo-uap-role-controlled-narrative/ [^14]: Kloor, Keith. "UFOs Won't Go Away." *Issues in Science and Technology,* March 1, 2019. https://issues.org/ufos-wont-go-away/ [^15]: Kloor, Keith. *The Intercept,* June 1, 2019. https://theintercept.com/2019/06/01/ufo-unidentified-history-channel-luis-elizondo-pentagon/ [^16]: Lewis-Kraus, Gideon. *The New Yorker,* May 10, 2021. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-pentagon-started-taking-ufos-seriously [^17]: Bender, Bryan. "The Pentagon's Secret Search for UFOs." *Politico Magazine,* December 16, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/2018id_/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/16/pentagon-ufo-search-harry-reid-216111 ; Cooper, Helene, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean. *The New York Times,* December 16, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html [^18]: Greenewald, John, Jr. The Black Vault, June 14, 2019. https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/pentagon-reinforces-mr-luis-elizondo-had-no-responsibilities-on-aatip-senator-harry-reids-2009-memo-changes-nothing [^19]: The Galileo Project, October 30, 2021. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/galileo/files/mellon-elizondo_announcement_final_2.pdf (Internet Archive copy). [^20]: Luis Elizondo, *Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs* (New York: William Morrow, 2024), pp. 202 to 217 (resignation at p. 202; Garry Reid indexed at pp. 143 to 144, 202 to 203, 209, 212, 215 to 217, 238 to 239) and pp. 205 to 207, 218 and 219 (offer from Tom DeLonge, salary cut and end of the arrangement).