The all-star panel allegedly formed by President Harry Truman and Secretary of Defense James Forrestal is an impressive one indeed. One need not be a ufologist, or even believe in the existence of extraterrestrial visitation to understand that this is exactly the panel a chief executive might convene in the case of first contact with beings from another planet. Each of these men was impressive in his own way, and well respected among his peers. They each held considerable authority in military, civilian or academic circles.

Here’s a list of the men in question, those cited as belonging to the secret panel known to lore as Majestic-12.

Dr. Lloyd Berkner (1905-1967)—An electrical engineer by training, and administrator by profession, Berkner headed Associated Universities, a group responsible for running the research content of Brookhaven Laboratories. As a naval officer during the 1920s, he helped design radar and navigational systems that would later be of use in the growing Army Air Corps. He later became the President of the Graduate Research Center of the Southwest, Acting Director of National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and the Chair of the National Academy of Sciences’ Space Science Board. In 1963, he generated a theory of how atmospheres develop in the middle planets of a star system.

Dr. Detlev Bronk (1897-1975)—Although credentialed as a biologist, Bronk’s interests encompassed a wide range of topics within the natural and medical sciences. He taught medical physics at the University of Pennsylvania from 1929-1949, while serving as the Director of the Institute of Neurology. He left UPenn to become President of the Johns Hopkins University in 1949, and President of the Rockefeller University in 1953. As a scientist, he helped to innovate approaches to biological research. As an academic administrator, he stood up to Senator Joseph McCarthy by refusing to fire Professor Owen Lattimore for suspected communist sympathies. He also advised Brookhaven National Laboratories and the Atomic Energy Commission.

Dr. Vannevar Bush (1890-1974)—Talk about a man ahead of his time, Bush became one of the world’s most foremost experts on the subject of computers during the 1920s. From World War I to at least the 1960s, he served as an official or quasi-official advisor on scientific matters. What you might call a scientific hardliner, he believed that technological superiority provided the key to US national security. He also served as the President of the Carnegie Institution for Science, and later sat on the board of such corporate titans as AT&T and Merck (pharmaceuticals).

His public statements would lead one to think that he had neither an interest in nor connection to UFO activities. In fact, he denied that he had any knowledge of UFOs or of any government investigation of them. But declassified documents from Canada’s Defence Research Board hint at his involvement in official ufological investigations from 1950-1951.

US Secretary of Defense James Forrestal (1892-1949)—The aforementioned Forrestal succeeded FDR friend Frank Knox as Secretary of the Navy in 1944. A sort of hands-on guy, James physically travelled to a number of hot spots during WWII (among them Iwo Jima in 1945) to get a better understanding of what he needed to do to bring the boys back alive. The War Department eventually became the Defense Department in 1947, with Forrestal serving as its first Secretary.

In addition to becoming the first Secretary of Defense, Forrestal might have also been the most controversial (Donald Rumsfeld notwithstanding). His opinion that partitioning Palestine might lead to anti-American sentiment on the part of oil-wielding Muslims, thus resulting in decades of Middle East instability, prompted scathing attacks from the likes of Drew Pearson and other pro-Israel factions within the US. Truman put up with the heat for a couple of years, but eventually sacked Forrestal (forced him to resign, actually) in the spring of 1949, only weeks before the former-Secretary's sudden death, which to this day is shrouded in mystery.

Gordon Gray, JD (1909-1982)—A North Carolinian whose immediate family headed RJ Reynolds for three generations (his grandfather, father and brother served as company CEO), Gray received his law degree from Yale and became involved with the legal issues surrounding national security concerns. During WWII, he rose through the ranks, starting out as a Private, and ending the conflict with the rank of Captain under the command of General Omar Bradley. President Truman appointed him Secretary of the Army in 1949, after he had served for two years as the Assistant Secretary. In 1951, he became the first Director of the Psychological Strategy Board, an intelligence organization that studied psychological operation (PSYOPS). President Dwight Eisenhower named him National Security Advisor in 1958.

Rear Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, USN (1897-1982) --Hillenkoetter (known as “Hilly” to friends), remains one of the most pivotal figures in US Intelligence. Ironically, he’s one of the least discussed. As the third US Director of Central Intelligence (succeeding Lt. General Hoyt Vandenberg and Rear Admiral Sidney Souers) he took over as head of the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) and helped to shepherd the transition between that bureau and the successor Central Intelligence Agency. Thus, he became the first DCI to serve as CIA director.

Hillenkoetter’s interest in UFOs is well documented, mostly by Hillenkoetter himself. He joined the Board of Directors of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) in 1957. Founded by physicist Thomas Townsend Brown, Major Donald Keyhoe (USMC) and Rear Admiral Delmar Fahrney (USN), NICAP’s goal was very similar to that of the current day Disclosure Project. Both organizations lobbied for the release of UFO evidence by the US government. As former DCI, Hillenkoetter would have known first hand whether such evidence existed or not. And he made quite clear that it did. In a 1960 speech covered by the New York Times, he said:

It is time for the truth to be brought out in open Congressional hearings….behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFO’s.

But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense….to hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel.

Jerome Hunsaker (1886-1984)—An early aviation expert who designed airships for the United States during WWI, Hunsaker taught aerodynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.* In 1918, he helped to create the US military aircraft program as a member of the Army Navy Technical Board. As an educator, he wrote a number of scholarly papers on the subject of aviation. In turn, later scholars have cited his work and written about him.





Dr. Donald Menzel (1901-1976)—An A-list academic teaching out of Ohio State University and Harvard, Menzel was a pioneer in the subjects of theoretical and radio astronomy. During WWII, he served in the US Navy as a cryptoanalyst. He concurrently consulted the US State Department on Latin American affairs during the 1960s, the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Condon Committee, the University of Colorado based study on UFOs.

Menzel’s vocal denunciation of UFOs was legendary. In three seminal works—Flying Saucers, The World of Flying Saucers: A Scientific Examination of a Major Myth of the Space Age, and The UFO Enigma: The Definitive Explanation of the UFO Phenomenon—he savagely debunked the existence of UFOs, despite the fact that he himself had reported one in 1949.

Lt. General Robert Montague, USA (1899-1958)—After commanding the 83rd Artillery Division during WWII, Montague headed the Sandia Base in Albuquerque, NM. From 1946-1971, Sandia was the primary nuclear weapons installation in North America. Montague, a veteran and expert on nuclear weapons and missile guidance systems, spent his latter years overseeing the most cutting-edge technology that the United States military had to deploy.






Rear Admiral Sidney Souers, USN (1892-1973)—Assistant, and later Deputy Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) during WWII, Souers became the first Director of Central Intelligence when President Truman appointed him to the position in 1946. Adm. Souers, like Adm. Hillenkoetter, were both Navy men who played a critical role in the development of US Intelligence. A long-time advocate of UK plans to centralize US Intelligence, Souers helped Truman push through bureaucratic and territorial deadlocks in order to make the CIA a reality.





General Nathan Twining, USAAC/USAF/USN (1897-1982)—This West Point alumnus not only served in the Army and its nascent Army Air Force, but in the US Navy as well. A career soldier and commander, he orchestrated victorious air missions in the European theatre of WWII. After Germany’s surrender, Truman ordered him to serve in the Pacific in order to secure victory over Japan. On his watch, two bombers reduced the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to ashes and charred flesh. In 1953, he succeeded Hoyt Vandenberg as Air Force Chief of Staff.

Part of Twining’s involvement with UFOs is fairly well documented. As head of Air Materiel Command, he recommended the first official UFO study, Project SIGN. His precise actions during the Roswell incident of 1947 remain a subject of debate. Nevertheless, his now-famous letter (often referred to as the “Twining Memo”) written to Brig. General George Schulgen, then-Commanding General of the Army Air Force leaves little doubt that this was a topic that came up within the purview of his office.

General Hoyt Vandenberg, USAAC/USAF (1899-1955)—A graduate of the Army War College, and the nephew of a US Senator, Vandenberg served as Chief of Military Intelligence during WWII. He succeeded Rear Adm. Sidney Souers as DCI in 1946, and from then to 1947 served as Director of the Central Intelligence Group. In 1948, Truman appointed him Air Force Chief of Staff, in which capacity he served until succeeded by General Twining. A career insider, some of his papers are still classified.

Vandenberg’s name comes up a lot in histories of ufology, especially in his memos on the subject in addition to the oversight, along with Twining, of Projects SIGN and BLUE BOOK. In a 2000 interview conducted by ufologist Brian Parks, former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Harold Stuart (1949-1951) said that he often worked closely with Vandenberg, and seemingly affirmed both Vandenberg’s interest on the subject and the existence of MJ-12. His exact words: “I was not on the MJ-!2 Project Advisory Board and only have a faint recollection of the group.”

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* I’m uncertain about Hunsaker’s status at MIT. Some sources list him as a Lecturer, others as an Assistant Professor.

To read earlier posts in this series, click here.