Former Pentagon UAP chief alleges US holds non-human craft and bodies

Former Pentagon UAP Task Force director Jay Stratton alleges in his new memoir that the U.S. government and contractors possess non-human spacecraft and recovered bodies from the 1947 Roswell crash.

Stratton's claims contradict official Pentagon positions. They introduce first-person allegations from a former high-ranking official within the government's UAP investigative apparatus.

These claims arrive as the Department of War expands its public release of anomalous phenomena records ^[3].

Claims of alien craft and bodies

Jay Stratton served as the first director of the Pentagon's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force before retiring in 2022 ^[6][11]. In his memoir, Out of the Shadows: Revealing the Truth About Non-Human Intelligent Life, he writes that military contractors hold at least a dozen recovered craft in secure facilities ^[8].

Stratton also claims the U.S. recovered non-human bodies from the 1947 Roswell crash ^[7][11]. He writes that while some were dead on arrival, others were alive but later died after refusing food or contact ^[11].

These assertions conflict with the Pentagon, which has stated it found no verifiable evidence that the U.S. government or private companies possess extraterrestrial technology ^[7].

Reverse-engineering and government suppression

Stratton describes a secretive "legacy" program focused on reverse-engineering non-human technology ^[6]. He asserts this program is a competition with adversarial nations that have also obtained fragments of such technology ^[6].

Stratton also alleges a culture of suppression. He claims a senior Pentagon official pressured two admirals and a commander not to file an official report after they witnessed a UAP, warning that their professional reputations were at stake ^[8].

New reporting and disclosure rules

These allegations emerge during a period of increased government disclosure. One report suggests that in February 2026, the U.S. President ordered the release of records regarding UAP and extraterrestrial life ^[3]. The Department of War, renamed from the Department of Defense in 2025, began releasing these records in May ^[3].

On October 23, 2026, the Department of War published its seventh batch of declassified and historical UAP files ^[4]. These documents are released through the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters, known as PURSUE ^[4].

To encourage more disclosures, the Pentagon issued a legal waiver on September 14, 2026 ^[1]. This waiver creates an authorized reporting route for current and former defense personnel to share UAP information ^[1].

Personal encounters and scientific skepticism

Stratton reports a personal encounter at his Washington, D.C.-area home ^[6]. He describes seeing a humanoid creature with a very large head, small black eyes, a very small nose, and a small slit for a mouth looking at his son through a window ^[6].

Scientific critics argue these accounts lack physical proof. Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who chairs a scientific effort to analyze UAP data, stated that "the claims Jay makes are not corroborated by publicly verifiable data" ^[8].

What we don't know

• Will the PURSUE program release data that corroborates Stratton's claim of at least a dozen recovered craft?
• What specific 'non-human technology' is allegedly being reverse-engineered in the 'legacy' program?
• Are there any witnesses other than Stratton and his unnamed sources who can verify the recovery of live beings at Roswell?