Operation Majestic-12 was established by special classified presidential order on September 24, 1947 at the recommendation of Secretary of Defense James Forrestal and Dr. Vannevar Bush, Chairman of the Joint Research and Development Board. The goal of the group was to exploit everything they could from recovered alien technology.

Original Members

• Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, who was the first Director of the CIA from 1947 to 1950. He was also later on the board of directors of NICAP (National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomenon).
  
  

• Dr. Vannevar Bush, chairman of the National Defense Research Commission and Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II. Also Chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, which became NASA, from 1939 to 1941. Also chairman of the Joint Research and Development Board from 1945 to 1948. 1947 - made a Director of AT&T.
  
  

• James V. Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy from 1945 to 1947 and the first Secretary of Defense from 1947 to 1949. In 1949, he had a mental breakdown and committed suicide at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
  
  

• General Nathan F. Twining, Commander of the USAAF Air Materiel Command at Wright Field from 1945 to 1947.
  
  

• General Hoyt Vandenburg, Chief of Military Intelligence during World War II, second Director of Central Intelligence from 1946 to 1947, Chief of the Air Staff in 1947, Chief of Staff of the U. S. Air Force from 1948 to 1953.
  
  

• Dr. Detlev Bronk, member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Brookhaven National Laboratories, Chairman of the National Research Council from 1946 to 1950, President of the National Academy of Sciences from 1950 to 1962, President of Johns Hopkins University. Advisory member of the Atomic Energy Commission.
  
  

• Dr. Jerome Hunsaker, Chairman of the Departments of Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering at M.I.T. from 1933 to 1951, Chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (later NASA)from 1941 to 1956.
  
  

• Rear Admiral Sidney Souers(retired), first Director of Central Intelligence (1946), first Executive Secretary of the National Security Council from 1947 to 1950. Special consultant to President Truman on intelligence matters.
  
  

• Gordon Gray, Assistant Secretary of the Army from 1947 to 1949. Secretary of the Army from 1949 to 1950. Special Assistant to President Harry S Truman. Senior Staff Assistant to Eisenhower. Chairman of the CIA Psychological Strategy Board. President of the University of North Carolina. President Eisenhower's Assistant Secretary of Defense for Security Affairs.
  
  

• Donald Menzel, professor of astrophysics at Harvard from 1939 to 1971. Chairman, Department of Astronomy from 1946 to 1949. Notorious debunker of UFO sightings. He led a double life, having a "top-secret ultra" security clearance, as a consultant for the CIA and the NSA.
  
  

• Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner, Executive Secretary of the Research and Development Board from 1946 to 1947. Directed studies of Weapons Systems Evaluations. Also a member of the CIA's secret "Robertson Panel" on UFOs.
  
  

• Major General Robert M. Montague, Commanding Officer at White Sands Proving Ground and later head of a secret project at Sandia Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
  
  

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