The Marine Corps air wing based at Miramar, San Diego.
Terms and acronyms · plain English
The Field Guide
The words you need to follow the UFO story, from Blue Book to waived USAPs. Each entry says what the term means, and links to every case in the archive that uses it.
- Terms
- 141
- From Gerb's list
- 122
- Linked to cases
- 53
#
A
The Pentagon office set up in July 2022 to investigate UAP. Its 2024 historical report said it found no evidence of recovered alien technology, which whistleblowers dispute.
Aguadilla 2013 Jay Stratton Kona Blue Immaculate Constellation Gimbal and Gofast McCandlish Arv David Grusch VASCO Project Blue Book Luis Elizondo Jellyfish UAP
The name tied to Pentagon UAP work after AAWSAP, made public by The New York Times in 2017. Luis Elizondo says he ran it; the Pentagon has disputed his role.
Nimitz Tic Tac Event Jay Stratton Kona Blue Immaculate Constellation Project Blue Book Luis Elizondo
AAWSAP
Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Application Program Programs and secrecy Gerb's list 5 casesA Defense Intelligence Agency program from 2008 to 2010, pushed by Senator Harry Reid and run by Robert Bigelow's company BAASS. It studied UAP and events at Skinwalker Ranch.
Skinwalker Ranch Jay Stratton Kona Blue Immaculate Constellation Jacques Vallée
The Air Force's flight test center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, now called the Air Force Test Center.
The Air Force's criminal and counterintelligence investigators. Its agent Richard Doty fed false UFO stories to researcher Paul Bennewitz in the 1980s.
Majestic 12 Artichoke Paul Bennewitz Ellsworth 1977 Green Fireballs Wurtsmith 1975 Dulce Serpo Goose Bay General Neil McCasland
The Air Force's main research organisation. General Neil McCasland, who disappeared in February 2026, once commanded it.
DARPA's original name from 1958, set up after Sputnik.
A human-built craft said to copy recovered alien technology. The term comes from illustrator Mark McCandlish, who described one he was told had been seen at Norton Air Force Base in 1988.
Lockheed Martin's research center in Palo Alto, California.
Tests Army equipment before it goes into service.
The Navy's undersea test range off Andros Island in the Bahamas. It often comes up in USO stories.
B
A defense consulting and engineering company, later part of TRW.
Whistleblower term for non-human bodies or remains. Grusch told Congress in 2023 that biologics had been recovered with crashed craft.
C
The intelligence community's version of a special access program. Gerb also uses CAP for Covert Action Programs.
J. Allen Hynek's 1972 scale: a sighting within about 150 metres (first kind), physical traces or effects (second), seeing occupants (third). Others later added abduction (fourth) and human-initiated contact (fifth).
Kofu Flight 19 Serpo Boianai Imjarvi J. Allen Hynek Jacques Vallée
America's foreign intelligence agency. It convened the 1953 Robertson Panel and kept close watch on UFO reports in the 1950s.
Project MKUltra Jal 1986 Mockingbird Stargate Gladio Family Jewels Operation Ajax MKNAOMI Midnight Climax Operation Chaos Operation Condor Church Committee Iran-Contra Operation PBSUCCESS Operation Mongoose Harold Holt Kryptos Cicada 3301 Phoenix Program Edgewood Project Bluebird MKSEARCH PBFORTUNE Maury Island Loring AFB Operation Often Mariana Film Robertson Panel Aztec 1948 Area 51 Jimmy Carter Echelon Bay of Pigs Bilderberg Group Milton Torres Taire Mountain 1978 Havana Syndrome JFK Assassination Project Blue Book Luis Elizondo
The US Army's criminal investigators.
A Pentagon counterintelligence agency from 2002 to 2008, when it was closed.
The Navy's research and analysis center.
The University of Colorado UFO study led by physicist Edward Condon, published in 1969. Its conclusion that further study wasn't worthwhile helped close Blue Book.
Shag Harbour Falcon Lake Lakenheath-Bentwaters McMinnville Ubatuba Rb-47 Mariana Film Wanaque Condon Report Fort Belvoir J. Allen Hynek Project Blue Book
Recovering a crashed or landed craft and anything aboard it. David Grusch told Congress in 2023 that the US has run a crash retrieval program for decades.
Majestic 12 Coyame Hangar 18 Magenta Kingman Wilson-Davis Memo Cape Girardeau 1941 Trinity 1945 Isle of Lewis Del Rio 1950 David Grusch Jacques Vallée Luis Elizondo
D
A research center named in Gerb's list.
The Pentagon's agency for high-risk, cutting-edge research. It began in 1958 as ARPA.
The Pentagon's main intelligence agency. It ran AAWSAP from 2008 to 2010.
Skinwalker Ranch Tehran UFO Incident Stargate Operation Often Jay Stratton Kona Blue Serpo Wilson-Davis Memo Luis Elizondo
The companies that design and build for the US military.
Head of the whole US intelligence community.
The CIA's spying and covert action branch.
The Pentagon, which runs the US armed forces. Since 2025 it also goes by the Department of War.
Nimitz Tic Tac Event Project 112 REX 84 Edgewood Garden Plot MKSEARCH Jay Stratton Immaculate Constellation Kandahar Giant General Neil McCasland David Grusch
Runs America's nuclear weapons labs, including Los Alamos, Livermore and Sandia, which researchers tie to the analysis of recovered material.
The CIA's technology branch, created in 1963 to run the agency's technical intelligence work.
A defense research company named in Gerb's research.
US early-warning satellites, flying since 1970, that watch for missile launches with infrared sensors. A 1984 DSP detection nicknamed Fast Walker is often cited in UFO research.
Small Navy submarines built to rescue crews from a sunken submarine.
The Navy's deep-sea program started in the 1960s after the loss of the submarine USS Thresher.
Navy craft built to search the deep sea floor.
The Pentagon's library of technical and research reports.
A deep underground base. Real ones exist, like Cheyenne Mountain and Raven Rock; claims of hidden ones are a staple of UFO lore.
DUSD (AS&C)
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Advanced Systems and Concepts Agencies and offices Gerb's listA Pentagon office for advanced technology concepts, listed in Gerb's research.
E
A contractor that worked on nuclear tests and ran operations at Nevada sites, including flights to Area 51. Bob Lazar says his job interview for S4 was at EG&G.
F
A private nonprofit center run for the government, such as MITRE's or RAND's. Gerb argues they let sensitive work sit outside the government.
Luis Elizondo's list of what sets UAP apart: instant acceleration, hypersonic speed without signs of it, low observability, travel through air, water and space, and lift with no wings or engines.
An infrared camera on military jets. The three Navy UAP videos released in 2017 and 2018, FLIR1, Gimbal and GoFast, were filmed with one.
I
The 18 US intelligence organisations, led by the Director of National Intelligence.
A nonprofit that runs research centers for the Pentagon.
An alleged unacknowledged program collecting UAP imagery and sensor data, described in a report Michael Shellenberger gave to Congress in 2024. The Pentagon denies it exists.
The US Army's intelligence command.
Research a defense company pays for itself and can partly recover through its government contracts. Gerb points to it as a way work can sit inside a company rather than the government.
A secretive Army unit that gathers intelligence for special operations, sometimes called The Activity.
J
An office that runs a program shared by more than one military service or agency.
Commands the US military's special mission units.
An office named in Gerb's research. Little about it is public.
K
A 2011 proposal for a Department of Homeland Security program to take custody of recovered UAP material. AARO says it was never approved.
L
The New Mexico lab where the atomic bomb was built. Bob Lazar says he worked there before S4.
Taos Hum Green Fireballs Aztec 1948 Bell Island Boom Area 51 David Grusch Bob Lazar
Legacy program
UFO termsThe alleged decades-old effort to retrieve, store and reverse engineer non-human craft, said to be spread across agencies and contractors. Gerb's videos map its suspected structure.
A Department of Energy nuclear weapons lab in California.
Lockheed Martin's space division, which builds satellites, missiles and spacecraft.
M
Marine units that run radar, air control and air defense.
The Marines' huge training base at Twentynine Palms, California.
A Marine Corps airfield and base.
Strangely dressed visitors said to warn witnesses into silence after a sighting. Albert Bender's 1950s story started the legend, and John Keel collected dozens of cases.
Mothman Ilkley Moor Maury Island Men in Black The Letters Keel Kept
A nonprofit set up in 1958 that runs federal research centers for the government. Gerb calls it the missing link in the legacy program story.
A secret committee said to have been set up under President Truman in 1947 to handle crash recoveries. It is known from documents that surfaced in the 1980s, which the FBI judged to be bogus.
The levels of protective gear troops wear against chemical, biological and radiological hazards.
The Pentagon's network of major test ranges and facilities.
N
The Navy's medical research laboratories.
A Navy airfield and base.
America's civilian space agency. It ran an independent UAP study panel that reported in September 2023.
Cash-Landrum Kecksburg Paperclip Jimmy Carter Magonia St. Louis Exorcism Gimbal and Gofast Taire Mountain 1978 Project Iceworm Center for the Impossible Jacques Vallée Interstellar Visitors Black Knight Satellite Las Vegas Backyard Aliens Luis Elizondo
The Navy's aircraft research and test center, based at Patuxent River, Maryland.
The Navy's advanced flight school and tactics center at Fallon, Nevada, home of Top Gun. Called NSAWC until 2015.
The Department of Homeland Security's biodefense lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
The Department of Energy's team for nuclear and radiological emergencies.
Analyzes satellite and aerial imagery. Grusch represented NGA on the UAP Task Force.
The Army's program for its future armored vehicles.
Any intelligence that isn't human, without saying where it comes from. Grusch used the phrase under oath in July 2023, and the 2023 UAP Disclosure Act was written around it.
The Department of Energy's site in Nevada, formerly the Nevada Test Site, where nuclear weapons were tested. It borders Area 51.
The joint US and Canadian command that watches North American airspace. In February 2023 it shot down three unidentified objects over Alaska, the Yukon and Lake Huron.
Shag Harbour Loring AFB Wurtsmith 1975 Falconbridge Del Rio 1950
Responsible for defending the US homeland and North America.
Builds and runs America's spy satellites. David Grusch worked there before blowing the whistle.
Collects and decodes signals intelligence, from phone calls to radar.
Tehran UFO Incident Gulf of Tonkin Church Committee Project Shamrock Project Minaret Kryptos Cicada 3301 Ellsworth 1977 Hudson Valley Prism Echelon Milton Torres
The former name of NAWDC at Fallon, Nevada.
MITRE's research center for the Department of Defense.
The Navy's research centers for ships and their weapons.
The Air Force's vast range in southern Nevada that contains Area 51 at Groom Lake.
A little-known joint Navy and NRO office for underwater intelligence gathering.
The Navy's research center for submarines and undersea systems.
O
The DNI's office. It published the June 2021 preliminary assessment on UAP.
A CIA office that helps get collection equipment into hard-to-reach places. In military slang OGA also means "Other Government Agency", a polite way of saying CIA.
The Navy's intelligence service, the oldest in the US.
Funds the Navy's science and technology research.
OUSD (A&S)
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Agencies and offices Gerb's listOversees what the Pentagon buys and keeps running, including contracts with defense companies.
OUSD (I&S)
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Agencies and offices Gerb's listOversees defense intelligence and security. AARO was first set up under this office in 2022.
P
The US Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 to 1969. It logged 12,618 reports and left 701 unidentified.
Kelly-Hopkinsville Socorro Incident Kecksburg Levelland Lakenheath-Bentwaters Flatwoods Exeter Washington 1952 Minot AFB Lubbock Lights Portage County Gorman Dogfight Chiles-Whitted Rb-47 Tremonton Mariana Film Dexter-Hillsdale Wanaque Robertson Panel Condon Report Farmington 1950 Area 51 Edwards AFB Goose Bay Brooksville Boianai Yakima Red Bluff Walesville Kingman Kinross David Grusch J. Allen Hynek Project Blue Book
A program being considered for special access status, given protection while the decision is made.
Psionics
UFO termsThe use of mental or psychic ability, for example to call or detect a craft. Jake Barber made it part of the disclosure story in 2025 when he said psionic people were used in retrievals.
The system for releasing government UAP records, started after President Trump's order in February 2026. Each release goes onto bot313's PURSUE Timeline.
R
A senior Navy rank. Retired Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet is one of the Navy's best-known voices on UAP.
The Pentagon budget category that pays for new technology before it goes into service. Classified programs are funded through it.
Taking a recovered object apart to learn how it works and copy it. Whistleblowers say recovered craft have been studied this way by defense contractors.
Area 51 Jay Stratton Hangar 18 Kona Blue Kingman McCandlish Arv David Grusch Bob Lazar
A CIA-convened panel of scientists that met in January 1953 and recommended debunking UFO reports to reduce public interest.
S
The site near Papoose Lake, south of Area 51, where Bob Lazar says he worked on alien craft in 1988 and 1989.
A major defense and intelligence contractor. It managed parts of the government's remote viewing research.
The Department of Energy lab in Albuquerque that engineers nuclear weapons parts. Gerb has a full video on its alleged role in materials analysis.
Taos Hum Green Fireballs Dulce General Neil McCasland Isle of Lewis Del Rio 1950 Goldsboro 1961 Robert Hastings
A program protected by security beyond normal classification. Only people named on its access list are told about it, whatever their clearance.
The office that manages special access programs. The Pentagon and each military service have one.
The senior Pentagon committee that approves, reviews and ends special access programs.
President Reagan's 1983 missile defense plan, nicknamed Star Wars.
The head of the Pentagon.
The Air Force's first UFO projects, Sign (1948) and Grudge (1949 to 1951). They came before Blue Book.
Chiles-Whitted Green Fireballs J. Allen Hynek Project Blue Book
The most secretive special operations units, such as Delta Force, which work under JSOC.
The command over all US special operations forces.
Elite military units trained for raids, reconnaissance and unconventional missions.
Responsible for US military activity in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Responsible for US military operations in space.
A senior Pentagon panel that reviews special access programs for the oversight committee.
Armed security teams that protect sensitive government sites.
The Senate committee that oversees the intelligence agencies. It required the June 2021 UAP report to Congress.
Any underground facility, the general term for what UFO researchers call DUMBs.
Commands America's nuclear forces.
The Navy's commands that design and buy ships, aircraft and equipment.
T
The Army's vehicle research center in Michigan, now called the Ground Vehicle Systems Center.
Nickname for the smooth white object Navy pilots chased off San Diego in November 2004, the Nimitz encounter. It's named after the mint it resembled.
Nimitz Tic Tac Event Jay Stratton David Grusch Hawara Labyrinth
A major aerospace contractor, known for ballistic missiles and spacecraft, bought by Northrop Grumman in 2002. Gerb has a full video on it.
Whistleblower shorthand for recovered material or craft that may not be human-made. It appears in the 2024 account of the alleged Immaculate Constellation program.
U
The US government's word for UFOs. It began as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena; Congress changed "aerial" to "anomalous" in the defense bill passed in December 2022 so the term covers objects in space and under water too.
Roswell 1947 Skinwalker Ranch Nimitz Tic Tac Event Jal 1986 Calvine O'hare Loring AFB Aguadilla 2013 F.e. Warren AFB Jay Stratton Kona Blue Immaculate Constellation Magenta Alderney Kingman Big Sur Gimbal and Gofast New Jersey Drones Wilson-Davis Memo General Neil McCasland David Grusch Havana Syndrome Nazca Mummies VASCO Center for the Impossible Robert Hastings J. Allen Hynek Interstellar Visitors Buga Sphere Project Blue Book Luis Elizondo Jellyfish UAP
The Schumer-Rounds bill of 2023 that would have forced the release of UAP records and allowed eminent domain over recovered material. Most of it was cut before it became law.
The Navy-led Pentagon task force created in August 2020. Its work fed the June 2021 intelligence report to Congress, and it was replaced by AARO.
A university lab with a long-term research agreement with the Pentagon.
The term the US Air Force coined in the early 1950s, during Project Blue Book, for anything in the sky its investigators couldn't identify. It soon came to mean alien spacecraft in everyday speech.
Skinwalker Ranch Lead Masks Case Kelly-Hopkinsville Rendlesham Forest Dyatlov Pass Incident Tehran UFO Incident Socorro Incident Cash-Landrum Varginha Mothman Ariel School Pascagoula Aveley Incident Belgian Wave Shag Harbour Westall Colares Kecksburg Jal 1986 Taos Hum Cergy-Pontoise Hill Abduction Travis Walton Valentich Falcon Lake Dechmont Law Levelland Zigmund Adamski Mantell Ghost Rockets Flatwoods Exeter Tully Malmstrom Hessdalen Washington 1952 Delphos Coyne Kenneth Arnold Valensole Allagash Alan Godfrey Calvine Minot AFB Philadelphia Experiment McMinnville Lubbock Lights Trindade Kaikoura Warminster Berwyn Ilkley Moor Voronezh O'hare Stephenville Cussac Height 611 Petrozavodsk Yukon 1996 Ellsworth 1977 Maury Island Gorman Dogfight Ubatuba Chiles-Whitted Loring AFB Broad Haven Rb-47 Tremonton Mariana Film Canary Islands 1976 Valderas RAF Cosford 1993 Bonnybridge Green Fireballs Wanaque Coyame Hudson Valley Robertson Panel Wurtsmith 1975 Hoia Baciu Aztec 1948 Fort Itaipu Kyshtym Area 51 Dulce Cabo Rojo Edwards AFB Titan II Three Mile Island Eupen 1989 Ilkeston Hastings Wolf Memorial Buff Ledge F.e. Warren AFB Sasovo Cennina UMMO Alien Autopsy Falconbridge Hangar 18 Cariari Serpo Jimmy Carter Templeton NB Goose Bay Kelly Cahill Brooksville Magonia Boianai Gulf Breeze Langenburg Val Johnson Manises Snippy Imjarvi Yakima Red Bluff Walesville Kammler Magenta Peter Day Alderney Fort Belvoir Carp Columbus AFB Sao Vicente Kingman Kinross Milton Torres Gimbal and Gofast Nuremberg 1561 Cisco Grove Andreasson Affair Nixon and Gleason Wilson-Davis Memo Trinity 1945 McCandlish Arv Linda Napolitano Council Bluffs General Neil McCasland Isle of Lewis Del Rio 1950 Plains of San Agustin Taire Mountain 1978 Men in Black David Grusch Nazca Mummies VASCO Center for the Impossible Robert Hastings Fatima 1917 J. Allen Hynek Jacques Vallée Black Knight Satellite Buga Sphere Las Vegas Backyard Aliens Project Blue Book Luis Elizondo Jellyfish UAP Missing 411 The Letters Keel Kept
One of the senior officials just below the Secretary of Defense, each running a large part of the Pentagon.
The US military's air arm, created in 1947, the year of Roswell. It ran Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book.
Roswell 1947 Kelly-Hopkinsville Rendlesham Forest Tehran UFO Incident Majestic 12 Socorro Incident Cash-Landrum Pascagoula Phoenix Lights Belgian Wave Colares Kecksburg Jal 1986 Taos Hum Hill Abduction Falcon Lake Levelland Mantell Lakenheath-Bentwaters Flatwoods Exeter Malmstrom Washington 1952 Kenneth Arnold Minot AFB Paperclip Artichoke Paul Bennewitz McMinnville Lubbock Lights Trindade Kaikoura Ilkley Moor Stephenville Ranch Hand Edgewood Garden Plot Ellsworth 1977 Maury Island Gorman Dogfight Ubatuba Chiles-Whitted Loring AFB Rb-47 Tremonton Mariana Film Canary Islands 1976 Green Fireballs Wanaque Robertson Panel Condon Report Wurtsmith 1975 Aztec 1948 Area 51 Montauk Dulce Edwards AFB Titan II Eupen 1989 F.e. Warren AFB Falconbridge Hangar 18 Serpo Goose Bay Brooksville Boianai Manises Red Bluff Walesville Fort Belvoir Columbus AFB Zodiac Killer Kingman Kinross Milton Torres Big Sur Cisco Grove Nixon and Gleason McCandlish Arv Carl Higdon General Neil McCasland Del Rio 1950 Minnesota Iceman Lady Be Good Taire Mountain 1978 Project Iceworm Goldsboro 1961 Men in Black David Grusch Robert Hastings JFK Assassination J. Allen Hynek Jacques Vallée Black Knight Satellite Project Blue Book The Letters Keel Kept
A special access program whose existence is itself secret. Officials may decline to confirm that it exists at all.
Shorthand for the US government as a whole.
America's expeditionary force for operations from the sea.
A UFO seen entering, leaving or moving through water. Naval cases and undersea test ranges come up often in USO research.
A large Air Force range west of Salt Lake City.
V
RAND engineer Robert Salter's 1970s concept for magnetically levitated trains in underground vacuum tunnels. It comes up in underground base theories.
A Marine Corps attack jet squadron.
W
An unacknowledged program so sensitive that normal reporting to Congress is waived. Only a handful of senior committee members are briefed, often in person.
The Army's test center at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, which tests chemical and biological defenses.
A security contractor that guarded sensitive Nevada sites for decades.
No term matches that.
Terms are matched in the text of each report, so the case links update as the archive grows. Entries marked Gerb's list come from UAP Gerb's acronym list, used with thanks; the plain-English definitions are bot313's. His research videos are on the Videos page.