The NSA and a 1978 MUFON Conference: More Lost UFO Material

Document: Memorandum for the Record, Subject: Information Request Solicitation Agency: National Security Agency Date: 26 May 2022 Released: 2022-08-03, The Black Vault This document, released by The Black Vault, recounts an NSA employee's experience at a 1978 MUFON symposium. The memo was written to chronicle their experience and express concerns about one of the presenters, Todd Zechel. The document begins with a security clearance and a response to a Mandatory Declassification Review request from John Greenewald, Jr. of The Black Vault. The NSA conducted a search and found additional responsive material, which has been reviewed under MDR requirements. The memo then shifts to a chronology of events, starting with a background check on 10 July 1978. The NSA employee explained their association with UFOs to their supervisors and arranged an appointment with a contact at D4. On 24 July, they discussed UFO status with D4, concluding that they understood their position and that NSA preferred a low profile. On 26 July, the employee had a security brief by M5, where they explained their position on UFO matters and related that they had checked with D4. They discussed UFOs at length. The employee then attended the Mutual UFO Network 1978 UFO Symposium in Dayton, Ohio, on 29-30 July. During the symposium, a Mr. Stringfield introduced a Mr. Robert Barry, who discussed and showed publicly two letters he allegedly received from the CIA. The employee's immediate opinion was that the letters were fraudulent. On 3 August, the employee contacted the NSA-CIA liaison officer about the letters, who referred them to CIA Public Relations. CIA PR requested copies of the letters, which the employee provided. The CIA eventually wrote to Mr. Barry explaining that the letters were fraudulent. The employee developed suspicions that Barry may have written the letters himself or had them sent to him by someone else. They also suspected Todd Zechel, who claimed to know the signer of the letter and seemed to know too many answers to questions about the letters. On 27 August, Zechel called the employee, nearly an hour long, to clear up the matter of his working for NSA. The employee explained that NSA records did not reflect that Zechel had ever worked for them. Zechel explained his former association with NSA, having been in ASA from 1963 to 1966 and a shift supervisor at a crit-com relay in Korea. The discussion turned to general UFO topics and the role of CIA and NSA in providing services and/or products to government agencies. Zechel asked the employee if it would be possible to do some looking around at NSA for UFO-related information. The employee explained that they could only watch for information and note its declassification date, then request the information if it was declassified. This is what the public record looks like at its most ordinary. The document is available at storyflo.com and the canonical URL is https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/NSA-05262022.pdf.