Person
Chris Mellon
Also known as Christopher Mellon, Mellon
- Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (Clinton & G.W. Bush administrations)
- Minority Staff Director, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Chris Mellon is a former U.S. intelligence official who did more than anyone outside government to put the Navy UAP videos in front of the public and Congress. He spent nearly a decade on Capitol Hill, ending as minority staff director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He then served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. In that role he sat on the Pentagon committee that oversees special access programs, where he says he never saw anything related to UAP.
Doing unpaid consulting for Navy intelligence around 2017, he met Luis Elizondo and learned of the Navy encounters and videos. When briefings to people close to Defense Secretary Mattis led nowhere, he joined Elizondo and Tom DeLonge in To The Stars Academy. He provided the three unclassified videos, Gimbal, FLIR and GoFast, for The New York Times story of December 2017. When the intelligence committees did not react, he turned to Senate staffer Kirk McConnell, who arranged the first Navy witness briefings in Congress.
He has since written and lobbied on gaps in U.S. airspace awareness: drone swarms over Langley and Guam, the silence of strategic radars and satellites, and the classification guide that locked up UAP video. He called AARO's 2024 historical report the most error-ridden government report he could recall. He has helped Rep. Eric Burlison list specific videos for release and supports whistleblowers through the Disclosure Foundation. He is also cautious: he warns that unconfirmed crash-retrieval stories could discredit the real issue. He appears in The Phenomenon (2020), The Program (2024) and The Age of Disclosure (2025).
Sources: May 1, 2025 congressional briefing · Disclosure Forum 2026 · September 9, 2025 hearing (transcript) · christophermellon.net · Wikipedia
Facts and claims
- claimed Spent nearly a decade on Capitol Hill, finishing as Minority Staff Director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Source: christophermellon.net (archived)
- claimed He says that while doing unpaid consulting for Navy intelligence he met Luis Elizondo, who told him about the Navy videos, and that he could not believe nobody was acting on incursions that, for Russian bombers, would go straight to the National Military Command Center. — Chris Mellon Source: UAP & National Security: Mellon, Gallaudet, von Rennenkampff & McConnell at Disclosure Forum 2026 at 1:27:58
- claimed He says he arranged Navy pilot briefings for people close to Defense Secretary Mattis and, after months without action, went to the press and Congress; when the committees did not react to the New York Times story, he called Senate staffer Kirk McConnell, who set up meetings with Navy witnesses. — Chris Mellon Source: UAP & National Security: Mellon, Gallaudet, von Rennenkampff & McConnell at Disclosure Forum 2026 at 1:28:50
- claimed At the May 2025 congressional briefing he said: “back in 2017, I provided three unclassified videos to the New York Times”, naming Gimbal, FLIR and GoFast, and that the FBI and Air Force OSI had confirmed they were unclassified. He says a classification guide issued soon afterwards made almost anything UAP-related classified. — Chris Mellon Source: Understanding UAP: Science, National Security & Innovation (House Oversight and Government Reform) at 2:00:36
- claimed He says he sat on the Defense Department committee that reviews all special access programs and reports them to Congress and “never saw anything related to UAP”, adding that workarounds such as alternative compensatory control measures exist. — Chris Mellon Source: UAP & National Security: Mellon, Gallaudet, von Rennenkampff & McConnell at Disclosure Forum 2026 at 35:38
- claimed He says one of the main crash-retrieval sources he first brought to Congress told him the program had been closed because it was making no headway and spending a lot of money. — Chris Mellon Source: UAP & National Security: Mellon, Gallaudet, von Rennenkampff & McConnell at Disclosure Forum 2026 at 37:15
- claimed He says he published a Signal message from a very senior official describing a specific Secretary of the Air Force memorandum, a specific recovery site and the Air Force gatekeeper for the program, and that no one in Congress has asked him to follow up. — Chris Mellon Source: Understanding UAP: Science, National Security & Innovation (House Oversight and Government Reform) at 2:15:32
- claimed He told the May 2025 briefing that the military's most powerful phased-array radars have reported no UAP to AARO in some 20 years, though ships and aircraft in their coverage report them constantly, and described drone incursions over Langley, Guam's THAAD battery, Palo Verde and Navy ships. — Chris Mellon Source: Understanding UAP: Science, National Security & Innovation (House Oversight and Government Reform) at 1:39:35
- documented Rep. Anna Paulina Luna quoted him in a September 2025 hearing calling AARO's historical report “the most error-ridden and unsatisfactory government report I can recall reading after decades of government service”, and noting it was the first AARO report sent to Congress without the DNI's sign-off. — Anna Paulina Luna Source: Hearing transcript: Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection (Sept 9, 2025)
- claimed He warns that UAP sightings and alleged crash recoveries are blended in the public mind, and that if recoveries are never confirmed, this could discredit the very real UAP issue. — Chris Mellon Source: Understanding UAP: Science, National Security & Innovation (House Oversight and Government Reform) at 2:27:07
Connected files
Books
- UFOs: A Scientist Explains What We Know (And Don't Know) (statement about)
Claims
- The U.S. government has deliberately spread false or misleading information about UFOs (asserts)
- Unidentified drones or craft entered the airspace over Langley Air Force Base night after night in December 2023, and the military has not identified them (comments on claim)
- Programs dealing with UAP have been hidden from congressional oversight (asserts)
- The U.S. holds recovered craft of non-human origin and runs a secret program to reverse-engineer them (comments on claim)
- The 2004 Nimitz “Tic Tac” flew in ways no known aircraft can (asserts)
Events
- The New York Times reveals the Pentagon UFO program (helped) — Hal Puthoff says Mellon helped bring the Navy footage to the Times
Documentaries
- The Age of Disclosure (appears in)
- The Phenomenon (appears in)
- The Program (appears in)
Organizations
- To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science (employed by)
- Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (worked at)
Hearings & briefings
Places
- Langley Air Force Base (commented on) — He described the drone incursions over Langley at the May 2025 congressional briefing
People
- Luis Elizondo (worked with) — He met Elizondo around 2017 and joined him and Tom DeLonge in To The Stars Academy
- Kirk McConnell (worked with) — Mellon turned to McConnell, who arranged the first Navy witness briefings in Congress
- Eric Burlison (worked with) — Mellon has helped Burlison compile lists of specific UAP videos for release
- Anna Paulina Luna (statements by)
- Garry Nolan (briefed) — Elizondo and Mellon showed him the Navy videos about three weeks before they went public in 2017
- Hal Puthoff (co-founded with) — Co-founders of To The Stars Academy in 2017
- Leslie Kean (source for) — Mellon gave her his first public comments in 2016 and supplied the Navy videos for her 2017 story
- Tim Gallaudet (related to)
Videos
- FLIR1: the Nimitz “Tic Tac” video (official U.S. Navy release) (provided) — He provided the three unclassified videos, Gimbal, FLIR and GoFast, for The New York Times story
- Gimbal: the official U.S. Navy video (January 2015) (provided) — He provided the three unclassified videos, Gimbal, FLIR and GoFast, for The New York Times story
- GoFast: the official U.S. Navy video (January 2015) (provided) — He provided the three unclassified videos, Gimbal, FLIR and GoFast, for The New York Times story
- Christopher Mellon on the Joe Rogan Experience (clip, 2021) (appears in)
- 60 Minutes: Navy pilots recall “unsettling” 2004 UAP sighting (Fravor and Dietrich, 16 May 2021) (appears in)
- Christopher Mellon on UFOs, secrecy and what the public still doesn't know (The Chris Cuomo Project, 2025) (appears in)
- Understanding UAP: Science, National Security & Innovation (House Oversight and Government Reform) (speaks in)
- Christopher Mellon, “We Are Not Alone”: a reflection on UAP (Disclosure Foundation, 2025) (appears in)
- Christopher Mellon on the strongest evidence we are not alone (Unveiled clip, 2026) (appears in)
- UAP & National Security: Mellon, Gallaudet, von Rennenkampff & McConnell at Disclosure Forum 2026 (appears in)
- The Biblical Truth of UFOs & Angels (Ft. Karl Nell & Diana Pasulka) (discussed in)
- Garry Nolan: UFOs and Aliens (Lex Fridman Podcast #262) (discussed in)
Programs
- All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (criticised) — He called AARO's 2024 historical report the most error-ridden government report he could recall
Mentioned in videos
- Christopher Mellon on UFOs, secrecy and what the public still doesn't know (The Chris Cuomo Project, 2025)
- Understanding UAP: Science, National Security & Innovation (House Oversight and Government Reform)
- David Fravor: UFOs, Aliens, Fighter Jets, and Aerospace Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #122