Jake Barber, a former mechanic and airman in USAF special operations, is the first military veteran to openly claim involvement in a UAP retrieval program of the sort alluded to by David Grusch and Lue Elizondo. He ostensibly served as a helicopter pilot for such a program from 2001, tasked with airlifting recovered UAPs in an area he calls "The Range". Barber claims that he has gotten within 150 feet (45.7 meters) of an egg-shaped alien craft and that ranking members of the UAPTF confirmed its nonhuman nature to him. The UAPTF closed in 2022, and its files and materials were transferred to AARO. However, when asked by Steven Greenstreet about the egg-shaped craft, Sean Kirkpatrick responded: "Never heard of it. It certainly wasn’t part of the UAP Task Force files transferred to AARO. I can guess who the 'ranking members' are." (He was likely alluding to hardcore UFO believers Jay Stratton and Travis Taylor) NewsNation obtained leaked footage showing an egg-shaped object suspended from a hoist attached to a helicopter and released it in a feature length piece narrated by Ross Coulthart. The provenance of the object remains uncertain.
Barber also relates a story of being involved in the retrieval of "eightgon" flying disc objects in other missions by the team. During such an occasion, he felt an "intense hybrid of sadness and happiness and beauty and song," (the reference to "sadness" and telepathic communication is reminiscent of the 2003 film Dreamcatcher, in which aliens beam psychic messages to the helicopter pilots sent to kill them, while the "song" reference is reminiscent of 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which a gentleman reports that a UFO "sang to him", along with the melodious extravaganza near the end of the film), and that something "connected" with him and "tuned in" with his "soul." So emotional did he become that he began crying during the mission, and felt that he was "possessed by a spirit" that emanated a "very feminine energy" (could this be a reflection of Whitley Strieber's Communion, in which the author describes the Grey creature as the most intensely feminine presence he had ever felt?) and that it seemed like a "frequency" (a long staple in New Age mythology). Presently, this energy or entity is "guiding" him and provides him with "protection." He adds: "I think it was invited to land by the psionic team" attached to the retrieval unit. A psionic person, according to him, is someone with "the predisposition for astral/temporal, you could say, abilities and sensitivities." Such people underwent something like "meditation" in their mental dalliances with UAP. Again, we can note the long pedigree of such stories in ufology, with psychic/telepathic narratives dating back to the early days of the Contactee movement.
Ironically, his elated experiences seem to have come with a steep price, as he also describes that he and his team suffered severe health problems requiring hospitalization after a mission involving the airlifting of a box with unknown contents, an account supported by Gary Nolan, who says, rather cryptically, that the symptoms (in Barber's case being hair and skin loss and heart problems) are consistent with "some kind of radiation."
Barber's story takes a turn for the even more sinister when he describes how on some missions, his helicopter was sent out to retrieve Panasonic Toughbook laptops containing UAP-related data in the high Sierras, and that these computer's hard drives had already been removed. Intelligence later tracked them to a steel container tossed into a "high altitude lake." On a subsequent mission, the Toughbooks were altogether missing and "shots were fired", causing Barber to fear that his team was going to be ambushed or set up by the contractor or someone posing as them. During the NewsNation segment, Coulthart asks, "People have been murdered?", to which Barber replies, "That seems to be the case." (Interestingly, no murders are actually exposed in the piece) In an effort to find out who was behind this threat, Barber and his team assembled in D.C. to "conduct surveillance." A meeting was reportedly set up between himself and the contractor's very nervous "director of security." (Unnamed) Afterwards, Barber felt he needed to go public with the help of Congress.
Barber is currently involved in the private effort known as Skywatcher, which utilizes the people involved in the supposed retrieval program, in coordination with "government agencies." This effort was supposedly involved in investigating the East Coast drone wave in late 2024 for the US Government but had been on the search for something even more intriguing in August of that year when it conducted an operation with a "psionic asset" to try to summon UAP. During that incident, such a UAP, which was being "piloted" by the asset and being brought in, was "warring" with a "rogue UAP." Embarrassingly, the footage displayed in the segment shows what is clearly a bird. Gary Nolan, who was present during the incident, reported that the psychic was "distressed" during the encounter. We also note that the idea of mental control of an alien craft is not new and has even served as the basis for science fiction films like Flight of the Navigator (1986).
NewsNation confirmed that Barber met with now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio's staffers in D.C.
Several red flags are evident in Barber's account. Firstly, he claims that he knew about the nonhuman origin of some UAP for "more than ten years." The references to a "very feminine energy" and a feeling of "sadness" are oddly specific and could speak to his immersion in UFO culture/film/lore, including stories tinged with psychic and New Age elements. The idea that UAP are being summoned or are themselves summoning people is a trope found in the notions of paranormally inclined ufologists like John Keel and in several science fiction movies. While several of his colleagues strongly support his story, we're entitled to ask how they or Barber could know about an "80 year cover up", an item raised in the NewsNation piece. One might also question why he would be so keen to seek the collaboration of the government after feeling the need to go public due to threats on his life emanating from that very government or elements connected to it. And finally, there is of course the very pertinent fact that Barber appears to be adjacent to what Kirkpatrick has called the "core group" of "true believers" who are largely responsible for perpetuating the UFO/government coverup story in recent times.
None of this is to impugn Barber's character or admirable record of service to the United States. It is simply to ask questions about the veracity of his claims and whether psychological, cultural, sociological, and indeed emotional factors may be in play to animate his stories. The UFO mythos is richly textured, blending fiction with sincere witness testimony. We should be aware of the possible interplay of these forces in any UFO case.
In other news, the FBI has been making the rounds in the UFO circuit. While the CIA and the US military have long garnered a more prominent public profile in the UFO milieu, the FBI appears to have had at least some involvement in this space, including an apparent UAP Working Group dedicated to investigating UAP sightings. According to Ryan Graves, the group was likely established some time in 2020. Some FBI agents participating in this group are reportedly concerned that they may be purged from the bureau by the second Trump administration due to their investigations of the January 6, 2021, rioters. Graves has remarked that this would be detrimental to the administration's own stated commitment to investigating UAP. In the estimation of Graves, the Working Group is ideally situated to investigate UAP due to the FBI's overlapping intelligence and security functions. Similarly, former Army intelligence officer Caison Best remarks that the FBI provides a legal umbrella for UAP investigations within the US government, and that disrupting this arrangement for political ends would be especially detrimental.
Representative Tim Burchett (RT-N), echoing views by former Admiral Timothy Gallaudet, has stated that he thinks that there may be alien bases underwater. This reminded me of the 1972 Dr. Who run The Sea Devils, in which ancient reptilian beings, lying dormant underwater for millions of years, return to reclaim the Earth. In exploring the possibilities of UAP, Elizondo himself has mused that they could come from a hidden Earthly source such as an underwater civilization and has recommended that people read the novel Chains of the Sea (1972) by George Alec Effinger, in which an alien artificial intelligence communicates with an underwater species that is actually the dominant lifeform on our planet. Is fiction actually animating these UFO celebrities' beliefs? Possibly, but it's likely more complicated and interesting than that. The genesis of a belief is quite distinct from how and why it evolves and is adopted by others. It's conceivable that underwater alien stories may have burrowed their way into the subconscious of one person, who perhaps watched a movie or TV series back in the day, and that the themes in it eventually bubbled back up (now there's an aquatic analogy!) or influenced a narrative in one way or another and thus shaped someone's position on this topic. This person may then have encouraged others to hold similar viewpoints. Or maybe the gestational and developmental process could have been even more indirect or convoluted, or something else entirely. Ideas about the origins of beliefs that are adjacent to science fiction tropes and motifs were explored in a recent exchange between Canadian poet and English professor Bryan Sentes and I. Here is a reproduction of our exchange:
Hi Bryan,
You might be interested in this tidbit about the fictional planet Dagobah in the Star Wars franchise (it's the planet where Luke Skywalker meets Yoda). Have a read of this:
Several scholars have interpreted Dagobah as the station of initiation when applying Joseph Campbell's schema of the hero's journey, going back to ancient myths, to the character of Luke Skywalker:[12][13][3] the hero retreats "from society to a world of more primal symbols where he must conquer his own darkness and return to the social world with a new redemptive knowledge."[3] Dagobah is described as "like something out of a dream" and corresponds to "a spiritual plane".[12] This primordial and isolated place of power, which seems hostile to civilization - the technological R2-D2 "is spat out unceremoniously" - is "a sanctuary of nature" and "creates a space, which like no other, influences the conception and development of the hero".[3][13] Leah Deyneka linked the teeming nature of Dagobah with the "enchanted forest or sacred grove" which "figures frequently in fairy tales and myths; trees are believed to hold special powers and forests symbolize mastery and transformation."[12] Miles Booy saw Dagobah as a "richly constructed [...] semiotic environment" which "does not point towards prior films but to widely circulated discourses concerning human consciousness". Its jungle and "dark swamp infested by reptiles" may be considered an image of the subconscious, with Yoda fulfilling the role of the analyst who "raises to the surface" what has been submerged.[3]
Dan Catalano commented that Dagobah as "an eerie location filled with strange wildlife and shrouded in as much mystery as fog", removed from the technology-filled galaxy, is a fitting device to underline Yoda's status as a "Wise Man archetype" in the tradition of Merlin, who likewise can be found in places of "wild nature" in Arthurian myths.[14]
Booy commented that within Star Wars "[n]o other environment attempts such imagery as Dagobah is constructed of" and that "Dagobah would also come to be the basis for [...] the notion that the film constitutes a form of mythology."[3]
(source: Dagobah - Wikipedia) (relevant scene from the movie) Do you think that the reptilian trope in ufology (and its depiction in the miniseries V) could speak to a primordial memory of humanity's fear of large reptiles and the dangers we faced during our evolution? (I'm led to believe that reptilians, when they do show up in the UFO/alien mythos, are generally agents of evil) And do you think this is what the serpent in Genesis is speaking to? Also, briefly, what do you think of Joseph Campbell's approach overall?
[Bryan's response starts]
Luis, good to hear from you.
I have Joseph Campbell’s _The Masks of God_ on ye olde bookshelf. Longer ago than I want to admit, those four volumes were an important reference _poetically_ (and sometimes still are). Though he makes some interesting points re the nervous system that nod to some material ground for Jung’s archetypes (e.g., the way baby chicks spontaneously recognize and flee the silhouette of hawk, a phenomenon that would speak to your question), I find his and Jung’s approach too “metaphysical,” i.e., positing substantial universals. Though Levi-Strauss’ structuralist approach likewise posits a universal structure to the human mind, it, at the same time, renders each mythology “local,” uprooting any possible archetype, e.g., though different myths might have serpents, the significance, _function_, of the serpent will always be relative to the particular “language” of that myth, in the same way that both English and German have a word ‘gift’, but a word that functions differently in each language (English “present,” German “poison”). So, offhand, no, I don’t think the reptilians rise from a collective, unconscious fear of reptiles, no more than the serpent of Genesis. In the latter case, that serpent speaks from a particular mythic “language” that can be analyzed along the lines of Levi-Strauss, and, I’m sure, philologically, many Jewish and other scholars can speak to the origins of this figure, quite apart from its biological nature. I don’t know where, in fact, the writers of “V” (in either of its iterations) took their inspiration; maybe from ufology! This is an empirical question. As to the source of those races/species of alien Others, that is a much deeper question, as much psychological as sociological. On another hand, what do we gain by source hunting? Both phenomenology and structuralist mythology suspend the question of genesis for the question of structure, which I find more illuminating. The way that talk of races and species gets confused is most telling, as I’ve remarked at Skunkworksblog. There is of course I don’t think a knockdown argument any way…
I detect in what you write a move I associate with what I term, likely not quite correctly enough, the Psychosocial Hypothesis, that as a methodological move that remarks cultural precedence of images and ideas as “source” or “inspiration” for subsequent ufological experiences, e.g., the way Kottmeyer (sp?) will point to an episodes of “The Twilight Zone” or “The Outer Limits” as sources for the “wrap-around eyes” described by at least Betty Hill during her hypnosis sessions. I’m not entirely dismissive of this approach, but, lacking an explanation of that influence, tracing the source to the witness, it runs the risk of committing the fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc. I _am_ more persuaded by the same argument that seeks to explain why people misidentify aerial phenomena; the “ufo” becomes here an
instance, kind of, of hyperreality, a consequence of our image saturated media environment. Further, what is right about his approach, is its understanding the human mind is hardly a tabula rasa, but is always already in-_formed_ culturally. The way that the journalistic intrusion in reporting Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of chevron-shaped UFOs, coining the expression “flying saucers,” resulted in subsequent sightings of UFOs being disk or saucer shaped is a very interesting case in point! At the same time, we need take seriously, I think, the reports from pilots and other trained personnel. Of course, on the one hand, they, too, are subject to being in-formed (remember, in French, education is ‘formation’ and in German, it’s ‘Bildung’, to be shaped…) in the same way as the civilian mind, but, especially in the case of a very early sighting at the White Sands testing grounds, I think it was, where a high flying object was instrumentally observed, for instance, one has a tougher task explaining it away.
Bryan
Fascinating stuff. I posed the same question to religion scholar and expert on Jewish mysticism David J. Halperin. Here is his response:
Your suggestion about a primordial fear of large reptiles is intriguing. I'd be inclined, though, to look elsewhere for an explanation of the reptilian trope, toward the fear and fascination that the snake evokes. ("But never met this Fellow / Attended or alone / Without a tighter Breathing / And Zero at the Bone."—Emily Dickinson; and Proverbs 30:19.)
Philip Slater has an interesting discussion of the psychological symbolism of the snake in The Glory of Hera, pp. 80-122. He begins by noting, then going beyond, the psychoanalytic interpretation of the snake as a phallic symbol. It's been a long time since I read it but I believe he focuses on the snake as a representation of boundary violations. Perhaps worth taking a look at.
Would the lidless eyes of the snake be a point of connection with the unblinking "greys"?
Best,
David
As always, I recommend that everyone read David's fascinating book, "Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO." (2020) In keeping with the general theme of the blending of fiction and UFO narratives and the origins of narrative elements, I also happened to receive a warm correspondence from a gentleman in The Netherlands, who alerted me to a possible lead regarding the inclusion of Papoose Lake/Moutain in Bob Lazar's alien story. I've updated my extensive Lazar catalog, "Bob Lazar's litany of lies and whoppers" to include his contributions (see the section titled "He talks about an "S4" facility at Papoose Dry Lake where "nine flying saucers were kept" - except that no such facility exists"). You can read a write up by this Dutch gentleman here at Metabunk, but basically, he asks whether the Papoose reference might have been inspired by the science fiction novel Venus Development (1976) by David Bergamini, in which Papoose is mentioned, along with a hangar door concealing an underground base dug into the mountain, a secret cabal of scientists and business moguls, and a number of other elements that resonate in the Lazar story. I personally think the link is rather tenuous, but it's certainly possible that this was a source of inspiration (though I much favor the hypothesis that John Lear was centrally involved in the construction of Lazar's tale by bringing together bits and pieces from the fictions and confabulations of Billy Meier, Bill Cooper and other people in the UFO and conspiracy theory scene. See "The origins of Lazar's "S4 security ID badge" and the roles of John Lear and Bill Cooper" for more. Special thanks to Amy Collins for the heavy lifting regarding the investigation of that saga)