A Wall Street Journal investigation published June 6, 2025 reported that the U.S. military deliberately fed UFO stories to the public, and to its own people, to cover real classified weapons programs.

The reporting draws on work by AARO, the Pentagon’s office for investigating unidentified anomalous phenomena. Under its first director, Sean Kirkpatrick, the office spent months digging into claims of secret government UFO programs. According to the Journal, investigators found that at least some of those myths had been started by the Pentagon itself.

The most striking case: in the 1980s, an Air Force colonel gave doctored flying-saucer photos to a bar owner near Area 51. The retired colonel later told investigators he had been acting under orders, to steer attention away from the then-secret F-117 stealth fighter. The investigation also described a long-running hazing ritual in which some officers were told they had joined a program handling alien technology. Many were never told it wasn’t real, which may help explain some later whistleblower claims.

The Journal says these findings were left out of the public version of AARO’s 2024 historical report. The Pentagon has said a second volume will cover the pranks and fake materials.

Some longtime UFO researchers have pushed back, arguing the story overreaches and doesn’t explain documented incidents at nuclear weapons sites.