Date
January 9, 1953
Document Type
Classified Memo
Pages
4
Authentication
Confirmed AuthenticIssuing Authority
H.C. Cross, Battelle Memorial Institute (to Miles Goll, Wright-Patterson AFB)
Summary
A classified memorandum written by H.C. Cross of Battelle Memorial Institute to Miles Goll of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, dated January 9, 1953 - just days before the Robertson Panel convened. Discovered by Jacques Vallee in J. Allen Hynek's personal papers in 1967. The memo reveals that a second, secret UAP monitoring and analysis program ran entirely parallel to the publicly known Project Blue Book - and that Cross urged controlling what evidence the Robertson Panel would see. It is among the most significant documents in the UAP record because it demonstrates, in official writing, a deliberate two-track system: a public program and a hidden analytical layer.
Significance
The Pentacle Memorandum is arguably the most important document in establishing a documented government precedent for the 'parallel program' structure that David Grusch and other modern whistleblowers describe. It demonstrates that as early as 1953, government contractors were running UAP analysis programs separate from the official Blue Book investigation and were actively managing what official panels like Robertson's would be permitted to examine. This is precisely the oversight-circumvention mechanism described in the Wilson-Davis Memo (2002) and in Grusch's congressional testimony (2023) - suggesting the practice has deep institutional roots.