Philip Corso

Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army who served on President Eisenhower's National Security Council staff and later headed the Foreign Technology Division at the Pentagon's Army Research and Development department. In his 1997 book 'The Day After Roswell,' co-written with William Birnes, Corso claimed that he personally shepherded extraterrestrial artifacts recovered from the Roswell crash to American defense contractors for reverse engineering. He stated that integrated circuits, fiber optics, lasers, Kevlar, and night vision technology all derived from Roswell debris. Corso testified under oath before Congress in 1997 confirming his claims. He held the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star. He died less than a year after publication, in July 1998. Critics question why he waited 50 years; supporters note that he waited until retirement and produced his claims under oath and at great personal cost. Whether accurate or not, Corso's position — NSC staff, Pentagon Foreign Technology Division chief — put him exactly where reverse-engineering programs would have operated.