Document · D-038
FOIA: the Pentagon cannot find the 2023 memo that allegedly stopped the fake “Yankee Blue” briefings
OSD/JS FOIA final response 25-F-3514 (September 16, 2025)
OSD and Joint Staff FOIA office (Department of Defense) · Sep 16, 2025 · USA · FOIA release
Original available
PDF read in The Black Vault's copy of the official response; the text of the request is not attached and the subject comes from The Black Vault's article and from the research notes.
- What it contains
- The response states that, after searching its records, the Correspondence Management division of the Washington Headquarters Services concluded that “no records of the kind you described could be identified.” The request concerned the memo with which, according to the Wall Street Journal, in the spring of 2023 the Office of the Secretary of Defense allegedly ordered an end to the fake briefings on a reverse-engineering program called “Yankee Blue”; in the same period other requests produced neither the briefing materials for the Director of National Intelligence nor AFOSI files.
- What it shows and what it does not
- It weakens one of the documentary pillars of the WSJ investigation, but says only that the documents were not found in those records: it neither confirms nor refutes that the practice of fake briefings existed.
- How it came to light
- Response to the FOIA request filed by The Black Vault on June 17, 2025, after the Wall Street Journal investigation of June 6, 2025.
- The document
- Open the document (theblackvault.com)
Sources
- The Black Vault, September 16, 2025 – the Pentagon denies the existence of the “Yankee Blue” memo (analysis)
- Wikipedia – Yankee Blue (other)
On this site
Claims 1
Official positions 2
- Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and AFOSI – FOIA responses (2025): Responding to FOIA requests, the OSD stated that it was not possible to locate documents…
- Pentagon (Department of Defense) (2025): The Pentagon acknowledged the “pranks” described by AARO (the Yankee Blue case)…
Where the claims come from 1
Timeline 2
- Sep 16, 2025: FOIA: the Pentagon cannot find the 2023 memo that reportedly stopped “Yankee Blue”
- Jun 6, 2025: WSJ: the Pentagon fueled the UFO myth for decades, the “Yankee Blue” case
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