Has a Government UFO Figurehead Been Abducted for Knowing Too Much?

The disappearance of Major General William Neil McCasland, USAF (Ret.) has the UFO community abuzz.

I have a policy of not exploiting tragedies for the sake of creating content. Today’s is to point out that behavior by the UFO community, which is attempting to co-opt the record of this distinguished USAF general to promote their agenda. It is provided free to all (Thursday installments are usually paywalled).

By way of Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, I’ll save you the trouble and just answer this one now: No.

Major General William Neil McCasland, USAF (Ret.), age 68, disappeared on February 27 after leaving his home in Albuquerque, NM on foot, leaving his cell phone behind. The state has issued a “Silver Alert,” used in the case of disappearances of people over 50 “with a clear indication of irreversible deterioration of intellectual faculties.” He is also said to have unstated medical issues, and law enforcement is greatly concerned for his safety. He is known to have hiked in Albuquerque’s hills a lot, and it’s very possible that he became lost or injured.

Obviously this a terrible thing, for him and for his loved ones; but sadly not unexpected for someone of his age and habits and mental condition.

So why is the UFO community interested?

Because for much of his career, General McCasland — who had a PhD in astronautical engineering from MIT — led the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio and the Phillips Research Site at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque. To some in the UFO community, this means he was certainly in charge of reverse engineering alien flying saucers. In fact, the lab at Wright-Pat has been working on the following for the past 40 years, leaving little time for alien flying saucer work:

• Aeropropulsion and power: turbine engines, rocket propulsion, high‑speed air‑breathing systems, power and thermal management for aircraft and missiles.

• Air and space sensors: radar, electro‑optical/IR targeting, navigation aids, automatic target recognition, multi‑sensor fusion, threat warning and countermeasures.​

• Aerospace systems and vehicles: airframe concepts, flight controls, high‑speed systems, and integrated aircraft/weapon concepts.​

• Human performance and decision support: human‑machine interfaces, training, physiology, and more recently digital engineering, AI/ML, and “digital twin” tools for design and operations.

While at Kirtland, he worked on:

• Space Vehicles Directorate: satellite technologies for communication, navigation, surveillance, space control, space situational awareness, and survivability of space assets.

• Directed Energy Directorate: high‑energy lasers, high‑power microwave (HPM) and plasma systems, atmospheric compensation and adaptive optics, and related beam control for missile defense and space‑control roles.

• Space access and protection: launch and orbit‑transfer technologies, space support and control, missile offense/defense, and work on space debris and space structures.

He may have spent perhaps .01% of his time on anything UFO related, and this was probably limited to brushing off UFO fanatics.

Just look at the different ways this is being reported. Here is an article from CBS News:

Retired Air Force major general still missing 2 weeks after vanishing in New Mexico

And here’s one from the UFO-friendly far-right tabloid NewsNation:

UFO experts share theories on Gen. Neil McCasland’s disappearance

You’ll see this pattern repeated among all news organizations reporting on it. I for one am disgusted by this exploitation.

I propose that instead of spreading nonsense and graffitiing his record with crap claims that he was disappeared or abducted by Men in Black for “knowing too much about UFOs,” we instead wish him well, hope for the best, and thank him for his service.