Willard Miller is a retired Lieutenant Commander of the US Naval Reserve who served on the operations staff of the US Atlantic Command and at NORAD Space Command with Top Secret security clearances,1 having previously served as a navy reservist on the staff of Admiral Thomas Wilson.2 On 1997-04-10, Miller took part with Steven Greer and Edgar Mitchell in presenting Wilson with what they were convinced was strong witness evidence supporting their belief that the US government was covering up alien visitations to Earth, recovered spacecraft and alien bodies, and technological breakthroughs derived from those discoveries.3 The 1997-04 Pentagon briefing by Greer, Miller and Mitchell took place in a conference room at the Pentagon, with Admiral Mike Crawford and General Patrick Hughes also present.4 Miller later corroborated Greer’s account of Wilson’s frustration during the briefing,5 as did Shari Adamiak, Steven Lovekin and Mitchell.6 After the group dispersed, Miller and Wilson spoke privately for two hours, discussing UFOs, Majestic 12 (MJ-12), the 1947 Roswell incident, and crashed UFOs and alien bodies.7 Miller later said that, just before the group left, an aide to Wilson admitted that the Majestic MJ-12 conspiracy theory was real.8
The following year, Greer and Miller were invited back to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to brief Wilson’s superior, Lieutenant General Hughes, on UFOs,9 returning months after the original meeting to discuss Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).10 A memorandum attributed to Wilson - the Admiral Wilson Memo - on its face supports what Greer, Mitchell, Miller, Lovekin and Adamiak each said they were told by Wilson at the 1997 meeting.11 However, Wilson, his former Defense Department colleagues, and Miller himself all cast doubt on the memo’s authenticity.12
Miller also spoke to journalist Leslie Kean, and articles on UFOs by Kean subsequently appeared in The Boston Globe that referenced Wilson.13 By October 2002, Wilson was visibly angry when the subject of Miller arose, showing a tense expression and an angry voice.14 Wilson said he considered that Miller had violated personal and professional trust, particularly among intelligence colleagues and Navy officers, breaching the camaraderie expected between officers.15 Wilson had earlier telephoned Miller, around late June 1997, and told him he had been right that a Majestic 12-like UFO organisation exists.16 Miller in turn told Greer about the conversation,17 and, according to Eric Davis, Miller also told Mitchell, who did not pass the information on to Davis until 1999.18 Wilson maintained he had not told Miller everything, saying Miller knew what he had done during his Pentagon records-group search but no more.19
Wilson’s own investigation into the matter began about a week after he and Miller parted, and continued on and off for around 45 days.20 According to Davis, Miller and Greer said Wilson nearly “got busted” over this investigation into the special-access reverse-engineering program.21 Wilson said that the chairman of the Senior Review Group told him, via Miller, that he would not be promoted to Director of the DIA if he did not drop the matter.22 Oke Shannon separately spent two hours attempting to persuade Wilson to speak to Davis about what Shannon had told Miller in April and June 1997,23 having earlier discussed with Miller a Boston Globe story by Kean, the Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) topic, UFO crash retrieval, and an alleged Majestic 12-like organisation, according to Wilson.24
On 2002-10-16, Davis showed Wilson a letter Miller had written to him dated 2002-04-25, for evaluation.25 In the letter, Miller apologised for not responding sooner, citing the “fog of war”, ongoing business activity, and having lost Davis’s new e-mail address.26 He offered to assist Davis and Harold E. Puthoff with their research into UFO crash retrievals and the entities involved, subject to caveats,27 on condition that his name not be mentioned in connection with the work, stating he had nothing to gain from the association and possibly much to lose.28 Miller said he had previously held a Top Secret clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information and other special-programme clearances, but no longer worked in the classified realm.29 He offered to provide details of a “special team” involved in recovering crashed craft - including the previously classified F-117 Nighthawk - along with its sponsoring entity and two key officers,30 the name and last known location of a senior officer he believed had first-hand knowledge of US government Alien Reproduction Vehicles (ARV) at Area 51 and associated locations,31 the name and location of a retired flag officer he believed had direct knowledge of government involvement in a significant UFO event on the US east coast,32 and a list of civilian government contractors he believed most likely had current involvement in, and knowledge of, US government work on alien-derived technologies.33 He also asked whether Davis and Puthoff would be interested in meeting Bob Beckwith in Florida Tallahassee on the evening of 30 May.34