Retired Wright-Patterson general mentioned in UFO report missing in NM

• A retired U.S. Air Force general, Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, has been reported missing in New Mexico.
• McCasland formerly commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
• His name was mentioned in a 2016 WikiLeaks email release in connection to UFO research.

A retired U.S. Air Force general who once commanded a research division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, has gone missing in New Mexico.

This is what we know.

McCasland commanded Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has issued a Silver Alert for Maj. Gen. William Neil McCasland, 68, who has been missing since last week, Newsweek reports. He was last seen on Feb. 27 in Albuquerque. McCasland is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs about 160 pounds. He has white hair and blue eyes, and he has unspecified medical issues, per the sheriff’s office, which is worried about his safety.

McCasland was the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, according to his Air Force biography. He managed a $2.2 billion science and technology program as well as $2.2 billion in additional customer-funded research and development. He joined Wright-Patterson in 2011 and retired in 2013.

He was commissioned in 1979 after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in astronautical engineering. He has served in a wide variety of space research, acquisition and operations roles within the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office.

McCasland mentioned in WikiLeaks release in connection to UFOs

McCasland was described as a key adviser on UFO-related projects by Tom DeLonge, UFO researcher and guitarist for Blink-182, Newsweek reports. The general’s name appears in the 2016 WikiLeaks email release from John Podesta, then Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager.

In emails to Podesta, DeLonge said he’s been working with McCasland for months and that the general was aware of the materials DeLonge was probing because McCasland has been “in charge of the laboratory at Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base where the Roswell wreckage was shipped,” per Newsweek.

However, there is no official record of DeLonge’s claims, and McCasland has neither confirmed nor denied it.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base home to UFO project

The Dayton Air Force base was home to Project Blue Book in the 1950s and 60s, according to “The Air Force Investigation into UFOs” published by Ohio State University.

During that time, it logged some 12,618 UFO sightings, with 701 of those remaining “unidentified.” The U.S. government created the project because of Cold War-era security concerns and Americans’ obsession with aliens.