Christopher Mellon: Career and UAP Advocacy
- Type: profile
- Author: multiple sources
- Date: career spans 1985-present; UAP advocacy 2017-present
- Credibility: primary (confirmed government career; advocacy is on-the-record)
Background
Member of the Mellon family (descendants of Thomas Mellon). BA in economics from Colby College, MA in international relations from Yale. Registered Republican.
Career in government:
- Staff positions on Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) beginning 1985, serving under Senators William Cohen, John Chafee, John Warner, Jay Rockefeller.
- Participated in drafting the legislation that created US Special Operations Command (1987 NDAA).
- Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, serving under Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
- Oversaw the Pentagon’s special access programs (SAPs) as part of a DoD committee.
- Minority staff director of SSCI under Senator Jay Rockefeller (2003).
Ed Henry of Roll Call called his credentials “distinguished.” Military.com called him a “top expert” in national security.
UAP Activities
- Identified by The Washington Post (2017) as having worked with AATIP.
- Personally provided the Pentagon UFO videos (FLIR, GIMBAL, GOFAST) to the New York Times, facilitating the December 2017 story.
- Joined To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017 as “National Security Affairs Advisor.” At TTSA’s first press conference, he “unveiled photographic evidence of a UFO” that turned out to be a party balloon (noted by journalist Art Levine).
- Left TTSA in late 2020 with Elizondo to focus on government lobbying for UFO transparency.
- Lobbied in support of the NDAA 2022 provisions creating AARO.
- Research affiliate of Avi Loeb’s Galileo Project.
Significance
Mellon’s career gives him unusual credibility: he had actual SAP oversight experience in the Pentagon. His claim is that during this oversight work, he encountered programs that raised UAP-related questions. Unlike Elizondo, whose AATIP role is disputed, Mellon’s government service is thoroughly documented.
The counterargument is that Mellon’s UAP advocacy began after he left government, and that having held high positions does not immunize someone from being wrong. The party balloon incident at TTSA’s first press conference is an embarrassing data point for those citing his judgment.
Keith Kloor wrote that Mellon “oversaw the Pentagon’s most sensitive and closely held ‘black’ programs.”