A retired Air Force Major General with documented ties to classified UFO research walked away from his Albuquerque home on February 27, 2026, left his phone and watch behind, and has not been seen since.
His name is William Neil McCasland, 68. He commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — the same base that received the debris from the 1947 Roswell incident for analysis and was home to Project Blue Book, the military’s official investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena. He is described as an experienced outdoorsman, someone who hiked and skied regularly. The detail about the watch and the phone stood out immediately to those who knew him.
The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office has contacted more than 600 homeowners in the neighborhood near McCasland’s residence to request security camera footage. The FBI has joined the search. A Silver Alert was issued, noting unspecified medical concerns.
What Made McCasland Different
This isn’t a typical missing persons case. McCasland spent 34 years building a career inside some of the most classified corners of American military research. He commanded the Air Force Research Laboratory and managed a $2.2 billion science and technology program, plus additional customer-funded research and development. His Pentagon assignments included director of Special Programs under the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics — a position that sits squarely inside the architecture of classified government work.
His name surfaced publicly in the UFO community years ago. In 2016 WikiLeaks emails from John Podesta, Blink-182 guitarist and UFO researcher Tom DeLonge described McCasland as a key adviser on his disclosure initiative, claiming the general was “very, very aware” of the material DeLonge was investigating because McCasland had been “in charge of the laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where the Roswell wreckage was shipped.” McCasland never confirmed or denied any of it.
The Timing Is Hard to Ignore
Investigative journalist Ross Coulthart — who has covered the UAP beat for years — wasted no time connecting the dots. Coulthart called McCasland “a man with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States in his head” and described his disappearance as “a grave national security crisis for the United States of America.”
Coulthart also noted the timing: McCasland vanished the same week Trump announced he had directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to begin identifying and releasing government files related to UFOs and aliens. Whether that’s meaningful or coincidental is a question nobody can answer right now.
Coulthart noted that McCasland was known to be mentally and physically fit, and pointed to the absence of his phone and watch as details that suggested something unusual about the circumstances of his departure. He raised the possibility of foreign involvement directly: if a hostile nation wanted access to what McCasland knew, he would be a high-value target.
Authorities have been clear that the Silver Alert does not indicate suspected criminal involvement. The investigation remains open. As of March 11, 2026, no confirmed sightings have been reported.
Whatever happened on that trail — a medical episode, something more troubling, or something that doesn’t fit either explanation — a man who may have known things the government still hasn’t disclosed has vanished. And the people looking for answers are working from almost nothing.
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