Was Dr. James T. Ryder a First-Hand Member of 'The Legacy Program'?
An exploration of Dr. Ryder's career suggests that may very well have been the case.
Note: All citations appear as a [ ] throughout the article and have been backed up through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive unless otherwise stated. Highlighting/bolding are done by me for emphasis.Picture this: You are the Program Manager for the famed ‘Legacy Program’ at Lockheed Martin tasked with reverse-engineering UFO/UAP material. You have no clue as to what to make of the material you just recovered and now you need specialized minds to tackle this problem head on. What do you do? Go shopping around for scientists around the country or globe? A sensible idea, but not without its security risks. What if the procurement problem isn’t an external one, but rather, an internal one? You scour through internal company employee records and come to find an individual who is the perfect candidate for making sense of the material you’ve recovered.
This individual is a materials engineer by trade with a Ph.D from a reputable university. You look through this individual’s employment history and notice he’s been working within the company as early as the 1970’s and hasn’t left since. He has presented work sponsored by a very well known U.S. Air Force Military Base (*cough* Wright-Patterson *cough*) and has worked with the company on the L1011, F22, Fleet Ballistic Missiles (FBM), and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) programs, not to mention, working with NASA on the Space Shuttle main engines and classified defense systems work. Naturally the engineer will have a TS/SCI or TS/SAP clearance so that is simply the cherry on top.
Bingo! Now all that’s left is to bring this individual into a SCIF to be read-in and your job is complete.
But wait! Just who is this engineer and what of his name? I’m glad you asked. Let me introduce to you: Dr. James T. Ryder Ph.D.
What Is This Articles' Thesis?
Dr. James T. Ryder Ph.D was a part of ‘The Legacy Program’ and worked in it as a first-hand witness/member trying to reverse-engineer UFO material.
Even if I don’t manage to convince you, I will do my best to present the information as accurately as possible (with sources, of course) so that you may look at it as is and be able to come to your own conclusion.
A Career Worth Looking At
James Thomas Ryder was born on August 13th, 1945 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, U.S.A and died unexpectedly on May 28th, 2018 in San Jose, Santa Clara, California, U.S.A [1]. As of this writing and publishing I have yet to come across any information as to Ryder’s childhood, adolescence, young adulthood years, and obituary (I am sure the great researcher Richard Geldreich Jr could find something through his newspaper research). Ryder received a Ph.D in Theoretical & Applied Mechanics, a MS in Engineering Mechanics, and a BS in Theoretical & Applied Mechanics all from the University of Illinois [2]. He was also an Associate Fellow for the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) [3].
Ryder began his career (as far as I can tell) at Lockheed Corporation (later Lockheed Martin) in the year 1973. How do I know this? The Institute for Venture Science gave his years of employment at Lockheed Martin and date of retirement, respectively: 38 years & February 2011. Subtract 38 years from 2011 and you get 1973. Almost a 40 year career at Lockheed! No doubt he worked on cool stuff. Perhaps, other worldly stuff?
While at Lockheed he held numerous positions such as: Vice President, Director, Manager, Program Manager, Principal Investigator, and scientist/engineer.
I’ll let the Institute for Venture Science detail this next part which made me raise an eyebrow upon reading this:
“From May 2005 until his retirement in February 2011, Ryder served as Vice President of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Palo Alto, CA. As Vice President, he led the Advanced Technology Center for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company and the Lockheed Martin Corporation.
The ATC (now STAR) is the R&D organization of LMSSC devoted to providing technology discriminators to LMSSC and other LMC lines of business impacting the success of programs totaling more than $9B annually. His responsibilities encompassed representing LMSSC and LMC to a wide range of customers and overseeing research and development for the Space Systems Company, including remote sensing and space science, telecommunications and space based navigation, defensive systems and strategic-systems. The ATC research and development portfolio covers a diverse set of technologies including phenomenology and sensors, optics and electro-optics, telecommunications and photonics, guidance and navigation, modeling and simulation, materials and structures, thermal sciences, nanotechnology and space sciences.”
Quite a set of responsibilities, isn’t it? No doubt one can be privy to many details in a position such as this. Now, let’s go to Dr. Ryder’s early career and explore what he was up to, shall we?
The Early Years
While researching Ryder I came across two publicly available unclassified files each titled:
Proceedings Of The Sixth Annual Mechanics Of Composites Review
&
Proceedings Of The Seventh Annual Mechanics Of Composites Review
Both are dated February 1981 [4] & April 1982 [5], respectively (I will be referring to these two documents in this manner from here on in). But what’s the context? The documents deal with summaries of presentations given at a conference dealing with the ‘Mechanics Of Composites’ which was sponsored by the Air Force Material Laboratory, a part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB). Here is the proof:
The interesting part is that searching for Ryder’s name in both documents yielded results! In the February 1981 document, specifically on Wednesday, October 29th, 1980 (the actual presentations occurred before the documents were written hence the time discrepancy) Ryder, then 35 years old, gave a presentation on ‘The Effect Of Load History On Fatigue Life.’ We can see this in the document’s agenda section here:
And the summary here:
I will not comment on the technicalities of the presentation as I know nothing of material engineering but it nonetheless confirms Ryder’s involvement in the conference as a presenter.
Further proof of his involvement, in the same February 1981 document, can be found in a referenced unpresented presentation by Ryder and colleagues here:
And an attendance list is also found here:
The unpresented presentation by Ryder and colleagues was eventually presented on Wednesday, October 28th, 1981. Here are the screenshots from the April 1982 document (remember, the actual presentations were given before the review document was written up):
Also:
And lastly:
Now, does all this mean that Ryder was specifically under contract to perform and present work for the Air Force Material Laboratory and NASA? If we argue no, we’d have to look at either document’s ‘Report Documentation Page’ (the first screenshots I posted) which state: “This report contains summaries of the presentations at the Sixth Annual Mechanics of Composites Review sponsored by the Air Force Materials Laboratory.” This sounds like the Air Force was specifically sponsoring the conference itself and not the work being presented. In other words, it’s like the government sponsoring a meeting regarding any subject but saying the meeting is “not a representation of the governments views” or “we’ll pay for the meeting space and other costs but the work itself doesn’t reflect our views.”
If we argue yes, then all we have to do is look at the foreward for any of the two documents and find the following:
Interesting isn’t? This sure sounds like the government is saying: “Besides the summaries, any government worker or outside contractor that contributed/worked for us and presented will be listed in this review.” The foreward proves that Ryder was contracted by the Air Force Material Laboratory during his first presentation in 1980, and by NASA during his second presentation in 1981.
So what can we take away for a fact?
Dr. Ryder, in 1980 and 1981, was working at Lockheed Corporation - for 9 years then - under contract by the Air Force Material Laboratory and NASA all while presenting this work at a conference sponsored by the Air Force Material Laboratory, part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB).
What’s my interpretation?
Dr. Ryder’s job at Lockheed, a company with a purported involvement in ‘The Legacy Program,’ and his work as a contractor with the Air Force Material Laboratory and NASA during the early 1980’s, placed him in a potentially advantageous position to be recruited into ‘The Legacy Program’ or to at least learn tidbits about the secret ongoings at WPAFB. The fact that he presented his work at a conference sponsored by the Air Force Material Laboratory, part of WPAFB, a site historically linked to UFO research, suggests to me that Dr. Ryder may have possibly had some connections to high-level, classified aerospace work/projects other than what is publicly known.
It’s a bit of a stretch, I know, and that much can’t be deduced or extrapolated from, but further along the article you’ll see more information which may give my interpretation some validity.
The last thing I will say with respect to this section is that within ufology there’s a saying (I don’t know who coined it) that goes like this: “All roads lead right back to Wright-Patterson.” The infamous Air Force base has been subjected to much speculation such as:
Did Wright-Patterson house UFO’s?
Did they house NHI bodies?
Did they house crash material?
Do they still house any of these or investigate UFO’s?
This article isn’t meant to delve into WPAFB and its history in UFO literature but it does make you wonder: Did Ryder gain or have connections and/or experiences at WPAFB that went beyond contractual work and academic conference presentations? Someone with expertise in material engineering, like Ryder, is the kind of person you would want if you were running ‘The Legacy Program.’ Who else would be better suited to figure out what the UFO material or craft is made out of and how?
Side Note: A quick Google search on composite mechanics and materials led to this quote from TWI-Global [6]:
“A composite material is a combination of two materials with different physical and chemical properties. When they are combined they create a material which is specialised to do a certain job, for instance to become stronger, lighter or resistant to electricity. They can also improve strength and stiffness. The reason for their use over traditional materials is because they improve the properties of their base materials and are applicable in many situations.”
The Smoking Gun?
This investigation began when Lue Elizondo on Coast to Coast with George Knapp on August 25th, 2024 [7] gave an interview and stated this (roughly the minutes 21:59 - 22:53) following Knapp’s question as to where the bodies and saucers were:
“But let me emphasize a point here. So one of my former colleagues, former scientist Jim Lacatski, in his book, he had a DOPSR release, and I'm gonna paraphrase here, but basically the money that was allocated for DIA, by the way, this statement went through the Pentagon for release. The money that was allocated for DIA, AAWSAP after speaking to multiple individuals on the program was originally intended to skip out Bigelow Aerospace facilities in Las Vegas due to a UAP material divestment plan proposal to AAWSAP leadership by Lockheed Martin Space Systems Vice President, Dr. James Ryder. Now deceased, a specific facility known to me was described as having crash retrieval material from the 1950s and other historical operations.”
If you’ve been observant throughout the last couple of years I’m sure you’ve noticed that newer bits of information have been revealed that add more to the story of AAWSAP. This is how I’ve come to make sense of the reported events which range from vague info to specific names:
AAWSAP receives $22 million in funding
AAWSAP’s $22 million was originally intended for Bigelow Aerospace to retro fit facilities for investigative work.
The retro fitting of Bigelow’s Aerospace facilites was actually intended to house UFO crash retrieval material for study and analysis.
A Lockheed VP offered to give said material to AAWSAP but a government three-letter agency came in and blocked the deal.
Lockheed’s proposal was blocked by the government customer and three-letter agency, the CIA.
Dr. James T. Ryder, the Lockheed VP, offered the material to AAWSAP but was blocked by the CIA.
You see how it gets more specific? Up until recently, we were still under the impression that AAWSAP’s only goal was to investigate UFO’s and the paranormal. Unless there is more to this story, which I’m sure there is, this is the best picture of what was originally intended for AAWSAP, at least according to my interpretation.
If that’s not enough, let’s read what UFO whistleblower David Grusch, on Joe Rogan, said in his own words [8]:
“I submitted this shit to DOPSR, got this cleared, So don't freak out, but I'm telling the truth here. So Lockheed Martin wanted to divest itself from this material at a specific facility that's known to me that I provided to the Inspector General, like street address, all that shit. And the idea was if they made a catcher’s mitt, a security catcher's mitt for this shit most serious SAP possible, the contractor and the other government customer, which was the central intelligence agency for that specific Lockheed material, and it was shit that they recovered from the fifties and stuff and it was like bits and pieces of hall structure, shit like that.
And so they were going to tech transfer it, and the 21 or 22 million was actually for Bigelow Aerospace to build out facilities in Las Vegas and material analysis equipment. And I saw the staff meeting slides, I saw the paperwork, there's a paperwork trail I've seen on this shit. And I talked to the people involved in this program and even Jim Lacatski who ran the program who's retired, DIA officer PhD in engineering even made this disclosure in his book Skin Walkers at the Pentagon, page 152 to 153.”
I went through both pdf files of Dr. Lacatski’s two books ‘Skinwalkers at the Pentagon’ and ‘Initial Revelations’ and could not find a mention of Ryder in either one. The online pdf files could’ve excluded this or this is for a new book Lacatski is writing. Maybe Grusch was referencing something else?
While many might argue about this being a “smoking gun,” it’s worth pointing out that this was approved by DOPSR, as Elizondo and Grusch say, though DOPSR approval doesn’t necessarily mean the government agrees with the statements, and Ryder is now gone, meaning he can’t be punished or stay in the dark, though he can’t say anything either.
While Elizondo’s statement alone might not be enough to prove my thesis, in fact it’s quite dependent on it, the mention of paperwork by Grusch with respect to this specific initiative by members of AAWSAP would be useful, were it to be released, but for now, this is the best we’ve got. Or is it?
Why Would Dr. Ryder Offer Material to AAWSAP In The First Place?
It’s a good question but let’s start off with some info Dr. Eric Davis gave during his 2019 interview with journalist Alejandro Rojas (which I highly encourage you listen to if you haven’t) regarding ‘The Legacy Program’ to give us some background [9]:
“The other unofficial way is, again, you build a level of trust among certain individuals and people within the network who after a few years of knowing them, you work with them. They know who you are, they know what you're capable of, they know your competencies and they want to bring the topic up on an informal basis with you….
But before we get to that point, here's what we can tell you without having to cross that red line of the need to know and the proper clearances. So you work this stuff out over a number of years, you build networks and you find the right people, and then you don't do it by knocking on doors. You do it just through the happenstance of having a contract with somebody or a subcontract and you're interfacing with them. And then lo and behold, you find out they're the vice president or the president of one of the legacy aerospace corporations, and they happened to be a PhD of sort, of some discipline, a STEM discipline, all in their own court.
And it just so happens that they were a guy that worked on the crash retrieval program. Oh, lo and behold, and then they find out that you're working in UFOs on the UFO subject for a DOD program. And they say, well, that's wonderful. You're officially a government contractor or subcontractor, and you're working with another aerospace company and you're working on UFOs. Well, guess what? We did it too. And we don't do it now, but we did it in the past and here's what we can tell you off the record, and here's what we can’t, and you'll have to go another step before we can tell you what it is on the record.”
Very interesting don’t you think? You build a network of colleagues, you start working on UFO research via AAWSAP (with proper clearances and a need-to-know), your colleagues find out and voila, it turns out these same colleagues of yours worked in the ‘The Legacy Program.’ Better yet, as Davis said: “you find out they're the vice president or the president of one of the legacy aerospace corporations, and they happened to be a PhD of sort, of some discipline, a STEM discipline, all in their own court.” Hmm…I wonder who fits that bill perfectly? Well Ryder of course! The Ph.D in Engineering who happened to be a VP at Lockheed Martin, a legacy aerospace company.
But wait! Are you sure this is who Davis is referring to? It’s not like Davis and Ryder knew each other right? As to the first question, I’m sure Ryder wasn’t who Davis was referring to, in fact I don’t think he was referring to anyone in particular (why would he? That would be a breach of confidentiality and classified info), but rather, he shared his experience as to how he came to know multiple (I assume) people in the same way who were part of ‘The Legacy Program.’ Ryder surely wasn’t the only person Davis came in contact with who was part of the program. Just wanted to make this clear.
As to the second question: Enter Dr. Hal Puthoff and the SAFIRE project [10].
The SAFIRE project (I am aware of the controversy surrounding SAFIRE but this article isn’t about that either) is a project with the goal of proving the electric sun & universe hypothesis. Say what you will about that but the important information I mean to share is it’s members who just so happened to be:
More here:
Here:
And lastly:
Now we know for a fact that Ryder, a member of the SAFIRE project knew Puthoff and Davis!
Ryder also (section 7.6) [11]:
“founded the International Science Foundation specifically to fund 1) an experimental plasma research project—the first of its kind—which initially aimed at testing the hypothesis that the Sun is an electrical phenomenon that can possibly be replicated in a laboratory vacuum chamber and ultimately evolved into a project on energy production technology, and 2) other potentially-breakthrough science projects. This project produced astounding results that hold promise for changing the course of science and technology in the fields affected, including clean production of energy, clean heating, production of rare earth elements by transmutation, and remediation of nuclear waste (see www.safireproject.com).”
Furthermore Ryder actually thanked Puthoff during one of his presentations called ‘The Soul Is Light. What Then Is Light’ during the minutes 59:05 - 59:10:
If we take a look at the channel that posted the video their about page states [12]:
“The activities of the Lucis Trust promote the education of the human mind towards recognition and practice of the spiritual principles and values upon which a stable and interdependent world society may be based.”
And further down the page:
“The world activities of the Lucis Trust are dedicated to the establishment of right human relations. They promote the education of the human mind towards recognition and practice of the spiritual principles and values upon which a stable and interdependent world society may be based. The Lucis Trust is nonpolitical and nonsectarian. It sponsors no special creed or dogma. The motivating impulse is Love of God, expressed through love of humanity and service of the human race.”
Spirituality. Ever heard of that before in UFO literature? Ever heard of consciousness? I have. They seem to be connected somehow so it doesn’t surprise me that Ryder would give a presentation for an organization such as this one. In fact, he gave more than one presentation (I count 4 so far) and one of them, titled ‘The Rending of the Veils, Part 1,’ [13] centered around UFO’s and how different cultures throughout history interpret and record UFO’s in their own manner as well as the different ways the phenomena presents itself. It reminded me of Jacques Vallee’s work and to my surprise, Ryder actually mentions him at around the 50:50 minute mark. If he knew Davis and Puthoff, he most likely knew Vallee as well!
In another presentation titled ‘The Garment of God,’ [14] Ryder makes some interesting comments (minutes 21:05 - 21:40) regarding a familiar topic:
“If you wanted to study, certain kinds of things related to what's called ESP in the United States. Until very recently you had to hide it very carefully because you were crazy. And then the government didn't want people to think their supporting crazy stuff.
But if you wanted to do the work in Russia, go right ahead. Fine. Here's your money because they're not caught in the religion that says it's not possible. It's a very interesting way to think of these two countries.”
ESP = Remote Viewing and Russia not being “caught in the religion that says it's not possible” sure sounds like he’s saying Russia has no Collins Elite, unlike the U.S. We know Hal Puthoff researched remote viewing in the 1970’s so is it possible Ryder and Puthoff met then? It’s not something I can prove but it wouldn’t surprise me. Did he also know about the so called Collins Elite, who view UFO’s and NHI’s as demons? It sure sounds like he’s making a subtle reference to them. In any case, both of these topics are closely related to the UFO phenomena and if a member of ‘The Legacy Program’ knew about this stuff, it really shouldn’t surprise.
What can we conclude from this section for a fact?
Dr. Ryder knew Dr. Davis and Dr. Puthoff through their work on the SAFIRE project. He also knew about ESP/Remote Viewing and the Collins Elite.
What’s my interpretation? Let’s just go to the conclusion.
Conclusion
I’ll try and keep this section short so let’s start off with the facts.
Dr. James T. Ryder:
was an expert in materials engineering.
worked at Lockheed from 1973 to 2011 with a final title of VP of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company managing more than $9 billion annually for R&D purposes.
worked as a contractor for NASA and the Air Force Material Laboratory at WPAFB and gave presentations of this work at a conference sponsored by the latter.
personally knew Dr. Eric Davis and Dr. Hal Puthoff through the SAFIRE project.
gave presentations at a Lucis Trust conference relating to UFO’s, new theories of light and gravity, and the role of science [15].
knew about ESP/Remote viewing research and the Collin’s Elite.
My final argument:
Dr. James T. Ryder with his expertise in materials engineering was at some point, given his tenure at Lockheed and contractual work with WPAFB, a part of ‘The Legacy Program’ in order to reverse-engineer UFO material. Later on in his career, and already knowing Eric Davis, Hal Puthoff, and Jim Lacatski, he realized that the program they were a part of/running, AAWSAP, was a serious investigatory venture into UFO analysis, and with the proper clearances and need-to-know that came with AAWSAP, Dr. Ryder was willing to hand over UFO material, that he had control over due to his position at Lockheed, to AAWSAP for the purposes of analysis. Lacatski and company decided to try and negotiate a deal for this involving the retro fitting of Bigelow Aerospace facilities for the material divestment. Ultimately, because the CIA, the government customer, became aware of this, they decided to come in and shutdown the deal for good.
And even if Ryder wasn’t a part of ‘The Legacy Program,’ wouldn’t you want someone like him to be working on UFO material? Wouldn’t he be the ideal candidate? Wouldn’t his engineering expertise and history of work with aerospace and government make him even more compelling? If not for you, then certainly for our adversaries.
Thank you for reading all this and feel free to comment!
An Interesting Tidbit
When searching Ryder’s name on Google I came across three academic textbooks which cited Ryder. The first textbook, published in 1976, cites Ryder as working for Lockheed (more proof he started working there in the 1970’s).
The first textbook’s screenshot [16]:
The second textbook’s screenshot [17]:
And finally, the third textbook’s screenshots [18]:
Sources
[1] https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/james-thomas-ryder-24-vqygbm - (Backed up)
[2] https://venturescience.wixsite.com/ivsci/leadership - (Backed up)
[4] https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA098295.pdf - (Backed up)
[5] https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA115795.pdf - (Backed up)
[6] https://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/faqs/what-is-a-composite-material - (Backed up)
[7] https://zfirelight.blogspot.com/2024/08/08-25-24-uap-secrets-scientists.html?m=1 -( Backed up, can also watch the episode on Coast to Coast’s YouTube)
[8] https://www.uaprw.com/books/grusch-david/page/2023-11-21-joe-rogan-experience-ft-david-grusch - (Backed up)
[9] https://www.uaprw.com/books/davis-eric/page/2019-04-30-open-minds-ufo-radio-dr-eric-davis-investigating-and-experiencing-the-paranormal - (Backed up)
[10] https://www.safireproject.com/about-us/team.html - (Backed up)
[11] https://cyclostationarity.com/notes-on-the-detrimental-influence-of-human-nature-on-scientific-progress/ - (Backed up)
[12] https://www.lucistrust.org/about_us/lucis_trust - (Backed up)
[13] https://www.lucistrust.org/conferences/show/conference_london_2017 - (Backed up, but not sure about the videos within the back up)
[14] https://www.lucistrust.org/it/arcane_school/conference/2018_conference_newyork - (Backed up, but not sure about the videos within the back up)
[15] https://www.lucistrust.org/world_goodwill/seminar/2017_world_goodwill_seminar_uno_geneva - (Backed up, but not sure about the videos within the back up)
[16] https://www.google.com/books/edition/ASTM_Standardization_News/fEBIAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=ryder - (Backed up, though you may not be able to search within the back up)
[17] https://www.google.com/books/edition/Nondestructive_Evaluation_of_Aging_Aircr/h7tRAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=dr+james+t+ryder&dq=dr+james+t+ryder&printsec=frontcover - (Backed up, though you may not be able to search within the back up)
[18] https://www.google.com/books/edition/Fatigue_at_Low_Temperatures/DqYOqjuRHywC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=dr+james+t+ryder&pg=PA210&printsec=frontcover - (Backed up, though you may not be able to search within the back up)
Great research and write up! Some serious effort went into this, well done. I'm listening to this guy's lecturers now, pretty fascinating and revealing perhaps coming from a Lockheed VP.
The cut-out program to divest from Lockheed into Bigelow via AAWSAP, was that the recently revealed "Kona Blue" sponsored by Dept Homeland Security?
https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/dod-releases-kona-blue-documents/