The Red Thread Files
UFO / UAP · Consciousness
1945–2026621 entities437 of 1390 connections sourced138 documents held
The Red Thread Files
Contractor or company

James T. Ryder

2005-05-01what this date marks is not recorded
ends 2018-05-28died, reportedly

A documented Lockheed Martin executive: Vice President of the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto (role confirmed by Lockheed's own 2009 press release; tenure reported ~2005-2011). In UAP lore he is the unnamed 'Lockheed vice president' in James Lacatski's book Skinwalkers at the Pentagon who allegedly proposed transferring purported crash-retrieval material from a Lockheed facility to Robert Bigelow's team under the DIA AAWSAP effort (~2009) - a transfer CIA science chief Glenn Gaffney reportedly blocked. The account is anonymous and secondhand, not Ryder's own testimony, and is unverified and disputed. Researcher George Knapp attached his name publicly around the Sept 2025 House UAP hearing (via written testimony; the oral transcript does not name him). Reportedly died May 28, 2018. In retirement he reportedly gave talks on consciousness ('The Soul is Light').

In the UAP recordRuled into the unidentified-phenomena thread on 2 September 2026 from this entity's own name and role text, which contain: "uap", "crash-retriev". An editorial classification of what thread this entity belongs to; it rests on no page and does not claim to. Neighbours were not used - see apply-subjects-2026-09-02.mjs for why.

2 of 7 connections resolve to a document you can open.

1 note on how this record was made

Documents1 behind a connection

7 connections

ColourJournalistsContractorsGovernmentHearings & panelsOrganizations
  • named him in oral testimony at the Sept 2025 House UAP hearing, in answer to a question asking for specific individuals
  • named in oral testimony at this hearing by George Knapp, in answer to a question asking for specific individuals
    same document as the row above
    printed p. 40 checked against the page
  • Glenn Gaffney names a source we do not hold
    as CIA S&T director, is said in an anonymous secondhand account to have disapproved a proposed Lockheed-to-Bigelow transfer of claimed crash material; NO NAMED SOURCE, and this project holds nothing supporting it
    Lacatski/Kelleher/Knapp, Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (2021); Liberation Times; Metabunk skeptical thread
    Caveat STRENGTHENED 30 August 2026, not removed. The link already disclosed that the claim is anonymous and unverified, which is the honest form and the form this project exists to publish. The wording now puts that disclosure at the front rather than in a trailing clause, so a reader meets the caveat before the accusation instead of after it.
  • Lockheed Martin names a source we do not hold
    Vice President of the Space Systems Advanced Technology Center (ATC), Palo Alto
    Lockheed Martin press release, Jul 23 2009 (news.lockheedmartin.com)
  • Robert Bigelow names a source we do not hold
    is said in an anonymous secondhand account to have proposed transferring claimed UAP crash-retrieval material to his team (AAWSAP era, circa 2009); NO NAMED SOURCE, and this project holds nothing supporting it
    Lacatski et al., Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (2021); Liberation Times
    Caveat STRENGTHENED 30 August 2026, on the same reasoning as link 1216. "Allegedly" names no allegator; "is said in an anonymous secondhand account" says exactly what stands behind it, which is nothing a reader can check. The claim is kept because a labelled anonymous allegation about public figures in a matter of public concern is publishable and useful; an unlabelled one is not.
  • James Lacatski names a source we do not hold
    his book Skinwalkers at the Pentagon is the origin of the anonymous 'Lockheed vice president' account later claimed to be Ryder
    Lacatski, Kelleher & Knapp, Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (2021)
  • Defense Intelligence Agency names a source we do not hold
    the purported material was allegedly offered into the DIA AAWSAP program via Bigelow
    Lacatski et al., Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (2021); Liberation Times

2 corrections to this record

Generated from the record, not written by hand. Every change keeps what the map used to say, because a correction nobody can see is indistinguishable from never having been wrong.

James T. Ryder → Glenn Gaffney
as CIA S&T director, reportedly disapproved his alleged Lockheed-to-Bigelow crash-material transfer; claim is anonymous and unverified
as CIA S&T director, is said in an anonymous secondhand account to have disapproved a proposed Lockheed-to-Bigelow transfer of claimed crash material; NO NAMED SOURCE, and this project holds nothing supporting it
James T. Ryder → Robert Bigelow
allegedly proposed transferring purported UAP crash-retrieval material to his team (AAWSAP era, ~2009); anonymous/secondhand
is said in an anonymous secondhand account to have proposed transferring claimed UAP crash-retrieval material to his team (AAWSAP era, circa 2009); NO NAMED SOURCE, and this project holds nothing supporting it

Notes on this record

The end date, and how it was established

Established 26 August 2026 from this node's own role text, which states: "Reportedly died May 28, 2018." The role text hedges it and so does this field: end_kind is "death-reported", not "death". No document in this corpus records the death and none was sought for it. It is recorded so that structured checks stop treating him as a person who may be living, which is what report-living.mjs did on 26 August 2026 while this sentence sat in his role.