...a naval four-star by the name of Mildred Parker flipped off the lights and pressed <PLAY> on a "newsreel" of surprisingly crystal clear footage of UFOs collected over the years by tailhook pilots.

The footage which sparked their project in the first place.

Video images of flying saucers over the Pacific Ocean, seemingly defying all the "laws of physics" by darting about, levitating, and even "flying" directly into the ocean, seeming to "disappear" underwater. 

Their breakthrough, she tells me, came in 1987, when dual satellites captured the simultaneous image of one of these UFOs disappearing into the ocean, before reemerging, a second later, from the mouth of an active volcano on the opposite side of the planet.

"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked, scratching my head.

"Because all of this information should prove useful to you in the future. A future which would make no sense to you now. That's why."

For the next hour (at least) first Joe –– then a roomful of other men and women I had never met before –– tried their best to describe, to explain the toppest-secretest project in all of government: "KEYHOLE."

Every time I cited a project with which I was vaguely familiar ("Stargate," "Grill Flame," "Center Lane," etc.) they shot me down, implying that those were mere "child's play" compared to theirs.

Growing frustrated with my apparent inability to grasp what they were trying to communicate, a naval four-star by the name of Mildred Parker rose from her seat, flipped off the lights, and pressed <PLAY> on a "newsreel" of surprisingly crystal clear footage of unidentified flying objects collected over the years by tailhook pilots and their crews.

The same footage, she explained, that sparked their project in the first place. Images hundreds of times sharper than any she would ever share with the public, or even the White House. Including videos of UFOs accelerating to super hypersonic speeds without ever once producing a single sonic boom.

For the next twenty minutes I watched, transfixed, a "best of" reel culled from thousands of hours of footage of flying saucers over the Pacific Ocean, sometimes solitary, sometimes in groups, captured in startling detail. Spacecraft clearly beyond any grasp of the human imagination, seemingly defying the "laws of physics," as we understand them, by darting about, levitating, and even "flying" directly into the water, seeming to "disappear."

Their breakthrough, she told me, came in 1987, when dual satellites captured the simultaneous image of one of these UFOs disappearing into the ocean, before reemerging, a second later, from the mouth of an active volcano on the opposite side of the planet.

"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked, scratching my head.