The unexplained disappearance of a retired Air Force general has resurfaced in the spotlight after a prominent UFO whistleblower offered new details about the former officer’s alleged connections.
William Neil McCasland, 68, disappeared from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on February 27.
His cellphone, wearable devices and prescription glasses were reportedly left behind.
More than seven months later, there has been no sign of him.
McCasland previously led the Air Force Research Laboratory, overseeing billions of dollars in military science and technology programs. The laboratory has long featured in conspiracy theories alleging that the US government stored recovered UFO wreckage and alien bodies there following the Roswell incident.
David Grusch, the UFO whistleblower who testified under oath in 2023 that the US government had operated secret programs to recover and reverse-engineer non-human craft for decades, now says McCasland played a role in an initiative intended to prepare the public for possible UFO disclosure.
During an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, the former intelligence officer connected the alleged initiative to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign promise to release UFO-related records if she became president.
“It’s very bizarre. And it’s within a week of Trump coming out,” Grusch said, referring to McCasland’s disappearance shortly after the president announced on February 19 that files concerning UFOs and extraterrestrials would be released.
William Neil McCasland, 68, disappeared from his Albuquerque, New Mexico, home on February 27. His phone, wearable devices and prescription glasses were reportedly left behind
McCasland held senior research roles at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.
He went on to command the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson after previously heading its Phillips Research Site at Kirtland.
His name became linked to public UFO discussions in 2016, when WikiLeaks released hacked emails from the account of former Clinton adviser John Podesta.
One email, dated January 25, 2016, and titled “General McCasland,” described former Blink-182 singer Tom DeLonge’s contact with the retired officer.
DeLonge had redirected his career toward government transparency on unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, and co-founded To The Stars Academy, an organization focused on UFOs and related subjects.
“I’ve been working with him for four months. I just got done giving him a four-hour presentation on the entire project a few weeks ago,” DeLonge wrote.
“He not only knows what I’m trying to achieve, he helped assemble my advisory team.”
In the same message, DeLonge repeated the long-standing claim that material recovered from the Roswell incident had been transported to Wright-Patterson. That allegation was tied to the laboratory once led by McCasland, although the email offered no evidence to support it.
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UFO whistleblower David Grusch, who testified under oath in 2023 that the US government had secretly operated programs to recover and reverse-engineer non-human spacecraft for decades, says the general was involved in an effort to prepare Americans for UFO disclosure
Speaking to Rogan, Grusch said: “John Podesta greenlit a… I’ll call it acclimatization activity, a popularization activity. And, you know, that’s why Tom DeLonge got his advisors.”
“That’s why General McCasland talked to him.”
Podesta recently publicly acknowledged UFO discussions involving DeLonge and McCasland.
In an emailed response to PARADIGM, Podesta challenged Grusch’s explanation of their purpose.
‘That is probably not how I would characterize our interaction,’ Podesta wrote.
He recalled a conference call arranged by DeLonge that covered declassifying Defense Department files and reducing the stigma surrounding professionals taking UFOs seriously.
‘I have always maintained that the American people could handle the truth about UAPs and didn’t really need to be “acclimated,”‘ Podesta wrote.
Grusch claimed McCasland spoke with DeLonge because the former Blink-182 star could be of use.
A surveillance image shows retired Air Force general William Neil McCasland the day before he vanished without a trace on February 27
‘It was because they were given top cover to see Tom as a public figure who had the touch of the youth, rightly or wrongly,’ he told Rogan.
‘I mean, once again, there was an attempt, and I’m not going to judge them bad or good, but they were trying to prep the battlespace prior to 2016.’
McCasland’s wife, Susan Wilkerson, told local police in February that she does not believe there was any foul play involved in her husband’s disappearance, but also told 911 dispatchers it appeared the general ‘had planned not to be found.’
Local police have not had any updates in the case.
Grusch had previously claimed that McCasland was one of the officers who had been in charge of classified programs related to non-human craft recovery and reverse-engineering.
The whistleblower also alleged that McCasland had not been cooperative with lawmakers seeking to interview individuals with knowledge of America’s alleged contact with extraterrestrials.
