Christopher Mellon

Christopher Mellon is a former U.S. defense and intelligence official who served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush and as staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Since 2017 he has been the UAP issue's most credentialed establishment advocate, working the press, the Pentagon, and Congress with an insider's fluency.

Mellon is a member of the Pittsburgh Mellon family. His government career centered on intelligence oversight, special operations policy, and classified program review, experience he cites when arguing that UAP programs could evade congressional visibility.

Mellon joined To The Stars Academy as national security advisor in 2017. By his own account, he received the three Navy videos from official channels and passed them to The New York Times ahead of the December 2017 AATIP story. He wrote influential op-eds, including a 2018 Washington Post piece arguing the military was ignoring UAP incursions, briefed congressional staff extensively, and helped drive the language that created UAP reporting requirements in intelligence legislation. He appeared in the series Unidentified and has supported whistleblowers including David Grusch.

Mellon's core claim is procedural: that UAP represent a genuine national security intelligence failure, and that stigma, not evidence shortage, prevented investigation. He has said sources have informed him of recovered materials programs, while carefully attributing such claims. His documented contribution is legislative: the reporting requirements, task forces, and AARO's creation trace in part to his advocacy.

Mellon attributes his strongest claims to sources he does not name publicly, which he says protects them. His role in bringing the Navy videos to the press in 2017 is a matter of record.

Mellon remains active in the disclosure push of the PURSUE era, writing, briefing, and appearing regularly in coverage of the congressional UAP fight.