USAF
William Neil McCasland
Authorities in the US state of New Mexico continue to search for clues in the disappearance of William Neil McCasland, a former United States Air Force officer who disappeared without a trace in late February.
The recent disappearance of the major general Neil McCaslanda former US Air Force officer linked to UFO speculation, continues to intrigue US authorities.
According to , McCasland, 68, was initially reported missing by officials from the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, in the state of New Mexico, on Friday, February 27, 2026.
“Description of unknown clothing and unknown direction of travel”, said the warning issued by the authorities, which added that, “due to their health problemsthe authorities fear for their safety.”
Since her disappearance, and as the search continues for any clue that might help them understand where McCasland is, they have become speculation multiplied about the state he was in when he disappeared, about the nature of his work with the United States Government and even about his past links to the always controversial topic of UFOs.
But What is the real story after all? of Major General William Neil McCasland, and what have authorities, family and those close to him said since he mysteriously disappeared?
According to biographical information available online about McCasland, the retired USAF major general is primarily known for his time commanding the Air Force Research Laboratorya role that placed him at the center of some of the most sensitive scientific and technological programs in the US Armed Forces.
After graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he served in the Secretary of the Air Force’s Office of Special Projects at Los Angeles Air Force Base, where he worked on highly rated programs related to payloads and satellites, later returning to MIT to pursue a PhD before continuing his work in advanced space programs.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, McCasland’s work led him to Buckley Air Force Basewhere he directed mission planning for the Aerospace Data Facility and later commanded its operations squadron.
After that, he went andchief engineer of the Navstar GPS Joint Program Officeat Los Angeles Air Force Base, a position that was followed by leadership of the program office Space Based Laser and direction of the Space Vehicles Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory, at Kirtland Air Force Base, in collaboration with organizations such as the National Reconnaissance Office.
Later in his career, he played high-level supervisory functions at the Pentagon, including executive secretary of the Special Access Program Oversight Committee, which oversees the most highly rated programs of the country.
In his last posting in 2011, McCasland assumed leadership of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where he oversaw billions of dollars in advanced scientific research carried out by the USAF until it retired in 2013.
UFO speculation
While the highlights of McCasland’s career make him a fascinating figure in themselves for the role he played in the contemporary history of military, scientific, and technological progress, it was his brief association with people involved in efforts to press for the declassification of alleged secrets about UFOs that gave him great public visibility.
After the disclosure by Wikileaks, in 2016, of John Podestathen chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, after a data breach attributed to a group of hackers linked to Russia, it was learned that the musician Tom DeLonge had spoken with Podesta about the possibility of McCasland accompanying him on a visit to his office to discuss the topic “UFO”.
“I’ve been working with him for four months,” DeLonge wrote in the email sent to Podesta, in reference to a “four-hour presentation” he reportedly gave to McCasland at that time.
“Believe me, conversations are already happening about how to do all this,” DeLonge wrote at the time. “He only needs to say it out loud, but it’s a hell of a lot. well informed, because he was in charge of all this”.
DeLonge further told Podesta that “when Roswell fell, they sent that to the laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,” and noted that “General McCasland he was in charge of that same laboratory until a few years ago”.
“He knows what I’m trying to achieve, and he helped put together my team of advisors,” DeLonge told Podesta. “He is a very important man”.
The release of the emails between Podesta and DeLonge fueled speculation among observers that McCasland, and possibly other senior officials on DeLonge’s “team of advisors,” had overseen programs highly classified of the Government and could be guiding or advising DeLonge’s activities.
At the time, while some saw this as an attempt to promote so-called “UFO disclosure,” others speculated at the time that McCasland’s involvement with DeLonge could represent an attempt to fit advanced U.S. defense technologies into a UFO narrative. However, to date, no evidence has ever emerged to support this hypothesis.
McCasland’s wife speaks out
As expected, given the news that McCasland was missing, a new wave of speculation on the internetwith many trying to link the strange disappearance of the former responsible with his previous defense of greater transparency around UFOs.
Responding to some of the recent allegations in a social media post that emerged last week, Susan McCasland Wilkersonwife of Neil McCasland, wrote that after a week, there was still “absolutely no any indication of where he might be”.
In addition to a brief update on the status of the search for her missing husband, thanking everyone for “the tireless dedicated efforts and support,” Wilkerson also addressed several of the speculations about her husband’s disappearance that were circulating online.
“I would like to take advantage of debunk some of the misinformation circulating about Neil and his disappearance, mostly from misinformed media sources,” Wilkerson wrote.
“Oh Neil does not have any special knowledge about ET bodies and Roswell wreckage stored at Wright-Patt,” Wilkerson wrote in his post, adding, somewhat cryptically, that “at this time, with absolutely no sign of him, maybe the best hypothesis be that the aliens teleported him to the mothership”.
“However, no reported sightings of a mothership hovering over the Sandia Mountains,” concluded Wilkerson.
As the search continues, Albuquerque authorities, in conjunction with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, say investigators have already contacted more than 600 home owners in the area, requesting video surveillance footage from Ring cameras and other home security systems in an attempt to reconstruct McCasland’s movements at the time of her disappearance.
For now, and despite dozens of tips and the collaboration of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, authorities say that the searches have not produced any confirmed sighting of the missing man.
Those responsible emphasize that McCasland will have left his cell phone behind and appears to have disappeared on footleaving investigators with few leads — at a time when the case is already in its second week.
