WASHINGTON – Newly declassified military records have shed light on the operations of the long-rumored Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit (IPU), a Cold War–era task force dedicated to investigating UFOs and potential extraterrestrial threats. Among the most bizarre revelations: field agents were once required to conduct “preemptive interviews” with unusually shaped rocks.
According to the documents, the protocol began in 1957 after an Air Force geologist reported that a sandstone formation outside Tonopah, Nevada “winked” at him during a survey. The IPU responded by deploying a mobile interrogation tent equipped with floodlights, reel-to-reel tape decks, and a “stone-to-English” translation apparatus — later revealed to be a staff sergeant with a geology degree and a megaphone.
Case files describe a “non-cooperative” meteorite in Kansas that allegedly hummed the first eight bars of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before going silent. Expense reports from the era include line items for “rock travel per diem” and “mineral polygraph upkeep,” though the records note that no polygraph test ever produced actionable intelligence. One particularly infamous entry documents a $2,400 charge for “cobblestone witness protection relocation.”
Ancient Astronaut Theorist Giorgio A. Tsoukalos told Data Underground the revelations were “consistent with what we’ve always suspected: some rocks are not from here, and they know things.” Seated beside him, fellow theorist David Hatcher Childress added, “When you look at the so-called ‘inert’ geological record, patterns emerge. We’re talking about a slow-moving surveillance network, possibly billions of years old. The winking? That’s communication.” Both men agreed the Kansas meteorite’s choice of music was “a probable signal to other cosmic observers” and “a patriotic cover story.”
Historians note the rock interviews were quietly discontinued in 1974 after a boulder in Arizona delivered a 14-hour monologue on erosion patterns, much of which was deemed “irrelevant to national security” and “unbearable even at 4x playback speed.” The report concludes with an internal memo advising that “sedimentary witnesses tend to ramble.”
The Pentagon declined to comment on whether any modern equivalent exists, but a defense source hinted the U.S. Space Force already has a contingency folder labeled simply: “Pebbles, 2025.” Whether that folder contains maps, interrogation scripts, or karaoke equipment remains classified.