Leonard H. Stringfield

Leonard H. Stringfield (1920–1994) was a pioneering American ufologist renowned for his focus on UFO crash/retrieval cases involving alleged alien bodies. His interest ignited in 1945 with a World War II sighting, leading him to found CRIFO in the 1950s, publish the ORBIT newsletter, and collaborate with the U.S. Air Force's Air Defense Command, earning a special reporting code. He served as public relations adviser for NICAP under Donald Keyhoe, regional investigator for J. Allen Hynek's Center for UFO Studies, and "Early Warning Coordinator" for the 1967–1969 Condon Committee, screening sightings in Ohio.

In the 1970s, Stringfield shifted to gathering military witness accounts of crashes near Wright-Patterson AFB, including Roswell-like recoveries, sourced partly from medical contacts. He publicly unveiled these at the 1978 MUFON Symposium despite death threats, advised Grenada's Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy on UFOs, and self-published seven "Status Reports" on crash/retrievals until his death from lung cancer. Stringfield's work advanced disclosure efforts, amassing evidence of covert government handling of non-human craft and occupants.