Nathan F. Twining

Nathan Farragut Twining (October 11, 1897 – March 29, 1982) was a U.S. Air Force General who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1957 to 1960 and Chief of Staff of the Air Force from 1953 to 1957. He held senior military leadership positions during and after World War II, and in 1947 he served as commanding general of the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB. He is recognized as a pivotal figure in early UFO history.

Twining is noted for his September 23, 1947 classified memorandum to Brigadier General George Schulgen, written while he was commanding the Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB. In this memo, Twining stated that "the phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious" and recommended establishing a formal investigation program. This assessment from one of the most senior military leaders directly led to the creation of Project Sign in January 1948, the first official U.S. military UFO investigation, and remains one of the most significant official acknowledgments of the reality of unidentified aerial phenomena.

Twining's memo and endorsement marked a turning point in official U.S. military engagement with UAP/UFO reports, emphasizing the reality of reported phenomena and prompting structured governmental investigation.