Overview
The release of Jay Stratton’s memoir, Out of the Shadows, on Oct. 13, 2026, has renewed discussion about the U.S. government’s alleged involvement with unidentified anomalous phenomena and recovered materials. A Substack article titled Into the Shadows focuses in part on James “Jim” Ryder, a former Lockheed Martin executive whose name has appeared in accounts of an alleged crash-retrieval and reverse-engineering effort.
The material describes differing accounts associated with Stratton and physicist Eric Davis, but the available excerpt does not provide enough information to establish the precise nature of their disagreement. It also does not include a direct quotation from Stratton about Ryder or documentary evidence resolving the competing narratives. As a result, the claims should be treated as reported allegations and personal recollections rather than verified findings.
Ryder’s Reported Role
Ryder was a longtime Lockheed Martin executive who served as vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and previously led the company’s Advanced Technology Center. According to the article, his name has repeatedly surfaced in discussions of an alleged U.S. government “legacy program,” particularly in connection with an unsuccessful attempt to transfer recovered materials from Lockheed Martin to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AAWSAP.
After retiring, Ryder reportedly delivered talks through Lucis Trust addressing esoteric subjects, UFOs and electric-universe theory. The article presents him as an important figure in the broader narrative because he was allegedly positioned within a major aerospace contractor that may have handled unusual materials. No independently verifiable evidence is provided in the excerpt confirming that Lockheed Martin possessed non-human technology or that Ryder personally examined such material.
Davis’s Account
Davis, a physicist who has discussed Ryder in several 2026 podcast interviews, said he first met the executive after collaborating with Hal Puthoff and V. Teofilo on a proposed DARPA project. In interviews cited by the article, Davis attributed Ryder’s involvement to the early 1970s, when he allegedly participated in analyzing materials recovered from deserts in the American Southwest.
Davis described Ryder as being involved in recovery operations and in efforts to distinguish genuinely anomalous material from conventional aerospace debris. He reportedly emphasized that Ryder’s connection to the alleged legacy program was through Lockheed Martin rather than as its overall director. Davis also said Ryder told him the CIA ended the effort in 1989 because it had not produced sufficient progress, while Lockheed retained approximately 20% of the materials in its possession.
The article further reports Davis’s claim that the government periodically issued new contracts—approximately once every decade—to revisit the materials as scientific methods improved. These assertions are presented as Davis’s recollections and have not, in the supplied material, been corroborated by released government records or independent physical evidence.
What Remains Unclear
Stratton’s memoir is notable because of his past roles with the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, the UAP Task Force and his public association with Skinwalkers at the Pentagon. The article says readers had expected the book to clarify Stratton’s statement that he had seen “non-human beings and non-human craft with my own eyes.” According to the excerpt, Stratton appears to connect that statement to experiences at Skinwalker Ranch and at his home, rather than to direct access to recovered technology or bodies.
Because the provided source ends midway through its discussion of the AAWSAP period, it does not explain how Stratton’s account differs from Davis’s, whether the two men directly contradict one another, or what evidence supports either version. Further reporting would require the complete article, the relevant passages from Out of the Shadows, and independent documentation concerning Ryder, Lockheed Martin and the alleged legacy program.
