Chase Brandon served 35 years with the CIA, including 25 years as an undercover operations officer in the Clandestine Service focused on counterinsurgency, terrorism, narcotics and weapons smuggling.
In 2012 interviews he described examining a box marked Roswell in the CIA Historical Intelligence Collection that contained written material and photographs confirming a non-human craft and cadavers crashed near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.
- Served 25 years in CIA Clandestine Service on foreign assignments involving international terrorism, counterinsurgency, narcotics trafficking and weapons smuggling.
- Final 10 years on the CIA Director’s staff as the agency’s first official liaison to the entertainment and publication industries.
- Stated on Coast to Coast AM in June 2012 and in multiple interviews that a Roswell-labeled box in the CIA Historical Intelligence Collection confirmed an extraterrestrial craft and cadavers.
- CIA Office of Public Affairs stated in 2012 that agency historians found nothing to corroborate the specific claims.
- Authored the 2012 novel The Cryptos Conundrum, a science-fiction thriller about a CIA cover-up of the Roswell incident.
- United States
- Central Intelligence Agency35-year veteran
- CIA Clandestine ServiceOperations Officer, 25 years
Background
Charles ‘Chase’ Brandon joined the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1970s. He spent the first 25 years of his career as an undercover operations officer in the Clandestine Service. His assignments included counterinsurgency operations, counterterrorism, global narcotics trafficking and weapons smuggling, often under alias names and in collaboration with foreign military and law enforcement units.
Brandon lived and worked abroad in more than 70 countries. He served multiple times as chief or deputy of CIA field installations. During headquarters assignments he worked as a foreign political affairs analyst and as an instructor in tactical paramilitary and espionage tradecraft at CIA training facilities.
In the mid-1990s Brandon returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Senior management assigned him to the Office of Public Affairs as the agency’s first official liaison to the entertainment and publication industries, a role he held until approximately 2007.
As entertainment liaison Brandon provided technical consultation on more than a dozen feature films including The Bourne Identity, Mission: Impossible III, The Sum of All Fears and The Recruit, and on television series such as Alias, 24 and The Agency. He also appeared in documentaries on the Discovery, Learning and Military channels.
While working in the Historical Intelligence Collection vault in the mid-1990s Brandon noticed a box labeled Roswell. He opened it and examined the contents, which included written material and photographs. He later stated that the materials convinced him an extraterrestrial craft and non-human cadavers had been recovered near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947.
On 23 June 2012 Brandon appeared on the Coast to Coast AM radio program and repeated the claim in subsequent interviews with HuffPost and other outlets. He said he was 100 percent certain Roswell involved a craft from beyond this world and cadavers, but declined to describe the specific items because of his secrecy agreement.
The CIA Office of Public Affairs responded to inquiries in July 2012 that official historians had checked agency holdings and found nothing to corroborate Brandon’s specific claims about the Roswell box.
Brandon published the novel The Cryptos Conundrum in 2012. The book is presented as fiction but incorporates elements drawn from his intelligence career and references a CIA cover-up of the Roswell incident.
Brandon has described his post-CIA activities as including consulting with intelligence community agencies, the Department of Defense and federal and state law enforcement organizations. He has also pursued creative interests including sculpting and fiction writing.
Where They Are Now
No public records detail Chase Brandon’s specific activities after 2012. He has remained retired from full-time CIA service since approximately 2007.
Last updated 25 October 2026