What was KONA BLUE, and did DHS run a UFO retrieval program?

KONA BLUE is a records name, not a public crash-retrieval factory. AARO first heard it from historical-review interviewees who described a Department of Homeland Security sensitive compartment for retrieval and exploitation of non-human biologics.

AARO's public UAP Records page and History and Origin of KONA BLUE paper say the office researched that claim and found a Prospective Special Access Program proposed to DHS leadership after DIA cancelled AAWSAP/AATIP. AARO's summary line is that KONA BLUE was never approved or formally established as the claimed operating program, never received materials or funding, and left a proposal presentation marked with that name.

A separate DHS letter released through AARO, dated February 5, 2024 and signed by Acting Deputy Secretary Kristie Canegallo, says KONA BLUE was a DHS prospective special access program terminated on February 10, 2012. The letter also says associated DHS documents were declassified for public release, and that a search of pertinent DHS records found no additional information associated with that PSAP.

Safe citation: quote interviewee language as interviewee language, quote the PSAP proposal and 2012 termination as the paper trail, and quote AARO's no-materials finding as a named-path finding. Unsafe upgrade: DHS ran a UFO retrieval program, AARO confirmed non-human biologics, or never-approved means the name never existed on paper.

Use this table before merging KONA BLUE with AAWSAP, AATIP, Immaculate Constellation, PURSUE, or a hearing biologics claim, and before upgrading a rejected proposal into recovered craft.

Layer | What the record is | What it is not

Interviewee language | AARO recounts people describing a DHS compartment for retrieval and exploitation of non-human biologics | AARO confirming recovered biologics

PSAP proposal | AARO traces a DHS Prospective Special Access Program pitched after AAWSAP/AATIP ended. The 2011 S&T PSAP request is on paper | Proof DHS collected craft or bodies

Termination | DHS letter: PSAP terminated February 10, 2012. AARO: never approved or formally established as the claimed operating program | Proof the name never appeared in government paper

Materials finding | AARO: never received materials or funding. Volume 1: no craft or bodies collected on that path, and no data or material transferred to DHS | Universal disproof of biologics under every other label

AARO's UAP Records page and the History and Origin paper open the same way. The office first learned of KONA BLUE from interviews in its historical review. Multiple interviewees identified it as a DHS sensitive compartment established to protect the retrieval and exploitation of non-human biologics.

That sentence is AARO recounting what people told AARO. It is not a laboratory finding, not a species determination, and not a public chain-of-custody sample.

Acting AARO Director Tim Phillips, in the March 2024 media engagement on Historical Record Report Volume 1, put the public rumor in one line: Kona Blue was repeated as that's where they hide the bodies. Phillips said that was not true, and that AARO worked closely with DHS partners on the claim.

Phillips also described KONA BLUE as a prospective program proposed to protect research related to extraterrestrial technology, never formally approved by leadership, and never in possession of material or information. Use that as on-the-record restatement. Do not treat a press-room paraphrase as a second origin finding.

AARO's History and Origin of KONA BLUE paper traces the proposal to AAWSAP/AATIP, a Defense Intelligence Agency effort managed from 2009 to 2012 and funded through congressional earmarks. Bigelow Aerospace is named there as the primary contractor. DIA terminated the program, the paper says, due to a cited lack of merit and lack of utility in the products produced for DIA's mission.

When DIA cancelled AAWSAP/AATIP, AARO says several people involved with that effort advocated for DHS to take it over and fund a new version under the code name KONA BLUE. According to the proposal, KONA BLUE would continue work to investigate, identify, and analyze sensitive materials and technologies, including advanced aerospace vehicles.

Volume 1 adds process color. Supporters proposed that DHS create and fund a new version of AAWSAP/AATIP under a special access program. AARO says the proposal would restart UAP investigations, paranormal research including alleged human consciousness anomalies, and reverse-engineer any recovered off-world spacecraft that they hoped to acquire. Hoped to acquire is load-bearing. Hope is not custody.

Volume 1 also quotes the proposal's Oral History Initiative: gathering information on the location of advanced aerospace technology and biological samples, including records, files, reports, photographs, and physical samples. That is proposal packaging about a search plan. It is not a catalog of samples already in DHS hands.

Readers treat AARO's never approved or formally established line as a fight with the 2011 S&T PSAP language. They are the same trail, not a contradiction to exploit.

The origin paper says that in 2011, the DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology established KONA BLUE as a Prospective Special Access Program based on claims that relevant information and material existed and required that level of protection. The Under Secretary also cited congressional interest and possible impacts on homeland security. Volume 1 says a PSAP was officially requested, and that the proposal package plus originator statements describe Senators Lieberman and Reid asking that the PSAP be established with the promise of additional funding. That is AARO describing the proposal package. It is not independent proof that an operating retrieval SAP existed.

About six months later, the origin paper says, the Deputy Secretary of DHS disapproved KONA BLUE as a Special Access Program and directed immediate termination, citing concerns about the adequacy of justification and the sufficiency of information central to the proposal, including personnel and budget requirements. The Canegallo letter dates that termination February 10, 2012.

Read the sequence this way. A prospective SAP path was requested. It did not become an approved, funded, materials-holding special access program. AARO's never approved or formally established summary is about that claimed operating program. The 2011 PSAP request and the February 10, 2012 termination are why the name exists on paper. Do not flatten either sentence past the other.

The origin paper's hard line is that while some DHS personnel believed relevant information and material would be delivered to DHS upon establishment of the SAP, no data or material of any kind was ever transferred to or collected by DHS under the auspices of KONA BLUE. Information associated with AAWSAP/AATIP, AARO says, remains in DIA archived holdings.

Volume 1 is more specific about the craft-and-bodies rumor. It is critical to note, AARO writes, that no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collected. This material was only assumed to exist by KONA BLUE advocates and its anticipated contract performers. The same assumption, Volume 1 says, was made by those same individuals involved with AAWSAP/AATIP. The SAP was never approved or stood up, and no data or material was transferred to DHS.

Volume 1 also notes KONA BLUE was not reported to Congress at the time because it was never established as a SAP and did not meet the congressional-reporting threshold. The Deputy Secretary of Defense later provided a Congressional Notification when the program was identified, Volume 1 says, in the spirit of transparency.

Canegallo's 2024 letter is the DHS close on the paper trail: associated DHS documents declassified and approved for public release, strike-out method used so prior classifications stay visible, redactions from policy and legal review, and no additional associated information discovered in the pertinent DHS records search. Declassified proposal files are not recovered craft.

AAWSAP/AATIP is the cancelled DIA predecessor AARO names as the origin of the KONA BLUE pitch. It is not KONA BLUE. DIA holdings from that effort, AARO says, stayed at DIA. Do not import contractor research, Skinwalker-adjacent public lore, or later AATIP branding onto a DHS PSAP that was terminated in 2012.

Immaculate Constellation is a separate congressional-record claim layer from the November 13, 2024 House Oversight exhibit and related testimony. DoD denied a SAP by that name. Keep that name off this page's core stack.

PURSUE is a Department of War unresolved-records release pipeline on war.gov/ufo. It is not a DHS retrieval program and not a substitute for AARO case-resolution products.

Volume 1 also describes a separate 2021 Intelligence Community Controlled Access Program that was expanded to include UAP reverse-engineering language, never recovered or reverse-engineered off-world spacecraft, and was later disestablished. That is adjacency in the same report. It is not KONA BLUE.

Hearing language about non-human biologics belongs on the hub biologics brief. This page answers the named DHS proposal. Do not average Grusch Q and A, KONA BLUE interviewee quotes, and Volume 1's no-evidence finding into one government confirmed bodies sentence.

Cite AARO's UAP Records page and History and Origin of KONA BLUE for interviewee language, the AAWSAP/AATIP origin, the 2011 S&T PSAP request, the Deputy Secretary disapproval, no materials or funding, and no transfer to DHS under that name.

Cite the Canegallo letter for the February 10, 2012 termination date, the February 5, 2024 DHS-to-DoD transmittal, declassification of associated DHS documents, and the no-additional-information search line.

Cite Historical Record Report Volume 1, pages 9 and 34-35, for the proposed recovery and reverse-engineering heading, the hoped-to-acquire language, the oral-history proposal quote, the no-craft-or-bodies-collected finding, and the later Defense notification that it had not met SAP reporting at the time.

Cite Phillips only as on-the-record restatement: prospective program, never formally approved, never possessed material or information, and not where they hide the bodies.

End short answers with the hard fence: rejected-proposal trail, not an operating DHS retrieval program, not confirmed biologics, not extraterrestrial proof.

Discard DHS ran a UFO crash-retrieval program called KONA BLUE. The public trail is a PSAP proposal that was terminated.

Discard AARO confirmed non-human biologics through KONA BLUE. AARO quotes interviewees, then publishes a no-materials finding on that named path.

Discard never approved means the name never existed on paper. The 2011 PSAP request, the February 10, 2012 termination, and the 2024 DHS letter are why the name is public.

Discard never approved means AARO proved no biologics exist under every other label. The published finding is about this proposal path and the historical reverse-engineering narrative AARO reviewed.

Discard collapsing KONA BLUE into AAWSAP, AATIP, Immaculate Constellation, PURSUE, or the separate 2021 IC expansion.

Discard treating declassified proposal language about exotic technologies, oral histories, or hoped-for samples as proof those samples were in DHS custody.

Keep: interviewee language, PSAP proposal, February 10, 2012 termination, no-materials finding, unmerge list, and the no-ET fence.