SiTU MEMO: MAJESTIC 12

Membership

All the alleged original members of MJ-12 were notable for their military, government, and/or scientific achievements, and all were deceased when the documents first surfaced (the last to die was Jerome Hunsaker, only a few months before the MJ-12 papers first appeared).

The original composition was six civilians (mostly scientists), and six high-ranking military officers, two from each major military service. Three (Souers, Vandenberg, and Hillenkoetter) had been the first three heads of central intelligence. The Moore/Shandera documents did not make clear who was the director of MJ-12, or if there was any organizational hierarchy.

The named members of MJ-12 were:

• Rear Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter: first CIA director

Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, Navy, (Ret.)
Born	(1897-05-08)May 8, 1897St. Louis, Missouri
Died	June 18, 1982(1982-06-18) (aged 85) New York City[1]
Buried at	Section 3Arlington National Cemetery Arlington County, Virginia, United States

• Dr. Vannevar Bush: chaired wartime Office of Scientific Research
  and Development and predecessor National Defense Research Committee; set up and chaired postwar Joint Research and Development Board (JRDB) and then the Research and Development Board (RDB); chaired NACA; President of Carnegie Institute, Washington D.C.

Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush, ca. 1940–44
Born	(1890-03-11)March 11, 1890Everett, Massachusetts
Died	June 28, 1974(1974-06-28) (aged 84)Belmont, Massachusetts
Nationality	United States of America
Fields	Electrical engineering
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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• James Forrestal: Secretary of the Navy; first Secretary of Defense (replaced after his death on MJ-12 by Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, 2nd CIA director)
  
  

James Vincent Forrestal
1st United States Secretary of Defense
In office September 17, 1947 – March 28, 1949
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Louis A. Johnson
47th United States Secretary of the Navy
In office May 19, 1944 – September 17, 1947

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• Gen. Nathan Twining: headed Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson AFB; Air Force Chief of Staff (1953–1957); Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff (1957–1961)
  
  

General Nathan F. Twining, USAF, (Ret.)
Born	(1897-10-11)October 11, 1897Monroe, Wisconsin
Died	March 29, 1982(1982-03-29) (aged 84)Lackland Air Force Base, Texas
Place of burial	Arlington National Cemetery

• Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg: Directed Central Intelligence Group (1946–1947); Air Force Chief of Staff (1948–1953)

Hoyt Vandenberg
Hoyt Vandenberg
2nd Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
In office June 10, 1946 – May 1, 1947
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Sidney Souers
Succeeded by	Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter
Personal details
Born	Hoyt Sanford Vandenberg (1899-01-24)January 24, 1899Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Died	April 2, 1954(1954-04-02) (aged 55)Walter Reed Medical Center, Washington D.C.

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• Gen. Robert M. Montague: Guided missile expert; 1947 commander of Fort Bliss; headed nuclear Armed Forces Special Weapons Center, Sandia Base
• 
  

Montague as commander of the Sandia Missile Base
Born	August 7, 1899 (1899-08-07)Portland, Oregon
Died	February 20, 1958 (1958-02-21) (aged 58)Balboa, Panama
Buried at	Arlington National Cemetery

Dr. Jerome Hunsaker: Aeronautical engineer, MIT; chaired NACA after Bush

Jerome Clarke Hunsaker (August 26, 1886 – September 10, 1984) was an American airman born in Creston, Iowa, and educated at the Naval Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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• Rear Adm. Sidney Souers: first director of Central Intelligence Group, first executive secretary of National Security Council

Personal details
Born	(1892-03-30)March 30, 1892Dayton, Ohio
Died	January 14, 1973(1973-01-14) (aged 79)St. Louis, Missouri

Gordon Gray: Secretary of the Army; intelligence and national security expert; CIA psychological strategy board (1951–1953); Chairman of NSC 5412 Committee (1954–1958); National Security Advisor (1958–1961)

Gordon Gray
2nd United States Secretary of the Army
President	Harry S. Truman
Preceded by	Kenneth_Claiborne_Royall
Succeeded by	Frank Pace
2nd President of the Consolidated University of North Carolina
Preceded by	Frank Porter Graham
Succeeded by	William Clyde Friday
5th National Security Advisor
President	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded by	Robert Cutler
Succeeded by	McGeorge Bundy
Personal details
Born	(1909-05-30)May 30, 1909Baltimore, Maryland
Died	November 26, 1982(1982-11-26) (aged 73)Washington, D.C.

• Dr. Donald Menzel: Astronomer, Harvard; cryptologist during war; security consultant to CIA and NSA
  
  

Donald Howard Menzel
Donald Howard Menzel by Babette Whipple
Born	April 11, 1901Florence, Colorado
Died	December 14, 1976Boston, Massachusetts
Nationality	United states
Fields	Astronomy, Astrophysics, Star Formation

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• Dr. Detlev Bronk: Medical physicist; aviation physiologist; chair, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council; president Johns Hopkins & Rockefeller University
• 
  

Detlev Wulf Bronk
Bronk in 1963
Born	(1897-08-13)August 13, 1897[1] New York City[1]
Died	November 17, 1975(1975-11-17) (aged 78)[1] New York City[1]
Fields	Scientist

• Dr. Lloyd Berkner: Physicist; radio expert; executive secretary of Bush's JRDB