A story on the trail

The undersea program

Craft seen going in and out of the sea, the Navy offices that watch them, and Gerb's "tic-tac factory" in a trench off the Bahamas.

Our reading across the sources1949 to now2 min read

In 60 seconds

For seventy years sailors and pilots have watched objects go into the sea and come out again. The Navy built the means to watch and recover under water: MITRE's Navy programs, Project Sand Dollar, and from 1969 the undersea reconnaissance office NURO. Gerb's strongest claim is that MITRE has monitored a city-block-scale site in a deep trench off the Bahamas since about 1970, a "tic-tac factory", and Grusch now describes an underwater facility of several city blocks that manufactures devices.

20 events: 8 on the record7 named witness5 unnamed insider0 UAP Gerb’s reasoning

The claim, in our words · Gerb's reading, across 20 of our records

“Something has a fixed base under the sea, and a small Navy and MITRE circle has watched it since about 1970, out of sight even of senior admirals.”

How it branched

Each line is a branch, named at its end. Dots are the key moments below.

Key moment
Seen at sea
The Navy's programs
The site below
Turning points: 1958 Navy starts watching · 1970 A site is found
Chapter 1 · 1949 to 1968

Seen from the surface

Reports from ships and coasts; the Navy builds deep-recovery capability.

Key moments

1958MITRE and two Navy programsGerb's sources: MITRE has run two Navy programs since its founding.Unnamed insider
Chapter 2 · 1969 to 2016

Watched from below

NURO and MITRE listen on the sea floor and find the site.

Key moments

1969NURO foundedThe Navy-CIA undersea reconnaissance office; Ivy Bells-type listening on the sea floor.On the record
1970MITRE watches a "tic-tac factory" off the BahamasGerb: a city-block-scale site in the deep trench, monitored since about 1969-70 after NURO's undersea listening picked it up.Unnamed insider
Chapter 3 · 2017 to now

Said out loud

DeLonge, Stratton, Grusch and Gerb describe the base in public.

Key moments

2026Grusch: a city-block facility under waterDSeveral city blocks across, and it manufactures devices.Named witness

All 20 events, branch by branch, in the Workspace →

Where it meets other stories

The legacy programshares 7 records: The MITRE Corporation, The Silent War, The triangle raised from the North Atlantic…, The 'Off-World Technologies Division' under… and more
Split by serviceshares 4 records: The MITRE Corporation, National Underwater Reconnaissance Office, The triangle raised from the North Atlantic…, The 'Off-World Technologies Division' under…
The squeezeshares 2 records: The MITRE Corporation, Grusch on Rogan
The price of contactshares 2 records: Grusch on Rogan, Air Force Hidden Wing, Admin & the UFO Files, "It's Probably Nothing" tour, & QnA - UAP Gerb Live

Want to dig?

The Workspace has every case, person, document and episode, with the board, the atlas, timelines and the threads between them.

Open the Workspace →
Sources include war.gov/ufo (PURSUE), the FBI Vault, NASA and ASU Apollo archives, congressional testimony and the witnesses' own words. Each case links to its sources.A research project by Igor France · updated 25 October 2026 · Privacy