May 22nd, 1949. 1:50 AM. The 16th floor of Bethesda Naval Hospital. The most powerful man in American national security is found on a rooftop ledge 13 floors below his room. A bathrobe sash knotted around his neck. Broken glass on his bed. A poem copied in someone else's handwriting left behind. His name was James Forrestal. He was the first Secretary of Defense of the United States. He built the CIA. He created the National Security Council. There was no one in Washington who held more secrets. Before he died, he authorized the largest Antarctic expedition in history, Operation Highjump, and sent Admiral Richard E. Byrd to the bottom of the world with 4,700 men, 13 ships, and 33 aircraft. He fought a losing battle over Palestine policy that put him directly in the crosshairs of the two most powerful media voices in America, Drew Pearson and Walter Winchell. He was forced out of office by a president who found out he'd been hedging his bets with the other candidate. And within weeks of his resignation, he was locked on a restricted floor of a Navy hospital where his brother was refused visitation and his priest was turned away 5 times. The Navy convened an investigation, classified the report and walked away. The full findings weren't released for 55 years. His name later surfaced on the most controversial document in UFO history, the MJ-12 briefing memo, as a founding member of a secret committee allegedly established to manage the recovery and investigation of extraterrestrial craft. That document was delivered to the public through Bill Moore, a confirmed disinformation asset working for the same Air Force intelligence apparatus Forrestal's own legislation created. And then there's Admiral Byrd's son. Richard E. Byrd Jr. spent 30 years guarding his father's papers and artifacts. In September 1988, he boarded a train in Boston headed for Washington to attend a National Geographic ceremony honoring his father. He never arrived. Three weeks later, he was found in an abandoned warehouse in Baltimore, wearing someone else's clothes, starved to death. He was 68 years old. Nobody investigated further. Every thread in this story leads back to 2 men. Forrestal and Byrd. One built the machine. The other went where the machine sent him. SOURCES: Willcutts Report (Navy investigation, classified 1949, released 2004), Arnold Rogow's "James Forrestal: A Study of Personality, Politics, and Policy," David Martin's "The Assassination of James Forrestal," Drew Pearson's "Washington Merry-Go-Round" columns, Walter Millis' "The Forrestal Diaries," National Security Act of 1947, Operation Highjump Navy records, Admiral Byrd's post-expedition press conferences (El Mercurio, March 1947), MJ-12 briefing document (Moore/Shandera), AFOSI disinformation records, Richard E. Byrd Jr. death records (Baltimore Police, October 1988), Congressional Record. SUBSCRIBE for new deep dives into America's strangest history every week. #JamesForrestal #SecretaryOfDefense #CIA #MJ12 #OperationHighjump #AdmiralByrd #GovernmentCoverUp #TrueCrime #TrueCrimeDocumentary #AmericasStrangestHistory #NationalSecurity #DrewPearson #UFO #UAP #DeepDive 👉 Connect with us: Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@AmericasStrangestHistory Website: http://www.americasstrangesthistory.com/ Email us: ash@americasstrangesthistory.com © America’s Strangest History