Tom DeLonge

Tom DeLonge is an American musician and songwriter best known for his work with comedy punk ensemble Blink-182 ("All the Small Things", "What's My Age Again?", Enema of the State). Since the breakup of Blink-182 in 2005, he has pursued a range of activities, including a growing interest in UFOs, cryptozoology, and conspiracy theories. His organisation has attracted some status within the strange world of UFO research, to the point of interviewing government officials, although he has yet to prove the existence of extraterrestrials. In 2009, the band reunited, but Tom left the band again in October 2012, only to return a decade later.
==Life==
He grew up in Poway, San Diego County, California and formed Blink-182 while at high school. After a few small hits, their breakthrough came with the Enema of the State album in 1999. He launched a short-lived side project, Box Car Racer, in 2002. Blink-182 split up in 2005: this has been blamed on DeLonge's desire to concentrate on investigations of UFOs, but seems to have been more due to tensions in the band over DeLonge wanting to spend more time with his family and tour less. After, he founded another band, Angels & Airwaves, and Blink-182 briefly reformed, with an album, Neighborhoods, in 2011; DeLonge later quit the band and released solo material in 2015. He also worked on a young adult book series, Poet Anderson, and co-directed an animated short film, Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker, with aspirations to turn it into a feature film. And then there is his interest in strange flying things.We believe Tom DeLonge, who quit blink-182 to prove aliens exist, Drew Millard, The Outline, Jan 12, 2018
==UFOs==
He had a long-time interest in UFOs and conspiracies around them, with the 1999 song "Aliens Exist" mentioning Majestic 12 and the CIA. Box Car Racer's album was full of lyrics about conspiracy theories. He even got married in 2001 on Coronado Island, California, which was the scene of an alleged alien encounter in 1994 in which 2 people allegedly received alien implants. (It's hard to write about DeLonge without using the word "alleged" a lot.)
DeLonge founded the in 2015 to investigate UFOs, with employees including former agents of the American intelligence services and scientists. Its mission statement includes the modest goal to "revolutionize the human experience … through the unrestricted support of breakthrough research, discovery and innovation." To The Stars has also worked with EarthTech International in Austin, Texas, apparently "a privately-funded research organization exploring novel ideas". 
Although it hasn't found conclusive proof, its investigations have been reported in at least three New York Times articles (including one which featured video footage recorded by a US Navy gun camera allegedly showing UFOs, or blobs). To The Stars was cited as a source about revelations that senators Harry Reid, Daniel Inouye, and Ted Stevens had directed federal money to the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) UFO investigation. DeLonge also claims credit for the US Navy setting up procedures to record UFO sightings.Tom DeLonge on ‘Scary’ UFO Footage, Angels and Airwaves and Blink-182’s Future, Rolling Stone, June 4, 2019 On September 18, 2019 The US Navy confirmed the legitimacy of this footage.https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/18/politics/navy-confirms-ufo-videos-trnd/index.html
 the disputed head of the Pentagon's controversial AATIP, joined DeLonge's Academy after quitting the DoD in 2017,Tom DeLonge's UFO Research Project Seems Increasingly Legit, Vice, Dec 17, 2017 and was featured in the 2019 History Channel series 
DeLonge has worked on several books. He cowrote Sekret Machines: Gods with Peter Levenda about his UFO investigations. It suggests that ancient Greek myths and Biblical stories about gods or angels mating with humans and creating monsters could be a record of alien breeding experiments.All the dumb things? UFO project has $37 million deficit, Ars Technica, October 15, 2018 (This would have more validity if there was any evidence that Greek myths were in some way true.) He also co-wrote Sekret Machines Book 1: Chasing Shadows and sequels, an attempt to express his ideas via the medium of epically-long conspiracy fiction.'Sekret Machines: Gods' Reiterates: All Religion Is UFO Religion, PopMatters, 23 Aug 2017Aliens Exist: Five things we learnt from Tom DeLonge's book, Upset, April 11, 2016Tom DeLonge on new 'Sekret Machines' book: 'This is not just Tom talking about UFOs again', Entertainment Weekly, April 5, 2016
According to emails "obtained" by Wikileaks, he emailed Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta about UFOs. He has also reportedly met with Podesta at least once to discuss UFOs.The DeLonge DeLusion: Part One, Mysterious Universe, Nov 3, 2016 In an email to Podesta, DeLonge claimed to have been working with Major General William McCasland, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. DeLonge told Podesta:When Roswell crashed, they shipped it to the laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. General McCasland was in charge of that exact laboratory up to a couple years ago.""General McCasland", email from Tom DeLonge dated "2016-01-25 16:04", published on Wikileaks
DeLonge received the honor "UFO Researcher of the Year" from "Credible UFO News and Information" website OpenMinds.tv. In a 2017 appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience", according to press reports DeLonge's claims included:Joe Rogan Experience #1029 - Tom DeLonge (Oct 26, 2017) YouTube (archived from December 31, 2018).
* Early UFOs were human-created craft made using alien technology by former Nazis living in Argentina,
* Fear of alien invasion prevented the Cold War turning into a hot war,
* One of his government contacts had seen a dead alien body,
* Men in black had taken him in for interrogation, holding him for 2 days,
* Humans are descended from aliens,
* Aliens currently walk the earth.
On the other hand, some conspiracy theorists believe he's actually an agent of the deep state disseminating misinformation.
However, catching aliens is an expensive business. In 2018, To The Stars reported to authorities that while it had managed to raise US$1m in funding: "The Company has incurred losses from operations and has an accumulated deficit at June 30, 2018 of $37,432,000. These factors raise doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern."
==Cryptozoology==
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker told Joe Rogan's podcast that during their time in the band, as well as looking for UFOs, DeLonge would get high and decide "Let's go and fucking look for Bigfoot" and lead a group of people into the wilderness on a Sasquatch hunt.Tom DeLonge would get high and go hunting for Big Foot while on tour with Blink-182, NME, Feb 7, 2019 No Bigfoots have yet been captured.
==Selected bibliography==
His writings on UFOs and unexplained phenomena:
* Sekret Machines Book 1: Chasing Shadows, Tom Delonge, A J Hartley, 2017
* Sekret Machines: Gods: An Official Investigation of the UFO Phenomenon, Tom DeLonge, Peter Levenda, Jacques Vallee, 2017
* Sekret Machines Book 2: A Fire Within, Tom DeLonge, A J Hartley, 2018
==External links==
* To The Stars official website
==References==
Category:Authors
Category:California
Category:Conspiracy theorists
Category:Cryptozoology
Category:Living people
Category:Musicians
Category:Punk