U.S. Combatant Commands and the Geospatial Relationship to UAP Crash Sites
An Examination of Areas of Responsibility and Legacy Incidents
This analysis doesn't validate any single crash claim. Instead, it explores a fascinating geospatial overlay: alleged UAP crash sites juxtaposed with the Areas of Responsibility (AORs) of America's Combatant Commands (COCOMs). When these layers of information combine, patterns emerge that warrant serious consideration.
The Global Military Chessboard
The United States organizes its global military operations through Geographic Combatant Commands. These COCOMs aren't abstract entities but the operational backbone of American military power, each assigned a specific region of the world. With clearly delineated AORs collectively covering the entire planet, these commands function as the Pentagon's regional directors, wielding immense resources and protecting national interests within their zones.
When we plot alleged UAP incidents onto this global command structure, certain correlations and regional concentrations become strikingly apparent.
NORTHCOM: America's UAP Hotspot
USNORTHCOM, responsible for the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, and surrounding waters, emerges as a territory of unique significance. The public record indicates the highest concentration of alleged UAP crash retrievals within this command's domain.
The Roswell incident of July 1947 allegedly occurred in a region of extraordinary military significance at the dawn of the Cold War. Its proximity to White Sands Missile Range and nuclear weapons development sites placed it squarely within a zone of intensive military monitoring and restricted airspace.
In December 1965, the reported recovery of an acorn-shaped object in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, took place in the heavily industrialized Northeast. This region was under constant NORAD surveillance, an entity now integrated with NORTHCOM. The strategic importance of this area during the Cold War meant any unidentified object penetrating its airspace would trigger an immediate military response.
The Shag Harbour incident in Nova Scotia (October 1967) stands out as one of the rare cases officially designated an "unsolved UAP" by governmental authorities. The investigation involved naval assets from both Canada and the United States, underscoring the cross-border security infrastructure within NORTHCOM's operational posture.
Is this clustering merely a reflection of reporting bias? Or does it hint at something more profound: that areas under the most intense military surveillance are inherently more likely to detect and respond to anomalous phenomena?
INDOPACOM: Vast Waters, Different Patterns
USINDOPACOM presents a different facet of this puzzle. With an AOR covering approximately half the Earth's surface, from the U.S. west coast to India, this command features fewer documented crash retrieval allegations but an extraordinary number of officially acknowledged military UAP encounters.
The USS Nimitz "Tic Tac" incident of 2004 and the USS Theodore Roosevelt encounters of 2014-2015 both transpired within INDOPACOM's sprawling territory. These cases, reluctantly acknowledged by the Department of Defense, involved objects displaying flight characteristics far exceeding conventional aircraft.
Do the vast oceans of the Indo-Pacific conceal evidence of underwater UAP incidents far from public scrutiny? Or does the expansive nature of this AOR simply mean that retrieval operations could be conducted with greater secrecy than possible in the populated regions of NORTHCOM?
CENTCOM: The Warzone Enigma
USCENTCOM oversees some of the world's most volatile regions. Military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan generated numerous UAP reports from service members observing phenomena that defied explanation in active warzones. Yet, despite high operational tempo and advanced sensor coverage, publicly known allegations of UAP crash retrievals remain comparatively sparse.
This discrepancy could reflect heightened operational security in conflict zones, where any sensitive recovery would be classified at an extreme level. Alternatively, in an environment saturated with aerial activity, UAP could be misattributed to conventional military hardware or dismissed amidst the fog of war.
SOUTHCOM: The Varginha Incident
USSOUTHCOM's territory includes one of the most significant alleged biological entity retrieval cases: the Varginha incident in Brazil (January 1996). This series of events allegedly involved the crash of an unidentified craft and capture of non-human entities by Brazilian military personnel.
Persistent accounts suggest American observers arrived shortly thereafter. This is precisely the scenario where SOUTHCOM's established liaison capabilities with partner nations would activate. If verified, it would represent one of the most profound UAP events of the modern era, occurring within the sovereign territory of a key regional partner.
Strategic Implications
If we entertain these accounts hypothetically, the implications for military command structures are profound. The recurring proximity of alleged crash locations to sensitive military bases, nuclear facilities, and aerospace testing ranges suggests either deliberate UAP interest in these installations or that these are simply where our detection capabilities are most acute.
Each Combatant Command would develop distinct response protocols for such unprecedented events:
NORTHCOM would prioritize site security, public safety, and threat containment
INDOPACOM would leverage naval and sub-surface assets for oceanic recovery
CENTCOM might focus on potential battlefield applications and regional threats
SOUTHCOM would activate diplomatic channels with host nations
The intelligence value of any genuinely recovered non-human technology would be incalculable. CENTCOM might prioritize tactical applications for ongoing conflicts, while NORTHCOM might focus on long-term strategic implications and technology transfer.
The compartmentalized nature of COCOM operations provides a ready-made structure for information control. Each command possesses established security protocols that could accommodate operations of unprecedented sensitivity, maintaining strict secrecy for decades.
Beyond Coincidence
This geographic correlation between alleged crash sites and areas of military activity pushes us beyond simple coincidence, suggesting several compelling hypotheses:
The Monitoring Hypothesis: Areas with sophisticated surveillance are simply more likely to detect anomalous objects.
The Attraction Hypothesis: UAP, for unknown reasons, are drawn to military assets, particularly those related to nuclear technology.
The Intervention Hypothesis: Military forces may not be passive observers but could be actively tracking and potentially intercepting these objects.
What seems clear is that if these allegations hold any truth, Combatant Commands would be the first institutional responders, securing sites and controlling the initial flow of information before transfer to specialized units.
A Framework for Understanding
This examination provides a strategic framework for understanding how the U.S. military's global command structure would engage with such paradigm-shifting incidents. As official UAP investigations continue through congressional mandates and bodies like the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), this command-based analysis may help contextualize both historical claims and future revelations.
The unknown follows patterns. By mapping these patterns against established military structures, we gain vital insights into phenomena that challenge our understanding of technology, security, and our place in the cosmos.