Nick Pope (Rest In Peace)

 Ministry of Defence

Pope worked as a civil servant for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) from 1985 to 2006. From 1991 to 1994, he worked in Secretariat (Air Staff) Sec (AS) 2a more commonly known as the "UFO desk", where his duties included investigating reports of UFO sightings, to see if they had any defence significance.[4][5]

Pope's final posting in the MoD was to the Directorate of Defence Security. In 2009, MoD announced that UFO sightings would no longer be investigated.

Media work

In November 2006, Pope stated that the government's "X-Files have been closed down".[9] He came to appear in the media as a commentator, covering subjects that include the unexplained, conspiracy theories, space, science fiction, and fringe science.

He worked for a number of film companies and public relations agencies, promoting the release of science fiction films.

On 24 June 2013, he appeared on IGN's comedy show Up at Noon, promoting the game The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

In 2015, he appeared in multiple episodes of UFOs Declassified, airing on Canada's History Television, the UK's Yesterday, and Smithsonian Channel in the Umited States.[13] He often appeared on the New York Post UFO YouTube series The Basement Office alongside journalist Steven Greenstreet.

Books

Open Skies, Closed Minds is Pope's autobiographical account of his interest in ufology. It provides an overview of the UFO phenomenon, with the emphasis on Pope's three-year employment as the Ministry of Defence desk officer where his responsibilities included investigating UFO sightings and any impact they might have on UK national defence.[15] Pope concluded that an alien race is waging a secret war on humanity, a position he came to distance himself from since the publication of the book.

In 1997, he released a second book on similar themes, titled The Uninvited. His book Encounter in Rendlesham Forest: The Inside Story of the World's Best-Documented UFO Incident, written with John Burroughs, USAF, Ret., and Jim Penniston, USAF, Ret., was published by Thomas Dunne Books in April 2014.

Pope also wrote two science fiction novels, Operation Thunder Child and its sequel Operation Lightning Strike.[16] In 2018, Pope published the political thriller Blood Brothers.