Background

US Marine deployed to Peru in the late 1990s in support of SOUTHCOM’s Operation Laser Strike, the official cover for which was counter-narcotics interdiction in South America. Wigan came forward as a UAP whistleblower through the work of researcher and journalist UAP Gerb (Sam).

The Discovery

During night guard duty, Wigan and a small team encountered a downed craft of non-conventional design embedded in jungle terrain. The site was rapidly cordoned. Personnel from a Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) — a Department of Energy / NNSA quick-reaction unit normally tasked with radiological emergencies — arrived on scene.

Wigan’s team was abruptly removed from the area, ordered into compartmentalised silence, and the operation was reclassified upward. He retained a clear memory of the craft and the response posture, and understood the nuclear-emergency cover to be the deliberate jurisdictional handoff that allowed the Atomic Energy Act’s classification authority to absorb the incident.

Why It Matters

Wigan’s testimony is the operational ground truth underneath UAP Gerb’s mapped programme architecture. It confirms three things: that Operation Laser Strike functioned as a UAP retrieval cover, that NEST/DOE assets are operationally embedded in the retrieval programme, and that the Atomic Energy Act provides the legal classification mechanism that allows the programme to operate outside congressional oversight.

Connections

• Operation Laser Strike (1997) — SOUTHCOM cover operation
• Mark, former Marine diver — 1991-92 Rockall Trough retrieval (similar siloing pattern)
• NEST — Nuclear Emergency Support Team operational integration
• Confirms UAP Gerb’s DOE / Atomic Energy Act architecture model

Sources

• UAP Gerb (Sam) — multiple long-form interviews
• Independent corroboration via former SOUTHCOM personnel