Sunday marks one year since the New York Times broke open a provocative secret when it reported about the existence of a long-term Pentagon study of UFOs – Unidentified Flying Objects.

In the 12 months since then, the I-Team has unveiled new details about the study, which was based in Las Vegas. So, what comes next? And will 2019 bring the public closer to understanding what the government already knows?

The I-Team’s George Knapp sat down for an exclusive interview with an intelligence officer who chased flying saucers for the Pentagon.

“When you say, something big is coming, what does that mean?” Asks Lue Elizondo with To The Stars Academy.

As a career intelligence officer, Elizondo learned to parse his words carefully. He spent nearly a decade managing a secret Pentagon study of encounters between U.S. military units and UAP’s, Unknown Aerial Phenomena, aka UFOs, including multiple incidents in 2015 off the coast of Florida with an object dubbed the Gimbal.

Fourteen months after leaving the Pentagon, during a visit to Las Vegas, Elizondo dropped strong hints that, behind the scenes, a new broader effort to accumulate classified UFO reports, testimony, and evidence is underway, both inside the government and outside.

“I think we have a much better understanding in the depth and scope that the Department of Defense has played in recent times, not historical 40s and 50s. I’m talking very recent regarding the UFO phenomenon. I think people will be surprised just how frequent and the volume in which these things are apparently recorded and observed by active duty military people on missions, around the world, by the way,” Elizondo said.

Elizondo left the military and went to work for rock star Tom DeLonge whose organization To The Stars Academy was instrumental in convincing the New York Times to publish a blockbuster front page story about the Pentagon study. The Times’ story set off a tsunami of other mainstream media coverage of UFOs.

Media and public interest, combined with statements from the UFO study’s original sponsor, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, have reportedly resulted in closed door briefings and testimony for senior staff and members of Congress during 2018. Elizondo hints that official interest in UFOs has been aroused.

“For some people, this UAP issue, they’re really learning about it for the first time, despite what they may have seen on popular TV or maybe in some movie, this is really the first time they’re being told. Hey Jack or Jane, this is a serious topic. This is something your Department of Defense has been tracking.”

At the same time, To The Stars Academy has launched its own public outreach efforts, including meetings with foreign military officials, and multiple efforts are underway to conduct scientific analysis of baffling samples of metamaterials acquired from so-called crash sites.

Elizondo says it’s too early to reveal what that analysis has uncovered, but says the initial work is promising. Among the potential developments in 2019, could the Pentagon launch a new, publicly acknowledged UFO study effort?

Reporter George Knapp: “Something like AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program), when a larger, not only private TTSA, but also on the inside?”

Elizondo: “Wouldn’t that be a great accomplishment George?”

Elizondo hints that some pretty big UFO news will be breaking in 2019.