Youngest Astronaut To Walk the Moon Claims UFOs Are 'Demonic' Deceptions Following Sign From God

Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke says UFOs are 'demonic' deceptions, citing a breakfast conversation he interpreted as an answer to prayer. The 91-year-old made the remarks in an October 2026 interview with CBN News, describing what he considered a sign from God.

His account predates that interview. Duke also described the breakfast exchange on the Mission Chats podcast in September 2025, making clear that the incident was not a new sighting or discovery. His religious interpretation, rather than any physical evidence, lies behind the claim.

Charlie Duke Recalls the Breakfast Talk He Considered a Sign

'For a long time I was praying about UFOs, and asked for a sign,' Duke said in the CBN News interview. He said people had laughed when he shared his views at Rotary Club meetings. He wanted reassurance that his interpretation was right.

Duke said he asked God for an unusually specific response. A close friend, whom he described as a businessman uninterested in scientific subjects, would start discussing UFOs at breakfast the following morning.

According to Duke, the friend unexpectedly did just that. 'Charlie, come on over. I wanna start talking to you about UFOs,' he recalled the man saying. The conversation has not been independently corroborated by the friend.

Duke treated the timing as an answer to his prayer. He offered no new UFO sighting or physical evidence connecting that breakfast discussion to the origin of unidentified objects.

He instead invoked a biblical warning that Satan can appear as an angel of light. In Duke's interpretation, apparent alien encounters might distract people from religious truth by presenting deceptive beings as visitors from elsewhere.

The supposed alien beings are 'really not beings at all,' he said. 'They're demonic.' Those words express his Christian belief, not an established explanation for UFO reports.

Duke's distinction matters because his spaceflight record is exceptional. NASA identifies him as Apollo 16's lunar module pilot and the 10th and youngest person to walk on the Moon in April 1972. He explored the lunar surface alongside mission commander John Young.

Yet that experience does not establish what unidentified aerial phenomena are. The breakfast account rests on Duke's recollection and his interpretation of coincidence, rather than independently tested evidence.

Charlie Duke's Belief Echoes Vance and Greene as Pentagon Examines UFOs

Other prominent Americans have made similar religious arguments. During a 31 October 2025 appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested that alleged aliens might be fallen angels.

'That's possible. I think that's what they could be,' Greene told Maher. 'That's what makes sense in my worldview.' She was then a Georgia congresswoman and resigned from the House on 5 January 2026.

US Vice-President JD Vance offered a related opinion in a 27 March 2026 interview on The Benny Show. 'I don't think they're aliens, I think they're demons anyway, but that's a longer discussion,' he said. Vance explained that Christian teachings influenced how he understood reports of unusual phenomena.

A dispute over religious interpretations also surfaced in documentary director Dan Farah's account of Pentagon discussions. Appearing on Maher's programme in October 2025, Farah said former UFO investigator Jay Stratton had encountered superiors who described such phenomena as demons.

Farah said Stratton was briefing officials about reports from Navy pilots and information from radar and satellites. According to the filmmaker, some superiors accused the investigator of doing 'the devil's work.' The account is second-hand and does not represent an official Pentagon finding.

The Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office takes an evidence-based approach to unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP. Its September 2025 information paper said the vast majority of reports eventually involved ordinary objects, including balloons, satellites and birds.

The office said it had found no evidence of extraterrestrial beings or technology, while acknowledging that some reports required further examination. Its findings provide no basis for treating demonic or divine explanations as established either.

For Duke, the conversation at breakfast remains personally meaningful. For investigators examining unidentified sightings, the questions concern what evidence can establish about the objects themselves.