What did the declassified documents reveal?

This episode of Declassified reads a United States Strategic Command contingency plan titled Counter‑Zombie Dominance, dated thirty April two thousand eleven, a document that has circulated publicly through the Black Vault archive. The plan was released to the public domain by the Black Vault, which hosts the original text file from the Department of Defense archive. The release appears without a formal Freedom of Information Act case number, and the file was uploaded on the archive’s website as a digitized copy of the original document. No declassification authority is noted, as the plan itself is marked unclassified. The document opens with a disclaimer. It reads: This plan was not actually designed as a joke. During the summers of two thousand nine and two thousand ten, while training augmentees from a local training squadron about the Joint Operational Planning Process, members of a United States Strategic Command component discovered that the hyperbole involved in writing a “zombie survival plan” provided a useful training tool. Planners who attended Joint Professional Military Education Phase Two at the Joint Combined Warfighting School realized that training examples must accommodate the political fallout that occurs if the public mistakenly believes a fictional scenario is real. To avoid such an outcome, they elected to use a completely impossible scenario that could never be mistaken as a real plan. Because the plan was so ridiculous, students not only enjoyed the lessons; they were able to explore basic concepts of plan and order development—facts, assumptions, specified and implied tasks, references—very effectively. The authors state that they posted this plan because it is an enjoyable way to train new planners and boost retention of critical knowledge. They cite the business management book “The Starfish and the Spider” as inspiration for crowd‑sourced phenomena, and they intend the plan to be a non‑traditional training tool that can be modified over time. The authors add that if the plan helps illustrate how the Joint Operational Planning Process works and brings a smile to personnel deployed abroad, so much the better. They conclude that suspending reality for a few minutes can turn a dry, monotonous topic into something rather enjoyable. The letter of transmittal follows. It is addressed to the commander of United States Strategic Command, identified as a brigadier general of the United States Air Force, Director of Plans and Policy. The letter notes that the document utilizes the format commonly found in United States Strategic Command concept plans, but is intended solely for Joint Operational Planning Process training. The letter instructs that the document be filed in front of the plan. Security instructions are then provided. The plan title is given in full as CDRUSSTRATCOM CONPLAN eight eight eight eight dash eleven Counter‑Zombie Dominance Operations, with the short title CDRUSSTRATCOM CONPLAN eight eight eight eight dash…

Why was this case declassified?

This material entered the public record through the U.S. declassification and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. The originating source document is linked on this page so the citation chain is auditable.

Conplan8888

◆ BLUF — The short version

This episode of Declassified reads a United States Strategic Command contingency plan titled Counter‑Zombie Dominance, dated thirty April two thousand eleven, a document that has circulated publicly through the Black Vault archive. The plan was released to the public domain by the Black Vault, which hosts the original text file from the Department of Defense archive.

Date: JUL 31 · 2026
Release: Declassified · U.S. public record (FOIA)
Source document: View the primary source document

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What was Conplan8888 about?: This episode of Declassified reads a United States Strategic Command contingency plan titled Counter‑Zombie Dominance, dated thirty April two thousand eleven, a document that has circulated publicly through the Black Vault archive. The plan was released to the public domain by the Black Vault, which hosts the original text file from the Department of Defense archive.
Why was this case declassified?: This material entered the public record through the U.S. declassification and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. Storyflo narrates it directly from the public release.

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