Declassified UFO Secrets：Inside the Government's UFO Investigation Program!

Did you know the US Air Force spent nearly 20 years investigating UFOs? From 1952 to 1969, Project Blue Book collected over 12,000 reports of unidentified flying objects. But here's the question that still haunts researchers. Why were 701 of those cases labeled unexplained? What if I told you that before Blue Book even existed, a classified intelligence estimate concluded that flying saucers were real craft? And they were likely extraterrestrial? And what if that report was rejected, not because it was wrong, but because there wasn't enough physical proof? Why did high-ranking generals who witnessed UFOs themselves push for serious investigation, only to have their own project later stripped of its authority? And why did the CIA step in to recommend a public debunking campaign? The government says, there's nothing to see here. But declassified files tell a different story. This is the secret history of Project Blue Book. Project Sign was succeeded at the end of 1948 by Project Grudge, which was criticized as having a debunking mandate. Ruppelt referred to the era of Project Grudge as the dark ages of early Yusef UFO investigation. Grudge concluded that all UFOs were natural phenomena or other misinterpretations, although it also stated that 23% of the reports could not be explained. The new name, Project Blue Book, was selected to refer to the blue booklets used for testing at some colleges and universities. The name was inspired by the close attention that high-ranking officers were giving the new project. It felt as if the study of UFOs was as important as a college final exam. Blue Book was also upgraded in status from Project Grudge with the creation of the Aerial Phenomenon Branch. Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was initially directed by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt and followed projects of a similar nature such as Project Sign, established in 1947, and Project Grudge in 1948. Project Blue Book had two goals, namely, to determine if UFOs were a threat to national security and to scientifically analyze UFO-related data. According to Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, by the end of 1951, several high-ranking, very influential USAF generals were so dissatisfied with the State of Air Force UFO investigations that they dismantled Project Grudge and replaced it with Project Blue Book. One of these men was General Charles P. Cabell. Another important change came when General William Garland joined Cabell's staff. Garland thought the UFO question deserved serious scrutiny because he had witnessed a UFO. Thousands of UFO reports were collected, analyzed, and filed. As a result of the Condon Report, which concluded that the study of UFOs was unlikely to yield major scientific discoveries, and a review of the report by the National Academy of Sciences, Project Blue Book was terminated in 1969. The Air Force supplies the following summary of its investigation. No UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force was ever an indication of threat to our national security. There was no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as unidentified represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge. And there was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as unidentified were extraterrestrial vehicles. By the time Project Blue Book ended, it had collected 12,618 UFO reports and concluded that most of them were misidentifications of natural phenomena. Clouds, stars, and more, or conventional aircraft. According to the National Reconnaissance Office, a number of the reports could be explained by flights of the formerly secret reconnaissance planes U-2 and A-12. 701 reports were classified as unexplained, even after stringent analysis. The UFO reports were archived and are available under the Freedom of Information Act, but names and other personal information of all witnesses have been redacted. Public USAF UFO studies were first initiated under Project Sign at the end of 1947, following many widely publicized UFO reports. Project Sign was initiated specifically at the request of General Nathan Twining, Chief of the Air Force Material Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Wright-Patterson was also to be the home of Project Sign and all subsequent official USAF public investigation. Project Sign was officially inconclusive regarding the cause of the sightings. However, according to US Air Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, the first director of Project Blue Book, Sign's initial intelligence estimate, the so-called estimate of the situation written in the late summer of 1940. This was subsequently rejected by General Hoyt Vandenberg, USAF Chief of Staff, citing a lack of physical proof. Vandenberg subsequently dismantled Project Sign. Ruppelt was the first head of the project. He was an experienced airman, having been decorated for his efforts with the Army Air Corps during World War II and having afterward earned an aeronautics degree. He officially coined the term unidentified flying object to replace the many terms flying saucer, flying disc, and so on the military had previously used. Ruppelt thought that unidentified flying object was a more neutral and accurate term. Ruppelt resigned from the Air Force some years later and wrote the book The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, which described the study of UFOs by the United States Air Force from 1947 to 1955. American scientist Michael D. Swords wrote that Ruppelt would lead the last genuine effort to analyze UFOs. Ruppelt implemented a number of changes. He streamlined the manner in which UFOs were reported to and by military officials, partly in hopes of alleviating the stigma and ridicule associated with UFO witnesses. Ruppelt also ordered the development of a standard questionnaire for UFO witnesses, hoping to uncover data that could be subject to statistical analysis. He commissioned the Battle Memorial Institute to create the questionnaire and computerize the data. Using case reports and the computerized data, Battelle then conducted a massive scientific and statistical study of all Air Force UFO cases, completed in 1954 and known as Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14. Knowing that factionalism had harmed the progress of Project Sign, Ruppelt did his best to avoid the kinds of open-ended speculation that had led to Sign's personnel being split among advocates and critics of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. As Michael Hall writes, Ruppelt not only took the job seriously, but expected his staff to do so as well. If anyone under him either became too skeptical or too convinced of one particular theory, they soon found themselves off the project. In his book, Ruppelt reported that he fired three personnel very early in the project because they were either too pro or too con one hypothesis or another. Ruppelt sought the advice of many scientists and experts, and issued regular press releases, along with classified monthly reports for military intelligence. Each U.S. Air Force base had a Blue Book officer to collect UFO reports, and forward them to Ruppelt. During most of Ruppelt's tenure, he and his team were authorized to interview any and all military personnel who witnessed UFOs and were not required to follow the chain of command. This unprecedented authority