Part 1 (1/2)

The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects

by Edward Ruppelt

Foreword

This is a book about unidentified flying objects--UFO's--”flying saucers” It is actually more than a book; it is a report because it is the first tiether in one docu subject With the exception of the style, this report is written exactly the way I would have written it had I been officially asked to do so while I was chief of the Air Force's project for investigating UFO reports--Project Blue Book

In many instances I have left out the na UFO's, or the names of certain people ere associated with the project, just as I would have done in an official report For the saed the locale in which sos occurred This is especially true in chapter fifteen, the story of how some of our atomic scientists detected radiation whenever UFO's were reported near their ”UFO-detection stations” This policy of not identifying the ”source,” to borrow a terence, is insisted on by the Air Force so that the people who have co-operated with theet any unwanted publicity Names are considered to be ”classified inforreatest care has been taken to es in locale has in no way altered the basic facts because this report is based on the facts--all of the facts--nothing of significance has been left out

It was only after considerable deliberation that I put this report together, because it had to be told accurately, with no holds barred

I finally decided to do it for two reasons First, there is world- wide interest in flying saucers; people want to know the facts But more often than not these facts have been obscured by secrecy and confusion, a situation that has led to wild speculation on one end of the scale and an alerously blas? attitude on the other It is only when all of the facts are laid out that a correct evaluation can beand analyzing UFO reports, after talking to the people who have seen UFO's-- industrialists, pilots, engineers, generals, and just the plainthe subject with many very capable scientists, I felt that I was in a position to be able to put together the co saucer

The report has been difficult to write because it involves so that doesn't officially exist It is well known that ever since the first flying saucer was reported in June 1947 the Air Force has officially said that there is no proof that such a thing as an interplanetary spaceshi+p exists But what is not well known is that this conclusion is far fro the military and their scientific advisers because of the one word, _proof_; so the UFO investigations continue

The hassle over the word ”proof” boils down to one question: What constitutes proof? Does a UFO have to land at the River Entrance to the Pentagon, near the Joint Chiefs of Staff offices? Or is it proof when a ground radar station detects a UFO, sends a jet to intercept it, the jet pilot sees it, and locks on with his radar, only to have the UFO streak away at a phenomenal speed? Is it proof when a jet pilot fires at a UFO and sticks to his story even under the threat of court-martial? Does this constitute proof?

The at times hotly debated answer to this question may be the answer to the question, ”Do the UFO's really exist?”

I'll give you the facts--all of the facts--you decide

_July_ _1955_, E J RUPPELT

CHAPTER ONE

Project Blue Book and the UFO Story

In the summer of 1952 a United States Air Force F-86 jet interceptor shot at a flying saucer

This fact, like sosaucer story, has never before been told

I know the full story about flying saucers and I know that it has never before been told because I organized and was chief of the Air Force's Project Blue Book, the special project set up to investigate and analyze unidentified flying object, or UFO, reports (UFO is the official ter saucers”)

There is a fighter base in the United States which I used to visit frequently because, during 1951, 1952, and 1953, it gotofficer of the fighter group, a full colonel and command pilot, believed that UFO's were real The colonel believed in UFO's because he had a lot of faith in his pilots--and they had chased UFO's in their F-86's He had seen UFO's on the scopes of his radar sets, and he knew radar

The colonel's intelligence officer, a captain, didn't exactly believe that UFO's were real, but he did think that they warranted careful investigation The logic the intelligence officer used in investigating UFO reports--and in getting answers to many of them-- made me wish many times that he worked for ence officer called me atto make a trip his way soon When I told him I expected to be in his area in about a week, he asked me to be sure to look him up There was no special hurry, he added, but he had soot wind of a good story, Project Blue Book liked to start working on it at once, so I asked the intelligence officer to tellHe didn't want to discuss it over the phone He even vetoed the idea of putting it into a secret wire Such extre can be coded and put in a wire

When I left Dayton about a week later I decided to go straight to the fighter base, planning to arrive there inairlinesuntil evening to get to the base I called the intelligence officer and told hiht there and he would fly over and pick me up in a T-33 jet

As soon as ere in the air, on the return trip, I called the intelligence officer on the interphone and asked hi on What did he have? Why all the mystery? He tried to telltoo well and I couldn't understand what he was saying Finally he told me to wait until we returned to his office and I could read the report myself

Report! If he had a UFO report why hadn't he sent it in to Project Blue Book as he usually did?