Part 2 (2/2)
I did give s, however, behind closed doors, to certain groups associated with the government--all of theular series of intelligence briefings given to students at the Air Force's Command and Staff School, and to classes at the Air Force's Intelligence School
I gave briefings to the technical staff at the Atoy Commission's Los Alamos laboratory, where the first ato took place wouldn't hold all of the people who tried to get in, so the briefing was recorded and replayedhappened at AEC's Sandia Base, near Albuquerque
Many groups in the Pentagon and the Office of Naval Research requested UFO briefings Civilian groups, made up of some of the nation's top scientists and industrialists, and formed to study specialTop Air Force co I gave was followed by a discussion that lasted anywhere from one to four hours
In addition to these, Project Blue Book published a classified monthly report on UFO activity Requests to be put on distribution for this report were so numerous that the distribution had to be restricted to major Air Force Command Headquarters
This interest was not caused by any revolutionary infors or reports It ste subject
Many aspects of the UFO probleive details of many of the better reports we received, our conclusions about them, and how those conclusions were reached If we had identified a UFO, the audience was told how the identification waswas ”Unknown,” the audience learned ere convinced it was unknown
As that were described fully to interested governhts, including the possible sighting of the saht forroup of scientists who detected hted; and all of the facts behind such famous cases as the Mantell Incident, the Florida scout saucer,” and headline-capturing sightings at Washi+ngton, DC
I showed theraphs we had, the majority of which everyone has seen, since they have been widely published in raphs was always a disappointment as far as positive proof was concerned because, in a sense, if you've seen one you've seen them all We had no clear pictures of a saucer, just an assortht
The briefings included a description of how Project Blue Book operated and a survey of the results of the many studies that were made of the mass of UFO data we had collected Also covered were our intervieith a dozen North Areen fireballs of New Mexico, and an account of how a couished United States scientists spentto answer the question, ”Are the UFO's froeneral public was never able to hear these briefings For a long ti in military circles, I have believed that the public also is entitled to know the details of as covered in these briefings (less, of course, the few ite to radar that were classified ”Secret,” and the na these will not alter the facts in any way
A lot has already been written on the subject of UFO's, but none of it presents the true, complete story Previous forays into the UFO field have been based on inadequate information and have been warped to fit the personal biases of the individual writers Well ree to which their books have h ti chapters present the true and complete UFO story, based on what I learned about UFO's while I was chief of Project Blue Book, the Air Force's project for the investigation and analysis of UFO reports Here is the saave to Secretary of the Air Force, Thomas K Finletter, to the Air Force commanders, to scientists and industrialists This is what the Air Force knows about unidentified flying objects
You ree with some of the official ideas or conclusions-- neither did a lot of people I briefed--but this is the story
CHAPTER TWO
The Era of Confusion Begins
On Septeence Center, one of the Air Force's ence units, sent a letter to the Co General of the then Army Air Forces
The letter was in answer to the Co General's verbal request toobjects The letter said that after a preliminary study of UFO reports, ATIC concluded that, to quote from the letter, ”the reported phenoed that a perate and analyze future UFO reports It requested a priority for the project, a registered code name, and an over-all security classification ATICs request was granted and Project Sign, the forerunner of Project Grudge and Project Blue Book, was launched It was given a 2A priority, 1A being the highest priority an Air Force project could have With this the Air Force dipped into the ed and widespread controversy it has ever, or rabbed the proverbial bear by the tail and to this day it hasn't been able to let loose
The letter to the Co General of the Army Air Forces from the chief of ATIC had used the word ”phenomena” History has shown that this was not a too well-chosen word But on Septeence specialists were confident that within a few months or a year they would have the answer to the question, ”What are UFO's?” The question, ”Do UFO's exist?” was never mentioned The only problem that confronted the people at ATIC was, ”Were the UFO's of Russian or interplanetary origin?” Either case called for a serious, secrecy-shrouded project Only top people at ATIC were assigned to Project Sign
Although a foration wasn't set up until September 1947, the Air Force had been vitally interested in UFO reports ever since June 24, 1947, the day Kenneth Arnold inal UFO report
As Arnold's story of what he saw that day has been handed down by the bards of saucerised Even so as published in his book, _The_ _Co_ _of_ _the_ _Saucers_, do not jibe hat the official files say he told the Air Force in 1947