Part 10 (1/2)

And they had every right to be confused

As an example of the way that many of the better reports of the 1947- 49 period were ”evaluated” let's take the report of a pilot who tangled with a UFO near Washi+ngton, DC, on the night of Noveht enerally north to south over Andrews AFB It appeared to be one continuous, glohite light I thought it was an aircraft with only one landing light so Ipattern I ell above landing traffic altitude at this tiht I noticed that it was not another airplane Just then it began to take violent evasive action so I tried to close on it I made first contact at 2,700 feet over the field I switched ot no answer so I went in closer-- but the light quickly flew up and over ht turned I tried to turn inside of its turn and, at the saht between the moon and me, but even with ht I never did ht was silhouetted against the ht up and down and around for about 10 minutes, then as a last resort I hts Just before the object ht turn and headed for the coast I saw that it was a dark gray oval-shaped object, sht was on the object or if the whole object had been glowing

Two officers and a crew chief, a eant, completely corroborated the pilot's report They had been standing on the flight line and had witnessed the entire incident

The Air Weather Service, who had been called in as experts on weather balloons, read this report They said, ”Definitely not a balloon” Dr Hynek said, ”No astronomical explanation” It wasn't another airplane and it wasn't a hallucination

But Project Grudge had an answer, it _was_ a weather balloon There was no explanation as to why they had so glibly reversed the decision of the Air Weather Service

There was an answer for every report

Froes of appendixes, discussions of the appendixes, and careful studies of UFO reports, it was concluded that:

Evaluation of reports of unidentified flying objects constitute no direct threat to the national security of the United States

Reports of unidentified flying objects are the result of:

A mild form of mass hysteria or ”war nerves”

Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity

Psychopathological persons

Misidentification of various conventional objects

It was recoe be ”reduced in scope” and that only ”those reports clearly indicating realistic technical applications” be sent to Grudge There was a note below these recommendations It said, ”It is readily apparent that further study along present lines would only confirs presented herein”

Somebody read the note and concurred because with the coe folded People could rant and rave, see flying saucers, pink elephants, sea serpents, or Harvey, but it was no concern of ATIC's

CHAPTER SIX

The Presses Roll--The Air Force Shrugs

The Grudge Report was supposedly not for general distribution A few copies were sent to the Air Force Press Desk in the Pentagon and reporters and writers could coet into circulation The Air Force Press Rooe report, and a quick glance at the report showed that it required some study--if noto prove--so several dozen copies got into circulation I know that these ”liberated” copies of the Grudge Report had been thoroughly studied because nearly every writer who cae of Project Blue Book carried a copy

Since the press had soe Report, it received very little publicity while the writers put out feelers Consequently in early 1950 you didn't readsaucers

Evidently certain people in the Air Force thought this lull in publicity e was junked All the project files, hundreds of pounds of reports, memos, photos, sketches, and other assorted bits of paper were uncere cabinets, tied up with string, and chucked into an old storage case I would guess that many reports ended up as ”souvenirs” because a year later, when I exhu

About this time the official Air Force UFO project had one last post- death muscular spasm The last bundle of reports had just landed on top of the pile in the storage case when ATIC received a letter froence of the Air Force In official language it said, ”What gives?” There had been no order to end Project Grudge

The ansent back that Project Grudge had not been disbanded; the project functions had been transferred and it was no longer a ”special” project Froh norence reports

To show good faith ATIC requested permission to issue a new Air Force-wide bulletin which was duly raphed and disseminated In essence it said that Air Force Headquarters had directed ATIC to continue to collect and evaluate reports of unidentified flying objects It went on to explain that s of the Grudge Report in such strong language that by the ti it, he would be ashamed to send in a report To cinch the deal the bulletins olia because I never found anyone in the field who had ever received a copy

As the Air Force UFO-investigating activity dropped to nil, the press activity skyrocketed to a new peak A dozen people took off to dig up their own UFO stories and to draw their own conclusions