Part 16 (2/2)
backgrounds checked and I even checked for air traffic, although I knew the UFO wasn't an airplane I researched the University of Dayton library for everything on daylight ood Froave, what he'd seen had been a clear-cut, distinct, flattened sphere, with no sht meteor, so low as to be described as ”a 50-cent piece held at arth,” would have had a smoke trail, sparks, and would have made a roar that would have jolted the Sphinx
This one was quiet Besides, no daylight h to let an airplane turn into it
Conclusion: Unknown
In a few days the data froether A weather balloon had been launched fro Beach Airport, and it was in the vicinity where the six F- 86's had made their unsuccessful attempt to intercept a UFO I plotted out the path of the balloon, the reported path of the UFO, and the flight paths of the F-86's The paths of the balloon and the F-86's were accurate, I knew, because the balloon was being tracked by radio fixes and the F-86's had been tracked by radar At only one point did the paths of the balloon, UFO, and F-86's coincide When the first two F-86's made their initial visual contact with the UFO they were looking almost directly at the balloon But fro the courses of the F-86's, I couldn't prove a thing
In addition, the weather observers fro the period that the intercept was taking place they had gone outside and looked at their balloon; it was an exceptionally clear day and they could see it at unusually high altitudes They didn't see any F- 86's around it And one stronger point, the balloon had burst about ten ht of the UFO
Lieutenant Metscher took over and, riding on his Fort Monmouth victory, tried to sho the pilots had seen the balloon He got the sa
On October 27, 1951, the new Project Grudge was officially established I'd written the necessary letters and had received the necessary endorsements I'd estimated, itemized, and justified direct costs and manpower I'd conferred, inferred, and referred, and now I had the money to operate The next step was to pile up all this paper work as an aerial barrier, let the saucers crash into it, and fall just outside the door
I was given a very flexible operating policy for Project Grudge because no one knew the best way to track down UFO's I had only one restriction and that was that I wouldn't haveOur job would be to analyze each and every UFO report and try to find e believed to be an honest, unbiased answer If we could not identify the reported object as being a balloon, s that are sometimes called UFO's, ould mark the folder ”Unknown” and file it in a special file At soh of these ”Unknown” reports, we'd study the as I was chief of the UFO project, this was our basic rule
If anyone beca an unbiased evaluation of a report, out he went Conversely anyone who beca the initial phases of the project to speculate as to whether the unknoere spaceshi+ps, space monsters, Soviet weapons, or ethereal visions
I had to let three people go for being too pro or too con
By the latter part of November 1951 I knew most of what had taken place in prior UFO projects and what I expected to do The people in Project Sign and the old Project Grudge had made many mistakes I studied these mistakes and profited by theh job Mine would be a little bit easier because of the pioneering they had done
Lieutenant Metscher and I had sorted out all of the pre-1951 files, refiled them, studied thee
When Lieut Colonel Rosengarten and Lieutenant cu Major General Cabell on the Fort Moneneral had told them to report back when the new project was for ht be wise to try theet their reaction Colonel Frank Dunn, then chief of ATIC, liked this idea We had ineers who periodically visited ATIC as consultants, and Colonel Dunn suggested that these people's opinions and comments would be valuable For the next teeks every visitor to ATIC who had a reputation as a scientist, engineer, or scholar got a UFO briefing
Unfortunately the names of these people cannot be revealed because I proe froether nine people visited the project during this trial period
Of the nine, two thought the Air Force asting its time, one could be called indifferent, and six were very enthusiastic over the project This was a shock to ed from an extremely cold absolute zero to afreely and seriously discussed in scientific circles The oofed on previous projects and were very happy to find out that the project was being re-established All of the visitors, even the tho thought asting our tiestions on what to do All of theht be needed Several of these people becaood friends and valuable consultants later on
About teeks before Christive my report Major General John A Samford had replaced Major General Cabell as Director of Intelligence, but General Samford must have been told about the UFO situation because he was faeneral aspects of the probleadier General W M
Garland, to ride herd on the project for him
Colonel Dunn briefly outlined to General Samford e planned to do He explained our basic policy, that of setting aside the unknowns and not speculating on the ATIC had liked the plans for the new Project Grudge
There was some discussion about the Air Force's and ATIC's responsibility for the UFO reports General Garland stated, and it was later confir, that the Air Force was solely responsible for investigating and evaluating all UFO reports Within the Air Force, ATIC was the responsible agency This in turn e was responsible for all UFO reports made by any branch of theGeneral Samford and his staff about the present UFO situation
The UFO reports had never stopped co in since they had first started in June 1947 There was sos, but it was not an established fact that reports ca up UFO's Just within the past few ood reports had increased sharply and there had been no publicity
UFO's were seen more frequently around areas vital to the defense of the United States The Los Ala Ground rated high Port areas, Strategic Air Command bases, and industrial areas ranked next UFO's had been reported fron country The US did not have a monopoly
The frequency of the UFO reports was interesting Every July there was a sudden increase in the number of reports and July was always the peak month of the year Just before Christe Report had not been the solution to the UFO problee of the reports were due to the ” balloons, airplanes, planets, but this was not the final answer There were a few hoaxes, hallucinations, publicity-seekers, and fatigued pilots, but reports from these people constituted less than 1 per cent of the total Left over was a residue of very good and very ”unexplainable”
UFO sightings that were classified as unknown
The quality of the reports was getting better, I told the officers; they contained more details that could be used for analysis and the details were more precise and accurate But still they left much to be desired