Part 28 (1/2)

Thirdly, as soon as we could ere planning to gather together a group of scientists and let the the UFO problem

When I left ADC, Major Sadowski and creere satisfied that eren't just sitting around twiddling our UFO reports

During the fall of 1952 reports continued to drop off steadily By Decee of thirty perinto the ”Unknown” category

Our proposed trip to the Pacific to watch for UFO's during the H- boet space on an airplane But the crews of Navy and Air Force security forces who did go out to the tests were thoroughly briefed to look for UFO's, and they were given the procedures on how to track and report them Back at Dayton we stood by to ht coory was seen during the entire Project Ivy series of ato phase of our instru the twofro devices to building special radars and caht Field who knew aboutequipment, and we had consulted the camera technicians at the Air Force Aerial Reconnaissance Laboratory Astronomers explained their equipment and the techniques to use, and ent to Rome, New York, and Boston to enlist the aid of the people who develop the Air Force's electronic equip stations to be established all over northern New Mexico We'd picked this test location because northern New Mexico still consistently produced more reports than any other area in the US These visual spotting stations would be equipped with a sighting device siht on a bomber

All the operator would have to do would be to follow the UFO with the tracking device, and the exact tiles would be auto stations would all be tied together with an interphone syste he could alert the other spotters in the area If two stations tracked the same object, we could immediately co net would be tied into the existing radar defense net in the Albuquerque-Los Ala focal-length ca radar antenna, so that any tiet he could press a button and photograph the portion of the sky exactly where the radar said a UFO was located These cameras would actually be astronoht or object could be photographed

In addition to this photography system we proposed that a number of sets of instruments be set out around the area Each set would contain instruments to netic field, and the passage of a body that was giving off heat The instru their inforet reports directly fro stations

This instrumentation plan would cost about 250,000 because we planned to use ascommunications systems, where they already existed After the setup was established, it would cost about 25,000 a year to operate At first glance this seeured out how much the UFO project had cost the Air Force in the past and how much it would probably cost in the future, the price didn't seem too bad--especially if we could solve the UFO problem once and for all

The powers-that-be at ATIC OK'd the plan in Deceton, where it would have to be approved by General Saon for higher Air Force official blessing Froet the necessary blessings

But thethe fall of 1952 had gone toward collecting together all of the bits and pieces of data that we had accumulated over the past year and a half

We had sorted out the best of the ”Unknowns” and made studies of certain aspects of the UFO problem, so that e could asseive them the over- all picture, not just a basketful of parts

Everyone who knew about the proposed panel et started because everyone was interested in knohat this panel would have to say Although the group of scientists wouldn't be empowered to o to the President if they decided that the UFO's were real And any recoroup of naht

In the Pentagon and at ATIC book was being made on what their recommendations would be When I put my money down, the odds were 5 to 3 in favor of the UFO

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The Radiation Story

The idea for gathering together a group of scientists, to e referred as our ”panel of experts,” had been conceived early in 1952-- as soon as serious talk about the possibility that the UFO's ht be interplanetary spaceshi+ps had taken hold in both e was reorganized in the summer of 1951 the idea had been mentioned, and this was the main reason that our charter had said ere to be only a fact-finding group The people on previous UFO projects had gone off on tangents of speculation about the identity of the UFO's; they first declared that they were spacecraft, then later, in a co belly laugh Both approaches had gotten the Air Force into trouble Why they did this I don't know, because from the start we realized that no one at ATIC, in the Air Force, or in the whole ive a final yes or no answer to the UFO proble a final ansould require a serious decision--probably one of the1952 ineers and scientists had visited Project Blue Book and had spent a day or two going over our reports Some were very much impressed with the reports--some had all the answers

But all of the scientists who read our reports readily adht that the reports did or did not indicate visitors froood dealConsequently the people's opinions, although they were valuable, didn't give us enough to base a decision upon We still needed a group to study our ive us written conclusions and recommendations which could be sent to the President if necessary

Our panel of experts was to consist of six or eight of the top scientists in the United States We fully realized that even the Air Force didn't have enough ”pull” just to ask all of these people to drop the ied in and spend a week or two studying our reports Nor did ant to do it this anted to be sure that we had so for their valuable tianized a preliminary review panel of four people All of them were competent scientists and we knew their reputations were such that if they recommended that a certain top scientist sit on a panel to review our material he would do it

In late November 1952 the preliminary review panelended, the group unaniher court” be formed to review the case of the UFO In an hour their recoher Air Force authorities, and the men proceeded to recommend the members for our proposed panel They picked sixboth practical and theoretical scientists and ere known to have no biased opinions regarding the UFO's

The ton, was tentatively scheduled for late Dece upon when all of the scientists who had been asked to attend would be free At Project Blue Book activity went into high gear as weBut before ere very far along our preparations were teot a lead on the facts behind a rumor Normally we didn't pay attention to rumors, but this one was in a different class

Ever since the Air Force had become interested in UFO reports, the coive a professional opinion was that we lacked the type of data ”you could get your teeth into” In even our best reports we had to rely upon what someone had seen I'd been told many times that if we had even one piece of information that was substantiated by some kind of recorded proof--a set of cinetheodolite raph, or any other kind of instrumented data that one could sit down and study--ould have no difficulty getting al us find the answer to the UFO riddle

The rumor that caused h-level conference involved data that we et our teeth into