The Report on Unidentified Flying ObjectsRuppelt, Edward J.
History
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Ruppelt, Edward J.
Unidentified flying objects
Unfortunately the names of these people cannot be revealed because I
promised them complete anonymity. But the list reads like a page from
_Great_ _Men_ _of_ _Science_.
Altogether nine people visited the project during this trial period.
Of the nine, two thought the Air Force was wasting its time, one
could be called indifferent, and six were very enthusiastic over the
project. This was a shock to me. I had expected reactions that ranged
from an extremely cold absolute zero to a mild twenty below. Instead
I found out that UFO's were being freely and seriously discussed in
scientific circles. The majority of the visitors thought that the Air
Force had goofed on previous projects and were very happy to find out
that the project was being re-established. All of the visitors, even
the two who thought we were wasting our time, had good suggestions on
what to do. All of them offered their services at any future time
when they might be needed. Several of these people became very good
friends and valuable consultants later on.
About two weeks before Christmas, in 1951, Colonel Dunn and I went
to the Pentagon to give 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 familiar with the general aspects of the problem. He had
appointed his Assistant for Production, Brigadier General W. M.
Garland, to ride herd on the project for him.
Colonel Dunn briefly outlined to General Samford what we planned to
do. He explained our basic policy, that of setting aside the unknowns
and not speculating on them, and he told how the scientists visiting
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 confirmed in writing, 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 meant
that Project Grudge was responsible for all UFO reports made by any
branch of the military service. I started my briefing by telling
General Samford and his staff about the present UFO situation.
The UFO reports had never stopped coming in since they had first
started in June 1947. There was some correlation between publicity
and the number of sightings, but it was not an established fact that
reports came in only when the press was playing up UFO's. Just within
the past few months the number of good reports had increased sharply
and there had been no publicity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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