The Report on Unidentified Flying ObjectsRuppelt, Edward J.
History
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Ruppelt, Edward J.
Unidentified flying objects
Ever since the fateful day when Lieutenant Jerry Cummings dropped
his horn-rimmed glasses down on his nose, tipped his head forward,
peered at Major General Cabell over his glasses and, acting not at
all like a first lieutenant, said that the UFO investigation was all
fouled up, Project Grudge had been gaining prestige. Lieutenant
Colonel Rosengarten's promise that I'd be on the project for only a
few months went the way of all military promises. By March 1952,
Project Grudge was no longer just a project within a group; we had
become a separate organization, with the formal title of the Aerial
Phenomena Group. Soon after this step-up in the chain of command the
project code name was changed to Blue Book. The word "Grudge" was no
longer applicable. For those people who like to try to read a hidden
meaning into a name, I'll say that the code name Blue Book was
derived from the title given to college tests. Both the tests and the
project had an abundance of equally confusing questions.
Project Blue Book had been made a separate group because of the
steadily increasing number of reports we were receiving. The average
had jumped from about ten a month to twenty a month since December
1951. In March of 1952 the reports slacked off a little, but April
was a big month. In April we received ninety-nine reports.
On April 1, Colonel S. H. Kirkland and I went to Los Angeles on
business. Before we left ATIC we had made arrangements to attend a
meeting of the Civilian Saucer Investigators, a now defunct
organization that was very active in 1952.
They turned out to be a well-meaning but Don Quixote-type group of
individuals. As soon as they outlined their plans for attempting to
solve the UFO riddle, it was obvious that they would fail. Project
Blue Book had the entire Air Force, money, and enthusiasm behind it
and we weren't getting any answers yet. All this group had was the
enthusiasm.
The highlight of the evening wasn't the Civilian Saucer
Investigators, however; it was getting a chance to read Ginna's UFO
article in an advance copy of _Life_ magazine that the organization
had obtained--the article written from the material Bob Ginna had
been researching for over a year. Colonel Kirkwood took one long look
at the article, sidled up to me, and said, "We'd better get back to
Dayton quick; you're going to be busy." The next morning at dawn I
was sound asleep on a United Airlines DC-6, Dayton-bound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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