The Report on Unidentified Flying ObjectsRuppelt, Edward J.
History
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Ruppelt, Edward J.
Unidentified flying objects
First of all, in November or December the U.S. was going to shoot
the first H-bomb during Project Ivy. Although this was Top Secret at
the time, it was about the most poorly kept secret in history--
everybody seemed to know all about it. Some people in the Pentagon
had the idea that there were beings, earthly or otherwise, who might
be interested in our activities in the Pacific, as they seemed to be
in Operation Mainbrace. Consequently Project Blue Book had been
directed to get transportation to the test area to set up a reporting
net, brief people on how to report, and analyze their reports on the
spot.
Secondly, Project Blue Book was working on plans for an extensive
system to track UFO's by instruments. Brigadier General Garland, who
had been General Samford's Deputy Director for Production and who had
been riding herd on the UFO project for General Samford, was now
chief at ATIC, having replaced Colonel Dunn, who went to the Air War
College. General Garland had long been in favor of trying to get some
concrete information, either positive or negative, about the UFO's.
This planned tracking system would replace the defraction grid
cameras that were still being developed at ATIC.
Thirdly, as soon as we could we were planning to gather together a
group of scientists and let them spend a full week or two studying
the UFO problem.
When I left ADC, Major Sadowski and crew were satisfied that we
weren't just sitting around twiddling our UFO reports.
During the fall of 1952 reports continued to drop off steadily. By
December we were down to the normal average of thirty per month, with
about 20 per cent of these falling into the "Unknown" category.
Our proposed trip to the Pacific to watch for UFO's during the H-
bomb test was canceled at the last minute because we couldn't get
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 make quick analysis of any
reports that might come in--none came. Nothing that fell into the UFO
category was seen during the entire Project Ivy series of atomic shots.
By December work on the planning phase of our instrumentation
program was completed. During the two months we had been working on
it we had considered everything from giving Ground Observer Corps
spotters simple wooden tracking devices to building special radars
and cameras. We had talked over our problems with the people at
Wright Field who knew about missile-tracking equipment, and we had
consulted the camera technicians at the Air Force Aerial
Reconnaissance Laboratory. Astronomers explained their equipment and
the techniques to use, and we went to Rome, New York, and Boston to
enlist the aid of the people who develop the Air Force's electronic
equipment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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