The Report on Unidentified Flying ObjectsRuppelt, Edward J.
History
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Ruppelt, Edward J.
Unidentified flying objects
A party of men were all ready to jeep out into the desert to make
another search when one of them made a discovery. There were guy
wires coming out of the UFO and running down into the trees. Other
people looked. And then the solution hit like a fireball.
Exactly in line with the UFO, and ten miles away, not four, was a
set of antennas for the California State Highway Patrol radio. The
sun's rays were reflecting from these antennas. They'd never seen
this before because on only a few days during the year was the sun at
exactly the right angle to produce the reflection.
The men were right. In a few days the Danby UFO left and it never
came back.
Nineteen hundred fifty-eight was not a record year for UFO's. The
590 reports received didn't stack up to the 1178 for 1957, or the 778
for 1956, or the 918 for 1952. But a new record was set when the
percentage of unknowns was pared down to a new low. During 1958 only
9/10 of one per cent of the reports, or 5 reports, were classified as
"unknown."
More manpower, better techniques, and just plain old experience has
allowed the Air Force to continually lower the percentage of
"unknowns" from 20%, while I was in charge of Project Blue Book, to
less than 1%, today.
No story of the UFO would be complete without describing one of
these unknowns, so here's one exactly as it came out of the Project
Blue Book files:
"On 31 October 1958, this Center received a TWX reporting an UFO
near Lock Raven Dam. A request for a detailed investigation was sent
to the nearest Air Force Base. The following is a summary of the
incident and subsequent investigation:
"Two civilians were driving around near Lock Raven Dam on the
evening of 26 October 1958. When they rounded a curve about 200 to
300 yards from a bridge they saw what appeared to be a large, flat,
egg shaped object hovering about 100 to 150 feet above the bridge
superstructure. They slowed their car and when they got to within 75
or 80 feet of the bridge their engine quit and their lights went out.
The driver immediately stepped on the brakes and stopped the car.
Attempts were made to start the car and when this was unsuccessful
they became frightened and got out of the car. They put the car
between them and the object and watched for approximately 30 to 45
seconds. The object then seemed to flash a brilliant white light and
both men felt heat on their faces. Then there was heard a loud noise
and the object began rising vertically. The object became very bright
while rising and its shape could not be seen as it rose. It
disappeared in five to ten seconds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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