The Report on Unidentified Flying ObjectsRuppelt, Edward J.
History
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Ruppelt, Edward J.
Unidentified flying objects
As the writers began to poke around for their own facts, Project
Grudge lapsed more and more into a period of almost complete
inactivity. Good UFO reports continued to come in at the rate of
about ten per month but they weren't being verified or investigated.
Most of them were being discarded. There are few, if any, UFO reports
for the middle and latter part of 1949 in the ATIC files. Only the
logbook, showing incoming reports, gives any idea of the activity of
this period. The meager effort that was being made was going into a
report that evaluated old UFO reports, those received prior to the
spring of 1949. Project Grudge _thought_ that they were writing a
final report on the UFO's.
From the small bits of correspondence and memos that were in the
ATIC files, it was apparent that Project Grudge thought that the UFO
was on its way out. Any writers inquiring about UFO activity were
referred to the debunking press release given out just after the
_Post_ article had been published. There was no more to say. Project
Grudge thought they were winning the UFO battle; the writers thought
that they were covering up a terrific news story--the story that the
Air Force knew what flying saucers were and weren't telling.
By late fall 1949 the material for several UFO stories had been
collected by writers who had been traveling all over the United
States talking to people who had seen UFO's. By early winter the
material had been worked up into UFO stories. In December the presses
began to roll. _True_ magazine "scooped" the world with their story
that UFO's were from outer space.
The _True_ article, entitled, "The Flying Saucers Are Real," was
written by Donald Keyhoe. The article opened with a hard punch. In
the first paragraph Keyhoe concluded that after eight months of
extensive research he had found evidence that the earth was being
closely scrutinized by intelligent beings. Their vehicles were the so-
called flying saucers. Then he proceeded to prove his point. His
argument was built around the three classics: the Mantell, the Chiles-
Whitted, and the Gorman incidents. He took each sighting, detailed
the "facts," ripped the official Air Force conclusions to shreds, and
presented his own analysis. He threw in a varied assortment of
technical facts that gave the article a distinct, authoritative
flavor. This, combined with the fact that _True_ had the name for
printing the truth, hit the reading public like an 8-inch howitzer.
Hours after it appeared in subscribers' mailboxes and on the
newsstands, radio and TV commentators and newspapers were giving it a
big play. UFO's were back in business, to stay. True was in business
too. It is rumored among magazine publishers that Don Keyhoe's
article in _True_ was one of the most widely read and widely
discussed magazine articles in history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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