The Report on Unidentified Flying ObjectsRuppelt, Edward J.
History
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Ruppelt, Edward J.
Unidentified flying objects
I was told that reporters just didn't believe it when I tried to
find out why the Grudge Report hadn't been mentioned in the
newspapers. I got the story from a newspaper correspondent in
Washington whom I came to know pretty well and who kept me filled in
on the latest UFO scuttlebutt being passed around the Washington
press circles. He was one of those humans who had a brain like a
filing cabinet; he could remember everything about everything. UFO's
were a hobby of his. He remembered when the Grudge Report came out;
in fact, he'd managed to get a copy of his own. He said the report
had been quite impressive, but only in its ambiguousness, illogical
reasoning, and very apparent effort to write off all UFO reports at
any cost. He, personally, thought that it was a poor attempt to put
out a "fake" report, full of misleading information, to cover up the
real story. Others, he told me, just plainly and simply didn't know
what to think--they were confused.
And they had every right to be confused.
As an example of the way that many of the better reports of the 1947-
49 period were "evaluated" let's take the report of a pilot who
tangled with a UFO near Washington, D.C., on the night of November
18, 1948.
At about 9:45 EST I noticed a light moving generally north to south
over Andrews AFB. It appeared to be one continuous, glowing white
light. I thought it was an aircraft with only one landing light so I
moved in closer to check, as I wanted to get into the landing
pattern. I was well above landing traffic altitude at this time. As I
neared the light I noticed that it was not another airplane. Just
then it began to take violent evasive action so I tried to close on
it. I made first contact at 2,700 feet over the field. I switched my
navigation lights on and off but got no answer so I went in closer--
but the light quickly flew up and over my airplane. I then tried to
close again but the light turned. I tried to turn inside of its turn
and, at the same time, get the light between the moon and me, but
even with my flaps lowered I couldn't turn inside the light. I never
did manage to get into a position where the light was silhouetted
against the moon.
I chased the light up and down and around for about 10 minutes, then
as a last resort I made a pass and turned on my landing lights. Just
before the object made a final tight turn and headed for the coast I
saw that it was a dark gray oval-shaped object, smaller than my T-6.
I couldn't tell if the light was on the object or if the whole object
had been glowing.
Two officers and a crew chief, a master sergeant, completely
corroborated the pilot's report. They had been standing on the flight
line and had witnessed the entire incident.
The Air Weather Service, who had been called in as experts on
weather balloons, read this report. They said, "Definitely not a
balloon." Dr. Hynek said, "No astronomical explanation." It wasn't
another airplane and it wasn't a hallucination.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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