The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects

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The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
by Edward Ruppelt This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Author: Edward Ruppelt
Release Date: December 18, 2005 [EBook #17346]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS ***

Produced by The Blue Book Archive

THE REPORT ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS
BY EDWARD J. RUPPELT Former Head of the Air Force Project Blue Book
Published by DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC. Garden City, New York

Note: This work was originally Copyright ? 1956 by Edward J. Ruppelt. This book is now in the public domain because it was not renewed in a timely fashion at the US Copyright Office, as required by law at the time.

Contents
Foreword 1 Project Blue Book and the UFO Story 2 The Era of Confusion Begins 3 The Classics 4 Green Fireballs, Project Twinkle, Little Lights, and Grudge 5 The Dark Ages 6 The Presses Roll--The Air Force Shrugs 7 The Pentagon Rumbles 8 The Lubbock Lights, Unabridged 9 The New Project Grudge 10 Project Blue Book and the Big Build-Up 11 The Big Flap 12 The Washington Merry-Go-Round 13 Hoax or Horror? 14 Digesting the Data 15 The Radiation Story 16 The Hierarchy Ponders 17 What Are UFO's? 18 And They're Still Flying 19 Off They Go into the Wild Blue Yonder 20 Do They or Don't They?

to ELIZABETH and KRIS

Foreword
This is a book about unidentified flying objects--UFO's--"flying saucers." It is actually more than a book; it is a report because it is the first time that anyone, either military or civilian, has brought together in one document all the facts about this fascinating subject. With the exception of the style, this report is written exactly the way I would have written it had I been officially asked to do so while I was chief of the Air Force's project for investigating UFO reports--Project Blue Book.
In many instances I have left out the names of the people who reported seeing UFO's, or the names of certain people who were associated with the project, just as I would have done in an official report. For the same reason I have changed the locale in which some of the UFO sightings occurred. This is especially true in chapter fifteen, the story of how some of our atomic scientists detected radiation whenever UFO's were reported near their "UFO-detection stations." This policy of not identifying the "source," to borrow a term from military intelligence, is insisted on by the Air Force so that the people who have co-operated with them will not get any unwanted publicity. Names are considered to be "classified information."
But the greatest care has been taken to make sure that the omission of names and changes in locale has in no way altered the basic facts because this report is based on the facts--all of the facts--nothing of significance has been left out.
It was only after considerable deliberation that I put this report together, because it had to be told accurately, with no holds barred. I finally decided to do it for two reasons. First, there is world- wide interest in flying saucers; people want to know the facts. But more often than not these facts have been obscured by secrecy and confusion, a situation that has led to wild speculation on one end of the scale and an almost dangerously blas? attitude on the other. It is only when all of the facts are laid out that a correct evaluation can be made.
Second, after spending two years investigating and analyzing UFO reports, after talking to the people who have seen UFO's-- industrialists, pilots, engineers, generals, and just the plain man- on-the-street, and after discussing the subject with many very capable scientists, I felt that I was in a position to be able to put together the complete account of the Air Force's struggle with the flying saucer.
The report has been difficult to write because it involves something that doesn't officially exist. It is well known that ever since the first flying saucer was reported in June 1947 the Air Force has officially said that there is no proof that such a thing as an interplanetary spaceship exists. But what is not well known is that this conclusion is far from being unanimous among the military and their scientific advisers because of the one word, _proof_; so the UFO investigations continue.
The hassle over the word "proof" boils down to one question: What constitutes proof? Does a UFO have to land at the River Entrance