The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects | Page 5

after the Arnold sighting the term "flying saucer" was used
to describe all disk-shaped objects that were seen flashing through the
sky at fantastic speeds. Before long, reports were made of objects other
than disks, and these were also called flying saucers. Today the words
are popularly applied to anything seen in the sky that cannot be
identified as a common, everyday object.

Thus a flying saucer can be a formation of lights, a single light, a
sphere, or any other shape; and it can be any color. Performance-wise,
flying saucers can hover, go fast or slow, go high or low, turn 90-
degree corners, or disappear almost instantaneously.
Obviously the term "flying saucer" is misleading when applied to
objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this reason
the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name:
unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced Yoo-foe) for short.
Officially the military uses the term "flying saucer" on only two
occasions. First in an explanatory sense, as when briefing people who
are unacquainted with the term "UFO": "UFO--you know--flying
saucers." And second in a derogatory sense, for purposes of ridicule, as
when it is observed, "He says he saw a flying saucer."
This second form of usage is the exclusive property of those persons
who positively know that all UFO's are nonsense. Fortunately, for the
sake of good manners if for no other reason, the ranks of this knowing
category are constantly dwindling. One by one these people drop out,
starting with the instant they see their first UFO.
Some weeks after the first UFO was seen on June 24, 1947, the Air
Force established a project to investigate and analyze all UFO reports.
The attitude toward this task varied from a state of near panic, early in
the life of the project, to that of complete contempt for anyone who
even mentioned the words "flying saucer."
This contemptuous attitude toward "flying saucer nuts" prevailed from
mid-1949 to mid-1950. During that interval many of the people who
were, or had been, associated with the project believed that the public
was suffering from "war nerves."
Early in 1950 the project, for all practical purposes, was closed out; at
least it rated only minimum effort. Those in power now reasoned that if
you didn't mention the words "flying saucers" the people would forget
them and the saucers would go away. But this reasoning was false, for
instead of vanishing, the UFO reports got better and better.

Airline pilots, military pilots, generals, scientists, and dozens of other
people were reporting UFO's, and in greater detail than in reports of the
past. Radars, which were being built for air defense, began to pick up
some very unusual targets, thus lending technical corroboration to the
unsubstantiated claims of human observers.
As a result of the continuing accumulation of more impressive UFO
reports, official interest stirred. Early in 1951 verbal orders came down
from Major General Charles P. Cabell, then Director of Intelligence for
Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, to make a study reviewing the UFO
situation for Air Force Headquarters.
I had been back in the Air Force about six months when this happened.
During the second world war I had been a B-29 bombardier and radar
operator. I went to India, China, and later to the Pacific, with the
original B-29 wing. I flew two DCF's, and some Air Medals' worth of
missions, got out of the Air Force after the war, and went back to
college. To keep my reserve status while I was in school, I flew as a
navigator in an Air Force Reserve Troop Carrier Wing.
Not long after I received my degree in aeronautical engineering, the
Korean War started, and I went back on active duty. I was assigned to
the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base, in Dayton, Ohio. ATIC is responsible for keeping track of all
foreign aircraft and guided missiles. ATIC also had the UFO project.
I had just finished organizing a new intelligence group when General
Cabell's order to review past UFO reports came down. Lieutenant
Colonel Rosengarten, who received the order at ATIC, called me in and
wanted to know if I'd take the job of making the review. I accepted.
When the review was finished, I went to the Pentagon and presented
my findings to Major General Samford, who had replaced General
Cabell as Director of Intelligence.
ATIC soon got the word to set up a completely new project for the
investigation and analysis of UFO reports. Since I had made the review
of past UFO reports I was the expert, and I got the new job. It was

given the code name Project Blue Book, and I was in charge of it until
late in 1953. During this time members of my staff and I