The Mammoth Book of Cover-Ups

1982

Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, 2003

Project Blue Book

During the great flying-saucer flap after the Second World War, there was just one group of people more interested in UFOs than UFOlogists: the US Air Force. No surprise there, since the boys in blue would be the front line against ETs or, if the saucers were proven to be a dastardly Commie invention, against the USSR.

At first the Air Force collected flying-saucer reports on an ad hoc basis, but soon began a series of official investigations. The first official UFO investigation was Project SIGN (1948), established by General Nathan Twining; it was followed by Project GRUDGE (1948–52), which was in turn superseded by Project Blue Book (1952–69).

In the early days of the USAF investigation, the military was split concerning the possible origins of the UFOs, with senior project officers writing a top-secret “Estimate of the Situation” in 1948 which identified them as interplanetary craft. A sceptical Pentagon destroyed the “Estimate”, cancelled SIGN and replaced it with GRUDGE, which was duly more cautious about the UFO phenomenon—but was that because it was giving its master what the master wanted to hear?

During the early 1950s the Air Force’s UFO investigation became further compromised by politics, when the CIA decided the panicky UFO flaps of the decade needed to be countered. Henceforth the Air Force investigation, now renamed Blue Book, did not just record UFO sightings but also propagandized against them having extraterrestrial causes. So charged, Blue Book backfired spectacularly: its secrecy and overly emphatic denials of extraterrestrial phenomena generated, not assuaged, public UFO paranoia. As a 1965 editorial from the Richmond News Leader opined, “Attempts to dismiss the reported sightings under the rationale as exhibited by Project Bluebook [sic] won’t solve the mystery… and serve only to heighten the suspicion that there’s something out there that the air force doesn’t want us to know about.” By the late 1960s, so discredited had Blue Book become that there were widespread calls for a Congressional investigation into its workings and into the whole UFO phenomenon. The subsequent Condon Committee concluded that UFOs were not of extraterrestrial origin, and that further research would be pointless. In response, the USAF closed Blue Book on 17 December 1969.

Since that date there has been, officially, no US government body actively investigating UFO sightings… although most UFOlogists believe this is a lie.

USAF/CIA Project Blue Book covered up UFO sightings: ALERT LEVEL 10

Further Reading

Peter Brookesmith, UFO: The Complete Sightings Catalogue, 1995

J. Allen Hynek, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry, 1972

Jenny Randles and Peter Hough, The Complete Book of UFOs, 1994

DOCUMENT: Extracts from the US Air Force’s “Project Blue Book” Factsheet

On 17 December 1969 the Secretary of the Air Force announced the termination of Project Blue Book, the Air Force program for the investigation of UFOs.

The decision to discontinue the UFO investigation was based on an evaluation of a report prepared by the University of Colorado entitled “Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”; a review of the University of Colorado’s report by the National Academy of Sciences; and Air Force experience investigating UFO reports during the past two decades.

As a result of theses investigations and studies, and experience gained from investigating UFO reports since 1948, the conclusions of Project Blue Book are:

(1) no UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security;

(2) there has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as “unidentified” represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present day scientific knowledge; and

(3) there has been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as “unidentified” are extraterrestrial vehicles.

With the termination of Project Blue Book, the Air Force regulation establishing and controlling the program for investigating and analysing UFOs was rescinded. All documentation regarding the former Blue Book investigation has been permanently transferred to the Modern Military Branch, National Archives and Records service, 8th and Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20 408, and is available for public review and analysis.

Attached for your information is the Project Blue Book sighting summary for the period 1947–69. Also included is a listing of UFO-related materials currently available.

Since the termination of the Project, no evidence has been presented to indicate that further investigation of UFOs by the Air Force is warranted. In view of the considerable Air Force commitment of resources in the past, and the extreme pressure on Air Force funds at this time, there is no likelihood of renewed Air Force involvement in this area.

TOTAL UFO SIGHTINGS, 1947–69

Year * Total Sightings * Unidentified

1947 * 122 * 12

1948 * 156 * 7

1949 * 186 * 22

1950 * 210 * 27

1951 * 169 * 22

1952 * 1,501 * 303

1953 * 509 * 42

1954 * 487 * 46

1955 * 545 * 24

1956 * 670 * 14

1957 1,006 * 14

1958 * 627 * 10

1959 * 390 * 12

1960 * 557 * 14

1961 * 591 * 13

1962 * 474 * 15

1963 * 399 * 14

1964 * 562 * 19

1965 * 887 * 16

1966 * 1,112 * 32

1967 * 937 * 19

1968 * 375 * 3

1969 * 146 * 1