Date:         Fri, 21 Aug 1998 12:38:13 -0500
Reply-To:     Discussions about UFOs and research for CURRENT ENCOUNTERS
              <CURRENT-ENCOUNTERS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
Sender:       Discussions about UFOs and research for CURRENT ENCOUNTERS
              <CURRENT-ENCOUNTERS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
From:         slk <slk@EVANSVILLE.NET>
Subject:      Re: Air Force figures
Comments: To: Discussion about UFOs and research for PROJECT 1947
          <PROJECT-1947@LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
To:           CURRENT-ENCOUNTERS@LISTSERV.AOL.COM

At 07:24 AM 8/21/98 EDT, Herb Taylor wrote:

>To Francis and the List:
>
>In a recent posting you said that Blue Book only explained 179 cases out of
>over 13,000, and that 88.79% were unexplained.  You owe us an explanation.
>
>Regards, Herb Taylor
 

To Herb Taylor & List:

The 11.21% known or proven explained and 88.79% residual unexplained are
based on the Air Force best-foot-forward (heyday) figures of Project Blue
Book & Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt and have been discussed many times by other
researchers. I wrote a paper on it over a year ago, which was a reprint of
an earlier one. Keyhoe, Hall, Friedman, McDonald, McCampbell, etc., have
been aware of these conclusions for years.

In my error I quoted 179 cases scientifically explained. In actuality these
Blue Book figures (during the most serious time of it's life) were based on
the-then 1593 sightings the Air Force had studied. So only 179 cases were
explained out of the 1593. But, 88.79% were NOT scientifically explained.

Actually it's worse! They studied 1593 sightings, but had received over 4,400
with only 179 explained!!! That's less than 4% explained!

                        Known......Probable.....Possible........Total
Balloons..........    1.57           4.99         11.95           18.51
Aircraft...........     0.98          7.74           3.04           11.76
Astro...............    2.79           4.01          7.40           14.20
Other...............    4.21                                              4.21*
Hoaxes............    1.66                                              1.66*
Ins. Data................................................................22.72
Unknowns..............................................................26.94

If we were to state that a certain percentage of UFOs were "possible" or
"probable" ET, the debunkers would remind us that only the "proven" could
be used. 11.21% were proven explained. The rest were pidgeon-holed.

Francis Ridge
NICAP Site Coordinator