CC: Good morning, Captain Ruppelt.
CR: Good morning, sir.
CC: Captain Ruppelt, we understand that you were head
of Project Blue Book for two years, from September 1951 to some time in
1954.
CR: Yes, Sir.
CC: So, tell me, Captain. Regarding your, uh, "flying
saucers," has the Air Force ever taken the reports of these things seriously?
CR: Yes sir, it has. On September 23, 1947, the chief
of the Air Technical Intelligence Center, one of the Air Force's most highly
specialized intelligence units, sent a letter to the Commanding General
of the then Army Air Forces. The letter was in answer to the Commanding
General's verbal request to make a preliminary study of the reports of
unidentified flying objects.
CC: And what, pray tell, did this letter say?
CR: The letter said that after a preliminary study
of UFO reports, ATIC concluded that, to quote from the letter, the reported
phenomena were real. The only problem that confronted the people at ATIC
was, "Were the UFOs of Russian or interplanetary origin."
CC: Whoa! Slow down there. That's a lot for this ol'
peapicker to digest.
(Spoken in his best Southern drawl, Senator Mo then
takes a deep breath, using the pregnant pause to shift his immense heft
around in his over-stuffed leather chair).
CC: All right now. Let's carry on. Do you know of any
higher placed Air Force officers or Project scientists who actually bought
into this?
CR: Into what sir?
CC: This outer-space idea? It's pretty far-fetched,
to put it mildly.
CR: There was a group among intelligence circles that
thought the UFO's were interplanetary spaceships. They ranged from generals
and top-grade scientists on down. And "maybe they're interplanetary" -
with the "maybe" bordering on "they are" - was the opinion of several high-ranking
officers in the Pentagon, so high that their personal opinion was almost
policy.
CC: Well how come we're just now hearing about it?
Didn't any of these people attempt to tell the public their conclusions?
CR: Well, yes. There were two factions. One believed
the spaceship answer but felt we should clamp down on information until
we had all the answers. Another group favored giving more facts to the
public, including the best cases, the unsolved movies of UFOs, and the
Air Force conclusions. A press showing of the "Tremonton" UFO movie - which
the Navy analysts said showed unknown objects under intelligent control
- was planned early in 1953.
CC: Well, if that's so, what happened to this plan?
CR: A new policy went into effect: "Don't say anything!"
CC: A cover-up, in other words?
CR: Those would be your words, Sir.
CC: Okay. Then could you tell me what, if anything,
transpired as a result of that letter?
CR: The (1947) letter strongly urged that a permanent
project be established at ATIC to investigate and analyze future UFO reports.
It requested a priority for the project, a registered code name, and an
overall security classification.
CC: And whatever became of that?
CR: ATIC's request was granted and Project Sign, the
forerunner of Project Grudge and Blue Book was launched.
CC: So that's when all of this started; this flying
saucer business that got the Air Force's knickers in an uproar began in
September of that year?
CR: Although a formal project for UFO investigation
wasn't set up until September of 1947, the Air Force had been vitally interested
in UFO reports since June 24, 1947, the day Kenneth Arnold made the original
UFO report.
CC: The record, as I read it here says, that quite
a few sightings occurred both before and after the Arnold sighting. Just
how concerned was the Army Air Force about all this? How would you best
describe the situation?
CR: By the end of July 1947 the UFO security lid was
down tight. The few members of the press that did inquire about what the
Air Force was doing got the same treatment you would get today if you inquired
about the number of thermonuclear weapons stockpiled in the U.S.'s atomic
arsenal.
CC: So this was considered a serious situation by the
powers-that-be?
CR: These memos and pieces of correspondence showed
that the UFO situation was considered to be serious, in fact, very serious.
CC: And confusion reigned until then, right? When would
you say folks started to get a handle on the situation?
CR: This confused speculation lasted only a few weeks.
Then the investigation narrowed down to the Soviets and took off on a much
more methodical course of action.
CC: Well, naturally. So, by the end of the year things
really must have calmed down.
CR: Yes sir. While they were still convinced that UFOs
were real objects, the people at ATIC began to change their thinking. Those
who were convinced that the UFOs were of Soviet origin now began to look
towards outer space; not because of any evidence that UFOs came from there,
but because of their conviction that UFOs existed and only some unknown
race with a highly developed state of technology could build such vehicles.
CC: Yes, well that's a pretty fanciful notion, Captain.
Was that ever put into writing?
CR: In intelligence, if you have something to say about
some vital problem you write a report that is known as an "Estimate of
the Situation." A few days after the DC-3 was buzzed [Chiles -Whitted case,
July 24, 1948], the people at ATIC decided that the time had arrived to
make an Estimate of the Situation.
CC: And what was that estimate?
CR: The "situation" was the UFOs; the "estimate" was
that they were interplanetary!
CC: Whatever happened to this estimate?
CR: It got as far as General Hoyt S. Vandenburg, then
Chief of Staff, before it was batted back down. The General wouldn't buy
interplanetary vehicles. The report lacked proof. A group from ATIC went
to the Pentagon to bolster their position but had no luck, the Chief of
Staff couldn't be convinced.
CC: Sounds like my kind of soldier. What happened next?
CR: The top Air Force's command refusal to buy the
interplanetary theory didn't have any immediate effect upon the moral of
Project Sign because the reports kept pouring in.
CC: Would you continue to categorize those reports
of being of serious nature, Captain?
(Whether it's due to his mush-mouthed delivery or the
fawning, greased, obsequious leer that accompanies it, Senator Mo has a
talent for making even an innocent question sound patronizing).
CR: Yes sir, I would. Then radar came into the picture.
For months the anti-saucer faction had been pointing their fingers at the
lack of radar reports, saying, "If they exist, why don't they show up on
radarscopes?" When they showed up on radarscopes the UFO theory won some
converts.
CC: So tell me, Captain Ruppelt. How many official
reports had they gotten by this time?
CR: By the end of 1948, Project Sign had received several
hundred good reports. Out of those, 167 had been saved as good reports.
About three dozen were classified as "Unknowns." At the same time, more
and more work was being pushed off to the other investigative organization
that was helping ATIC. The kickback on the Top Secret Estimate of the Situation
was beginning to dampen a lot of enthusiasm. It was definitely a bear market
for UFOs. A bull market was on the way, however.
CC: And the "moonpies" who believed in the interplanetary
explanation, whatever happened to them?
CR: These people weren't a bunch of nuts or crackpots,
Sir. They ranged down through the ranks from generals and top-grade civilians.
On the outside civilian scientists backed up their views.
CC: Well I guess I stand corrected. Please continue.
Tell us what happened next?
CR: New people took over Project Grudge. ATIC's top
intelligence specialists who had been so eager to work on Project Sign
were no longer working on Project Grudge. Other charter members of project
Sign had been "purged." These were the people who had refused to change
their original opinions about UFOs.
CC: And what then became the policy about UFOs?
CR: Get rid of the UFOs. It was never specified this
way in writing but it didn't take much effort to see that this was the
goal of Project Grudge. This unwritten objective was reflected in every
memo, report and directive.
CC: From my perspective, it looks as though some sanity
had been restored.
(Captain Ruppelt looks down, shaking his head).
CC: What was the overall tone after that?
CR: The one thing that stood out to me, being indoctrinated
in the ways of UFO lore, was the schizophrenic approach so many people
at ATIC took. On the surface they sided with the belly-laughers on any
saucer issue, but if you were alone with them and started to ridicule the
subject, they defended it or at least took an active interest. I learned
this after I'd been at ATIC about a month.
CC: Did you ever ask anyone about this so-called "explaining
away" policy?
CR: I queried one fellow, who answered half-bitterly,
"The powers-that-be are anti-saucer. And to stay 'in favor,' it behooves
one to follow suit." As of February 1951, this was the UFO project.
CC: And did that policy ever undergo a revision?
CR: Yes sir, it did, in September of that year. Right
after the Fort Monmouth radar incident there was a briefing at the Pentagon.
Every word of the two-hour meeting was recorded on a wire recorder. The
recording was so "hot" that it was later destroyed but not before I heard
it several times. I can't tell you everything that was said, but to be
conservative, it didn't exactly follow the tone of the official Air Force
releases. Many of the people present at the meeting weren't as convinced
that the "hoax, hallucination, and misidentification" answer was quite
as positive as the Grudge Report and subsequent press releases made out.
CC: Well, taking these things to be real, honest-to-gosh,
Unknowns for a minute, let me ask. Has there ever been any evidence to
indicate that these things are some kind of threat to our national security?
CR: UFOs were seen more frequently around areas vital
to the defense of the United States. The Los Alamos-Albuquerque area, Oak
Ridge, and the White Sands Proving Ground rated high. Port areas, Strategic
Air Command bases and industrial areas ranked next. UFOs had been reported
from every state in the Union and from every foreign country. The U.S.
did not have a monopoly.
CC: What was the attitude of those working on Project
Blue Book when you were the head honcho? Did you receive much cooperation?
CR: Yes I did. The degree of cooperation I received
wasn't something I expected. The people who had worked on Project Grudge
and the old Project Sign had warned me that everyone hated the word "UFO,"
and that I'd have to fight for everything I asked for. But once again they
were wrong. The scientists who visited ATIC, General Samford, Project Bear,
and now Air Defense Command couldn't have been more cooperative. I was
becoming aware that there was much wider concern about UFO reports than
I'd ever realized before.
CC: And you are trying to tell me, and all the good
folks here on this committee, that you were told to hide the truth from
the public?
CR: I was continually being told to "tell them about
the sightings reports we've solved. Don't mention the unknowns."
CC: I repeat, Captain. You're claiming in front of
God and everybody in this hearing room today, that the Air Force policy
was to lie to the American public - to explain away the sightings regardless
of the facts?
CR: After the Air Force order of February 11th, 1949,
which renamed the project as "Grudge," everything was evaluated on the
premise that UFOs couldn't exist, Senator. "No matter what you see or hear,
don't believe it."
CC: This committee has learned that when the UFOs were
supposedly observed and tracked on radar over Washington, D.C. in 1952,
for goodness sakes, that the media was ordered out of the radar room. Is
this true?
CR: I later found out that the press had been dismissed
on the grounds that the procedures used in an intercept are classified.
I knew that this was absurd because any ham radio operator worth his salt
could build equipment and listen in on any intercept. The real reason for
the press dismissal, I learned, was that not a few people in the radar
room thought this night would be the big night in UFO history; the night
when a pilot would close in on and get a better look at a UFO, and they
didn't want the press to be in on it.
CC: So what about the perfectly reasonable explanation,
in my opinion, put forth by the Air Force regarding the Washington Nation
radar sightings?
CR: In 1952, the press was led to believe the famous
Washington Airport radar/visual sightings were only weather phenomena.
Actually, they're still carried as unknowns. The press conference did take
the pressure off Project Blue Book - but behind the scenes it was only
the signal for an all-out drive to find out more about the UFOs.
CC: Well, following this line of reasoning to its illogical
conclusion, did you ever find a flying saucer connection with atomic testing,
let's say?
CR: In November or December [of 1952] the U.S. was
going to shoot the first H-bomb during Project Ivy. Although this was Top
Secret at the time, it was about the most poorly kept secret in history
- everybody seemed to know about it. Some people in the Pentagon had the
idea that there were beings, earthly or otherwise, who might be interested
in the activities in the Pacific, as they seemed to be in Operation Mainbrace.
Consequently, Project Blue Book had been directed to get transportation
to the test area to set up a reporting net, brief people on how to report,
and analyze their reports on the spot.
CC: On the other hand, Captain Ruppelt, if UFOs are
explainable as a natural phenomena, something I'd much rather believe,
wouldn't you expect the sightings to be concentrated in the areas with
a higher population? In other words: more people, more sightings?
CR: According to the laws of normal distribution, if
UFOs are not intelligently controlled vehicles, the distribution or reports
SHOULD have been similar to the distribution of population in the United
States. It wasn't.
CC: That's it? That's all you have to say? "It wasn't?"
CR: (Ruppelt repeats his previous statement) UFOs were
seen more frequently around areas vital to the defense of the United States.....
CC: What about UFO behavior patterns? Did you come
to any conclusions there, Captain?
CR: The study covered several hundred or our most detailed
UFO reports. By a very critical process of elimination, based on the motion
of the reported UFOs, [Major Dewey] Fournet told the [Robertson] panel
how he and any previous analysis by Project Blue Book had been disregarded.
And how those sightings that could have been caused by any one of the many
dozens of known objects - balloons, airplanes, astronomical bodies, etc.,
were sifted out. This sifting took quite a toll, and the study ended up
with only ten or twenty reports that fell into the "Unknown" category.
Since such critical methods of evaluation had been used, these few reports
proved beyond a doubt the UFO's were intelligently controlled by persons
with brains equal to or far surpassing ours. Earthlings eliminated, leaving
the final answer: Spacemen.
(Leaning forward in his leather chair as far as his
enormous pot-belly will allow, Senator Mo draws a bead on the man in the
hotseat and with the entire hearing room hanging on his every word, drawls
the one question he believes is certain to rattle him).
CC: Captain Ruppelt_
CR: Yes Senator?
CC: As you know, the Air Force insists that its Project
Blue Book Report #14 is proof that UFOs DON'T exist. I repeat: DON'T EXIST.
So, in light of that, Sir, how do you reconcile that with your testimony
here today?
CR: That report was a shock to me. I was the one that
had the IBM [a computer punch card] system tried out. It didn't prove a
thing, and I had written it off as worthless before I left the project_ Also,
that report was drawn up in 1953, yet the Air Force released it as the
latest hot dope in October, 1955.
(Ruppelt, with his response, simple, succinct and decidedly
anti-climactic, manages to diffuse all the drama in the room leaving the
slack-jawed Senator groping for words. Sensing that the mood in the room
has turned, and with his belly crying out for sustenance, the Senator looks
to break for lunch).
CC: Captain Ruppelt, you have been a most cooperative
witness this morning and this committee thanks you for your time. Just
a few more questions if you don't mind and I believe we can wrap up this
morning session.
CR: I don't mind at all, Senator.
CC: Good_good. Well, let's see here. You are on record
as saying that the movies taken of UFOs are the best evidence to date.
CR: That is correct.
CC: Not so much the photos of these objects, but the
motion pictures. What makes the motion picture film better evidence?
CR: [In the case of the Newhouse and Tremonton films]
the possibility that the movies had been faked was considered but quickly
rejected because only a Hollywood studio with elaborate equipment could
do such a job, and the people who filmed the movies didn't have this kind
of equipment.
CC: And you had quite a few of these?
CR: We had or knew about four strips of movie film
that fell into the "unknown" category. Two were cinetheodolite movies that
had been taken at White Sands Proving Grounds in April and May of 1950,
one was the Montana movie and the last was the Tremonton movie. These latter
two had been subjected to thousands of hours of analysis.
CC: And every possibility was eliminated? They were
deemed to be unknowns? Why couldn't the danged things be conventional aircraft,
for example?
CR: In regard to the Newhouse film: We called in several
fighter pilots and they watched the UFOs circling and darting in and out
in the cloudless, blue sky. Their unqualified comment was that no airplane
could do what the UFOs were doing.
CC: And finally: If the UFO situation is a real one
as you claim - if they are solid objects - do you think that they actually
could be spacecraft?
CR: If they are real, there is no other alternative,
staggering as the implications may be.
CC: Once again, Captain Ruppelt, you have been most
helpful. At this time we'll break for lunch and call on the testimony of
some of the other men involved in the Air Force study concerning this fascinating,
but puzzling subject_
