| Form: 97 BB Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:24:46 From: Fran Ridge Restored: 27 Sept 2018 with the aid of Giuliano Marinkovic Subject: Radar Incidents, Early 1952, Briefing of ADC March 19, 1952 To: CE, SHG, NCP In these early months of 1952, reports of radar sightings increased rapidly, most of these reports coming from the Air Defence Command. Soon after the Alaskan incident Ruppelt got a telephone call from the chief of one of the sections of a civilian experimental radar laboratory in New York State. Ruppelt's caller said, "Some damn odd things are happening that are beginning to worry me." The lab technicians had checked everything they could think of, but still they were getting many anomalous returns of such scope definition and such performance peculiarity that they thought that the Air Force ought to be informed as soon as possible. Ruppelt, in a rather limp moment, told them to send in a report by mail to ATIC. The report duly arrived, hand-carried by no less than a General from Headquarters, Air Material Command. He had been at the radar laboratory and, hearing of these events, had offered personally to deliver the report to Wright-Patterson. Since the report concerned radar, Ruppelt was obliged to give the report to ATIC's electronics branch, where unfortunately it fell into the hands of the old anti-UFO veterans of the previous Projects Sign and Grudge. He tells us that the head of the Electronics Branch lectured the head of the laboratory (a man who possibly wrote the textbooks the staff of the Electronics Branch had used in college) all about how a weather inversion can cause false targets. He was gracious enough to tell the chief of the radar lab to call if he had any more "trouble." The lab was never heard from again. This kind of event made Ruppelt even more determined to improve relations with Air Defence Command Headquarters. He travelled to Colorado Springs in early February with a definite plan of how ADC could assist ATIC in getting better data on UFOs. Again, meeting the higher intelligence of the bigger boys, he made much better progress than with the lower-case, garage-limited elements of ATIC. In contrast, for a middle ranking Air Force enlisted officer, he was received like royalty: I briefed General Benjamin W. Chidlaw, then the
Commanding General of the Air Defence Command, and his
staff, telling them about our plan. They agreed with it in
principle and suggested that I work out the details with
the Director of Intelligence for the ADC, Brigadier W.M.
Burgess. General Burgess designated Major Verne Sadowski
of his staff to be the ADC liaison officer with Project
Grudge.
The result of Ruppelt's visit was that ADC issued a directive to all their units explaining the UFO situation and how to take appropriate action. All radar units equipped with scope cameras would be required to take photographs of targets that the operators considered to be in the UFO category. Such photos, along with a completed questionnaire, would be forwarded to Project Grudge. The Ground Observer Corps would be integrated into the UFO reporting net, and individual controllers had the option to scramble fighters when quite anomalous, definite and bright returns were registered. (Bullet links work and were found on the NICAP site. - Fran Ridge) http://www.bluebookarchive.org/page.aspx?PageCode=NARA-PBB85-614 http://www.bluebookarchive.org/page.aspx?PageCode=NARA-PBB85-615 |
