- After World War II, an explosion in reported UFO sightings prompts the US government to try and manage the public's growing fascination with them.
- Experts and investigators examine Project Blue Book, which ran from 1952 to 1969, and was an attempt by the US Government to stem public fear and anxiety about the UFO phenomenon, which came to prominence in 1947 and continues to the present day. Major cases are covered, from the alleged crash of an unknown object at Roswell in 1947, the mass sightings over Washington in 1952, and through to the incursions of UFOs into airspace over US nuclear-armed bases. The conclusion is that much more is known than is being made public, and the Government intends to continue its policy of secrecy.
- Experts and investigators examine Project Blue Book, which ran from 1952 to 1969, and was an attempt by the US Government to stem public fear and anxiety about the UFO phenomenon, which came to prominence in 1947 and continues to the present day. Major cases are covered, from the alleged crash of an unknown object at Roswell in 1947, the mass sightings over Washington in 1952, and through to the incursions of UFOs into airspace over US nuclear-armed bases.
US dropped the atomic bomb on Japan in 1945. Soviets tested their first nuclear bomb in 1949 in Kazakhstan. This started a 40 year stand off between the US and the USSR. Trillions of dollars were spent on building 70,000 nuclear warheads and nuclear submarines. The nuclear tests preceded by astonishing events and precipitated the creation many top-secret projects.
In June 1947, above Washington State, near Mount Rainier, private pilot Kenneth Arnold reports a formation of unidentified flying crafts. The press coined it "flying saucer" or "flying disk". In July 1947, Roswell, New Mexico. Major Jesse A Marcel is an Air Force Intelligence Officer and has recovered items from inside a UFO. This was the only time when the Air Force publicly acknowledged that they had captured a flying saucer. Truman shuts the press down as he believes that the news can cause worldwide panic. The Roswell incident is locked down. The information regarding the crash of a UFO was played down. The White House says that it was a weather balloon.
The Government sets up Project Blue Book to monitor the UFO program. The mandate was to investigate UFO sightings and assess the threat. In 1952, a bunch of UFOs are widely witnessed in Washington, directly above the White House. Air Traffic Controllers saw 7 unidentified objects on their screens over the Washington airspace. At the nearby Andrews Air Force Base, airman William Brady reported seeing disc like objects possessing speed and agility unlike anything he had seen before. Project Blue Book was led by Edward J Ruppelt and was made aware of the incident much later. The same objects were sighted a week later. Air Force jets were scrambled, and one pilot managed to lock on to one of the objects, but it was way too fast and escaped. The objects moved at speeds between 1150 to 7000 miles per hour. The 2nd UFO sighting is observed by Blue Book team at the ATC tower in Washington.
On July 19th, 1952, the largest press conference after WW II was held at the Pentagon. General Samford states that these objects have been seen in the sky since biblical times and cannot be explained. This was the first and only time in history that a military command of a global superpower acknowledged UFO sightings and said that they were credible and inexplicable.
To this day, UFOs are sighted near bases with nuclear arsenals. In one case, the digital launch codes were found to be tampered. To control the flow of information, the disinformation campaign efforts are stepped up. Government officials routinely negate UFO sightings and go on record to state that Aliens have never visited Earth. In Nov 1952, a UFO was sighted in Desert Springs in California. George Adamski and 6 of his friends claim to have an extraterrestrial encounter with a being from Venus. He claims that a small UFO came out of a cigar shaped larger object in the sky. He claims that a being called Orthon emerged from the craft and warned him about the threat of nuclear war. The being communicated non-verbally. In December 1952, Adamski claims to have photographed the UFO. But the image was dunked as a surgical lamp. By this time Project Blue Book was actively manipulating facts and suppressing evidence.
Air Force made a new policy in 1953 that only explainable phenomena could be reported to the press. National security rules were applied to the press to keep them from publish unverified reports of UFO sightings and encounters. Ruppelt says in his book that Project Blue Book was looking into the extraterrestrial hypothesis but were given explicit orders from the military to "explain" the UFO phenomenon. This got the percentage of unknowns down to very low.
Joseph Allen Hynek was a scientist hired by the Pentagon to advise on 3 UFO studies. Hynek claims that while most sightings are bogus, but there are a set of interesting cases, which even he cannot explain. But he finds that the Government was only using him to discredit the UFO theory by holding back evidence and case files. Later on, he changed his conclusions and supported the Government stance on UFO and alien contact.
But sightings continued outside of the USA as well. June 1959, Papa New Guinea. A reverend sees a blue disc in the sky emitting a dazzling light. He saw beings standing on top of the craft, hovering at a height of 200-300 feet. Then the craft vanished as it sped away out of sight.
Air force wanted to shut down Project Blue Book. Air Force hires the University of Colorado to study the UFO Phenomenon in the last 1960's. Dr. Edward Condon testifies that extraterrestrials from outside our solar system cannot reach us for the next 10,000 years. In 1952, there was a Robertson Panel, a symposium of scientists to debate the UFO phenomenon. They concluded that there was nothing to the UFO discussion. But contents of the Blue Book program remained classified till 1975.
The Government worked tirelessly to make the subject of UFOs scientifically non respectable. Project Blue Book was officially shut down in 1969. The archives were released to the public in 2015, but not completely. But one man
In 1964, Socorro, New Mexico. Patrolman Lonnie Zamora saw a flash of light on the horizon. He finds a white object on the ground, which later took off with a blue and orange flame underneath. Hynek meets Zamora and finds him credible. The sightings disprove the most relevant conclusions of Project Blue Book who said that there was no evidence of UFOs, or advanced technological developments, or the UFOs being of alien origins.
The largest study of UFO sightings was done by the Air Force in 1954 and 1955, by the Battell Memorial institute. 3201 cases were studied and 21.5% of them were found to be true unknowns. But officially, Air Force said that it was only 3%. By 1969, Blue Book had accumulated 12,618 UFO sightings. Only 6% or 701 cases were classified as true unknowns. In March 1966, Sheppard Air Force base in Texas. Eddie Laxson is a 56-year-old electrician. He found a UFO on the road early in the morning before sunrise. His car radio suddenly died along with his engine. The craft was 75 feet long, 12 feet wide and 8 feet high. There were figures standing next to the craft. The ship had markings TL 4768. Once discovered, the beings climbed back up into the craft and the craft sped away at 700 miles per hour. Truckers on the road saw this craft as well.
The conclusion is that much more is known than is being made public, and the Government intends to continue its policy of secrecy. Between 2007 and 2012 Air Force had the ATIP or Advanced Threat Identification Program. This was a secret program to study the UFO phenomenon and kept away from public scrutiny. The gap between the UFO community and the scientific community today is a direct result of the stigma associated to the UFO phenomenon during the 1950's, 60's and 70's. But the Government continued to investigate the UFO phenomenon secretly, through the decades, yet denying the existence of any studies after Project Blue Book.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content