History of the United States Air Force UFO Programs 11

3. The United States Air Force Responds

The increase in sightings over the first week of July brought the first official statements in the press. On 4 July, the New York Times quoted an unidentified Army-Air Forces spokesman as stating the miltary had not developed a new secret weapon responsible for the sightings, the Air Force is “inclined to believe either that the observers just imagined they saw something or that there is some meteorological explanation for the phenomenon,” and a preliminary study of the reports had “not produced enough facts to warrant an investigation.” Evidently officials assumed that flying saucers were merely some sort of transitory phenomenon and would soon go away.

But lack of specific orders and coordination investigating reports took an alarming turn on 8 July, when pilots, other officers and airmen, and a crew of technicians at a high-security research and development facility in the Mojave desert, observed reflecting, silver-colored “flying discs”traveling at high-speed against prevailing winds. All attested that they could not have been airplanes.15 The Pentagon brass wanted an answer quickly, issuing classified orders to investigate all flying saucer reports. In response, the Air Force Office of Intelligence was suddenly scrambling to collect sighting data; and contrary to the official denials in the press, were soon wondering if they could be our own technology.

By late July, Lt. Colonel George Garret, in the Collections branch of Brig. General George F. Schulgen’s staff at the Office of Intelligence, Requirements (AFOIR) drafted an analysis of the sixteen most credible cases, compiling a list of reported patterns and physical characteristics of the flying discs.

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From detailed study of reports selected for their impression of veracity and reliability, several conclusions have been formed:

(a) This “flying saucer” situation is not all imaginary or seeing too much in some natural phenomenon. Something is really flying around.

(b) Lack of topside inquiries, when compared to the prompt and demanding inquiries that have originated topside upon former events, give more than ordinary weight to the possibility that this is a domestic project, about which the President, etc. know.

(c) Whatever the objects are, this much can be said of their physical appearance:

1) The surface of these objects is metallic, indicating a metallic skin, at least.

2) When a trail is observed, it is lightly colored, a Blue-Brown haze, that is similar to a rocket engine’s exhaust. Contrary to a rocket of the solid type, one observation indicates that the fuel may be throttled which would indicate a liquid rocket engine.

3) As to shape, all observations state that the object is circular or at least elliptical, flat on the bottom and slightly domed on the top. The size estimates place it somewhere near the size of a C-54 or a Constellation.

4) Some reports describe two tabs, located at the rear and symmetrical about the axis of flight motion.

5) Flights have been reported, from three to nine of them, flying good formation on each other, with speeds always above 300 knots.

6) The discs oscillate laterally while flying along, which could be snaking.16

The assessment concluded that the reports were of a low-aspect (i.e., flying wing) or disk-like aerial technology with very high-performance characteristics. Gen. Schulgen’s staff then began to employ the assessment to query various advanced research and development agencies of the U.S. armed services, hoping to ascertain whether this was our own technology. The answer from everyone, including USAF Chief of Research and Development Maj. General Curtis LeMay, was a resounding no.17 With nowhere to turn, and perhaps wondering if there were developments even LeMay might not be aware of, Schulgen sent the assessment to the aeronautical experts and technical analysts in the Technical Intelligence Division (T-2) of the Air Material Command (AMC), at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The primary function of the T-2 Intelligence division was to analyze reports of a potential or real enemy’s air power.

4. Project Sign ››