Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book is perhaps the most well known project the U.S. government has carried out when it comes to investigating unidentified flying objects. The project was initiated in March of 1952 and was terminated over a decade later in December of 1969, after the military stated that there was no benefit in investigating the phenomenon. Throughout the seventeen years, the members investigated a total of 12,618 UFO reports; 701 of which are to this day unexplained (or rather can only be explained by the extraterrestrial hypothesis).
The aim of Project Blue Book was twofold: the first aim was to scientifically and objectively study the UFO reports, and the second was to determine whether these unidentified flying objects, which thousands had seen in the sky, had posed a threat to national security or not. The project itself was terminated not because there was a drop in UFO reports, but because the Condon Committee had stated that studying UFO reports was wasting the military’s resources. As a result of such a statement, the study was terminated even though there were over seven hundred cases still unsolved, and a significant number of reports that had enough evidence to prove the existence of extraterrestrial life.
Captain Edward Ruppelt was the first director of the project, and was the first individual to use the term “unidentified flying object.” Ruppelt’s stance on the phenomenon was an unbiased one, and he made sure that all members on the board would have the same approach. With the previous UFO studies having tarnished the phenomenon, Ruppelt’s approach reinstated its importance. In 1956 Captain George Gregory took over as head director of Project Blue Book. The direction that Gregory led was the total opposite of Ruppelt’s. The majority of UFO reports were not investigated. The ones that were investigated were given the same explanation: that the sighting was a misidentification of a meteor or of another natural phenomenon.
In an attempt to once again reinstate the objectivity of the study, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Friend was appointed the director of the project in 1958. Although Friend’s approach was similar to Ruppelt’s, there was an issue with a lack of resources that limited the investigation. Ironically enough, his era as the head director of the project came to an end due to the fact that Friend himself believed that the study was ineffective and practically useless given the lack of money and resources being provided to him. Project Blue Book’s final years were under Major Hector Quintanilla’s control. Once again, the study had a well-renowned UFO skeptic as its director.
In 1970, the project was terminated, and its final report stated: “No UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the air force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security. There has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as “unidentified” represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge. There has been no evidence indicating the sightings categorized as “unidentified” are extraterrestrial vehicles.” 153
It must be emphasized once again that just because a report is officially listed as unexplained does not mean that there is not a logical explanation. It is crystal clear by now that no Air Force funded project considered the extraterrestrial hypothesis to be a plausible one, and the conclusions that all projects came to had been predetermined. The lack of objectivity and openness made the studies a failure from the get-go.
With reference to the conclusion that Project Blue Book had come to, there are a number of flaws that will be outlined. The first is that there have been enough UFO reports that prove that extraterrestrials do exist. Although there is also a good amount of reports that can be explained through natural phenomena, there have been hundreds of UFO reports that prove the presence of an interplanetary object.
Secondly, as has already been stated, since we do not know the intentions of these beings, we cannot come to a definite conclusion and state that these UFOs do not pose a threat to mankind’s safety. In reality, it would be quite foolish to assume that. The truth of the matter is that these beings are clearly in possession of advanced technology. If they ever decided to, they could wipe out mankind effortlessly.
153. United States Air Force, USAF Fact Sheet 95–03, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25674/25674-h/25674-h.htm.