Project Blue Book: UFO Study Group
By Billy Booth
By the latter part of 1951, many of the higher ranking
USAF generals became very dissatisfied by Air Force investigations into the UFO
mystery. Project Grudge was closed and replaced by Project Blue Book. Blue Book
began in the early part of 1952.
Captain Edward
J. Ruppelt would be the first head of Blue Book. He was a decorated Airman from
WW II, and later earned an aeronautics degree. He had also replaced some of the
earlier terms given to the UFO enigma, such as "flying saucers," and
"flying discs," with the more technical "unidentified flying
objects." Ruppelt is credited as leading a serious effort to understand
what UFOs really were.
Ruppelt
implemented several upgrades to previous efforts to study the situation of
UFOs. For one, he initiated a questionnaire for reporters. This would compile a
more accurate statistical data base. He employed the Battelle Memorial
Institute to computerize, as it were, the data. Ruppelt demanded neutrality
among his group members, and anyone leaning too far one way of the other would
soon find himself out of the group.
Ruppelt sought advice from scientists and other
experts in an attempt to find an answer to the mystery of the UFOs. He also
released press releases for public consumption, and classified reports for
military intelligence. Under his leadership, two very important cases were
analyzed, the Lubbock Lights, and the Washington D.C. wave of 1952.
One of the
most important members of Blue Book was Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who was listed as a
scientific consultant. Hynek had already served on Project Sign and Project
Grudge. Though a skeptic in the beginning, he would become the most well known
and respected UFO investigator of his era. He also developed a system of
categorizing UFO sighting reports, coining the lasting phrase, "close
encounters." He would be involved in the investigation of the most
dramatic UFO cases of his time.
When
Ruppelt left for a brief period of time for another assignment, and and when he
returned, he was surprised to see his staff reduced from ten or more to just
two. Frustrated, he finally left Blue Book. He was replaced in March, 1954, by
Captain Charles Hardin. Ruppelt would write about Hardin... "he thinks
that anyone who is even interested [in UFOs] is crazy. They bore him."
In 1956,
Hardin was replaced by Captain George T. Gregory, who was noted as being more
"anti-UFO" than Hardin. Very few reports were investigated during
this time frame, and they were quickly determined to be of little importance.
In 1958,
Gregory was replaced by Major Robert J. Friend, who made an attempt toward a
more serious approach to the UFO problem, but his efforts were thwarted by lack
of funds, and personnel. He would eventually recommend that Blue Book be
dissolved.
1963 would see
another head of Blue Book, Major Hector Quintanilla, who for the most part,
assumed the role of debunker. Many critics claimed that by this time, Blue Book
had little, if any, credibility left.
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