Project Blue Book - Case Closed?
The United States Air Force actively investigated UFO sightings under a program named Project Blue Book. The program was started in 1947 and was terminated on December 17, 1969. Project Blue Book investigated 12, 618 UFO sightings and 701(5.6%) of those sightings remained unidentified.
Critics felt that the investigations of the UFO sightings were sloppy and unscientific. The critics believe that Project Blue Book was merely a public relations campaign designed by the US Air Force to calm the public's fears about UFOs. The critics believe the ultimate purpose of the report was to cover up the truth about UFOs.
The final results of Project Blue Book were:
No UFO reported, investigated and evaluated by the Air Force was ever an indication of threat to our national security there was no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as "unidentified" represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge there was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as "unidentified" were extraterrestrial vehicles1.
A
Publication Studying "Project Blue Book"
Project Blue Book stated that the sightings of UFOs were the result of:
A mild form of mass hysteria individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity psychopathological persons misidentification of various conventional objects. Project Blue Book was a continuation of previous military projects to research the UFO phenomena- Project Sign and Project Grudge. The project was headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The mission of Project Blue Book was to investigate the alarming number of UFO reports and draw a conclusion from their research on the origin of UFOs.
US Air Force Secretary Robert C. Seamans, Jr., terminated the project because the US Air Force could no longer justify the project for national security reasons or scientific study. After closing Project Blue Book the US Air Force has not publicly acknowledged any further interest in UFO sightings.
Critics believe that members of Project Blue Book covered up the real story behind UFOs. Since the published report was no. 16 they ask what happened to the previous 15 Project Blue Book reports? The program used poor research methods and researchers were too eager to label a mysterious sighting as 'identified' phenomena. The goal of Project Blue Book was to explain every case as identified even if there wasn't supporting evidence. These critics believe that members of Project Blue Book were pressured to 'identify' UFO sightings to calm the public hysteria about UFO's. This theory has been supported by the recent release of CIA documents. They also suggest that any report that was initially perceived as unexplainable or would cause public concern was never included in Project Blue Book. They allege that these reports were passed on to a higher authority that never reported the results to the public.
The critics believe that even though Project Blue Book was a US Air Force public relations campaign they still were unable to identify 5.5% of the cases. What were the UFO's in these cases? Shouldn't these cases receive further study? Could these cases possibly conceal the greatest discovery of mankind?
Project Blue Book was supposed to put an
end to the UFO debate but it only intensified the controversy.
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