Thanks largely to Keyhoe, and despite all efforts by the air force and even the White House, UFOs became an important media issue for the first time in three years. The year 1950 was also a year of significant sightings by many trained airline personnel. It featured one of the best-ever photographs taken of a UFO, and the most striking motion footage to date. It was a year of continued, and seemingly unharassed, violations by UFOs over restricted military airspace, including Air Force Headquarters and several key scientific sites. During the summer, intelligence personnel in the air force, navy, and army, as well as FBI and CIA staffers, were involved to some extent in the investigation of UFOs, while at the same time diligently hiding this fact from the public. Throughout the year, rumors of crashed discs and dead aliens pervaded the air force, reached the FBI, and even spilled over into the media. It was a year of several high-level conversations confirming interest and secrecy about UFOs, of various plans by the American and Canadian governments to track UFOs, and may have featured a crash and recovery of one.
A measure of control over the UFO problem slipped away from the air force during 1950. Other branches of the military and government showed greater behind-the-scenes interest, and the public showed nascent signs of independent thinking on the subject. Still, the problem appeared manageable, at least from a public relations point of view. The beliefs of people like Keyhoe and Scully were still a small minority, and during these years after the Second World War and the peak of the cold war, most Americans held an almost worshipful attitude toward their military. But even a reverential and compliant public could only go along with the program as long as the UFOs themselves—whatever they were—remained in the background, as they had more or less done in 1948 and 1949. If 1951 proved to be as active as 1950 had been, things could be difficult for those managing the problem.
Fortunately for those people, 1951 was a less active year for UFOs. During the first half of the year, activity was modest, and it seemed possible that the air force had buried the flying saucer. During April, May, and June, for example, AMC received a mere seventeen UFO reports. But the problem did not exactly go to sleep. Several UFO encounters were spectacular, and not all of them official. On June 1, 1951, one of these occurred directly over Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. An official at the base saw a disc make a turn too sharply for any known aircraft. He described it as a “clearly defined outline similar to a stubby cigar” and moving “faster than an airplane, slower than a meteor.” Years later, when he reported the sighting to NICAP, he requested confidentiality because of his position.72 Another interesting encounter took place on July 9, 1951, over Dearing, Georgia. While flying an F-51, Air Force Lt. George Kinmon saw a white, disc-shaped object “completely round and spinning in a clockwise direction” making a head-on pass at his aircraft. The air force intelligence report noted that the object was
described as flat on top and bottom and appearing from a front view to have round edges and slightly beveled.... No vapor trails or exhaust or visible means of propulsion. Described as traveling at tremendous speed.... Pilot considered by associates to be highly reliable, of mature judgment and a creditable observer.73
Less than a week later, on July 14, near White Sands, two radar operators picked up a fast-moving UFO. One tracker watching a B-29 through binoculars saw a large UFO near the bomber. Simultaneously, another observer with a movie camera shot two hundred feet of film of the object, which supposedly showed a round, bright spot. Unfortunately, the film disappeared and has not been seen since.74
Project Grudge could hardly be expected to investigate even this minimal activity: by the summer of 1951, it had a single person serving as investigator of flying saucer reports.75
THE LUBBOCK LIGHTS
The air force containment of the UFO problem depended first and foremost upon the cooperation of the UFOs themselves. As the pace of good sightings increased during the latter half of 1951, the air force had to decide whether it needed to manage the problem differently. The problem started with the Lubbock Lights.
