The decision to discontinue UFO investigations was based on an evaluation of a report prepared by the University of Colorado titled, “Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects,” a review of the University of Colorado’s report by the National Academy of Sciences, previous UFO studies, and Air Force experience investigating UFO reports during the 1940s, ‘50s, and ’60s.
As a result of these investigations, studies, and experience gained from investigating UFO reports since 1948, the conclusions of Project Blue Book were: (1) no UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the air force was ever an indication of threat to our national security; (2) 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; and (3) there was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as “unidentified” were extraterrestrial vehicles....
Since the termination of Project Blue Book, nothing has occurred that would support a resumption of UFO investigations by the air force....
Such is the unchanging, official truth about UFOs.2
OFFICIAL CULTURE VS. UNOFFICIAL CULTURE
Some things are true, and some things are officially true.
In 1937, Joseph Stalin authorized the first Soviet census in a decade. Based on growth estimates of the 1920s, he expected a total near 170 million. Unfortunately, the numbers came in at 156 million, and Stalin was none too pleased. Rather than inquire as to what happened to the 14 million missing souls, Stalin devised a simpler solution: he had most of the census takers shot, the rest sent to the Gulag. Two years later, a more amenable 1939 census counted 170 million, which became the official number.
Anyone who has lived in a repressive society knows that official manipulation of the truth occurs daily. But all societies have their many and their few. In all times and all places, it is the few who rule, and the few who exert dominant influence over what we may call official culture. While Stalin’s solution to his census problem was extreme, all elites take care to manipulate public information to maintain existing structures of power. It’s an old game.
Like everywhere else, America has its topics that are too sensitive to discuss openly without distressing some powerful interest. UFOs have always been such a topic, as seen by the combination of official denial, extreme secrecy, public ridicule, and widespread popular belief connected to it. Officially, UFOs do not exist, and are only discussed in public as a kind of joke, or perhaps a piece of cultural kitsch. Yet, some three-quarters of Americans believe in them. Why this disparity? After all, most Americans believe in God, and there is no official ridicule associated with that belief. Could it be that a belief in UFOs is—however odd this may at first seem—slightly subversive?
THE REDMOND, OREGON, INCIDENT
There are many examples in this book that illustrate the disparity between official and unofficial truth about UFOs. Here is one: the Redmond, Oregon, UFO case.
Shortly before dawn on September 24, 1959, Police Officer Robert Dickerson was driving through the streets of Redmond, Oregon, when he saw a large, bright object descend over the city, stop abruptly, and hover at two hundred feet. The object was low enough that nearby treetops glowed. Minutes later, Dickerson drove to the Federal Aviation Administration office at the Redmond airport. Meanwhile, the object rapidly moved to an area northeast of the airport and once again hovered. Its color had changed from bright white to reddish-orange. Through binoculars, Dickerson and others perceived it as flat and round; tongues of “flame” occasionally extended from its edge.
At 5:10 A.M., the FAA reported the object to the Seattle Air Route Control Center, which relayed the message to Hamilton Air Force Base in California. At 5:18 A.M., six F-102 jet fighters were scrambled from Portland to intercept. Witnesses were still watching the hovering object when the jets roared over Redmond. As the aircraft approached, the object squelched its “tongues of flame,” emitted a fiery exhaust, shot up into the air at an incredible speed, and disappeared into the clouds at fourteen thousand feet. It was so close to the path of the jets that one of the pilots swerved to avoid hitting it. Another jet, caught in the turbulence of the tremendous exhaust, nearly lost control. One pilot, using gunsight radar, continued the chase, but the object abruptly changed course—an event that was tracked by radar at Klamath Falls Ground Control Intercept—and the pilot gave up. For two hours afterward, the unknown object continued to register on radar, performing high-speed maneuvers at altitudes between six thousand and fifty-four thousand feet.
