Ruppelt was in Washington on January 29, when the press learned about the Tremonton, Utah, film. In addition to Fournet, there were several others, such as Al Chop of the DoD Office of Public Information and Colonel Teabert of AFOIN-2, who believed that the movies should be released in accordance with the promise made the previous summer that no UFO information would be withheld. Ruppelt was still under the idea that the Robertson Panel had recommended full disclosure about UFOs. Hence, he agreed to release the Tremonton film for the newsmen. Ruppelt saw no danger in explaining the film as seagulls, or so he implied in his book. By February 9, Al Chop had written the press release and had shown it to Colonel Smith. They decided to release the air force and navy analyses; otherwise, they thought, the press might suspect a cover-up of “hot” material. They seem to have assumed that the air force analysis (possible aircraft) would outweigh the navy report (“self-luminous or light sources”). They recommended that the movie be released with air force statement that although positive identification had not yet been made, it was confident that with more analysis it would be.82
Once the press release was ready, it moved on to General Garland of ATIC, who approved it. It then went to the Pentagon, which, in Ruppelt’s words, “screamed ‘No!’” Suddenly, there would be no movie for the press and no press release whatsoever. Ruppelt was ordered into silence. Chop said to Keyhoe:
They [e.g., the CIA] killed the whole program. We’ve been ordered to work up a national debunking campaign, planting articles in magazines and arranging broadcasts to make UFO reports sound like poppycock.
Ruppelt told Keyhoe:
We’re ordered to hide sightings when possible, but if a strong report does get out we have to publish a fast explanation—make up something to kill the report in a hurry, and also ridicule the witness, especially if we can’t figure out a plausible answer. We even have to discredit our own pilots. It’s a raw deal, but we can’t buck the CIA. The whole thing makes me sick—I’m thinking of putting in for inactive.
Fournet, already inactive, was ordered not to reveal his UFO conclusion. His secret report was bottled up at Air Force Headquarters as an “unfinished document,” although it was quite finished.83
It is impossible to know how straightforward this group was, whether they were genuinely, albeit mistakenly, trying to implement the recommendations of the Robertson Panel, as Ruppelt implied, or were doing everything possible to get the word out before the clampdown would take effect. Keyhoe’s opinion—always dramatically expressed—still seems the most plausible. He called this group the “censor fighters” who fought “a last battle to reveal the Utah film.” Certainly, all the main players were soon out of the picture. Fournet was gone, Chop soon resigned in disgust, and Ruppelt was gone soon after. Before long, only Hynek remained of the Blue Book team. As a civilian scientist, he was less of a threat inside the project, and was willing to keep quiet. According to Hynek, “Blue Book was now under direct orders to debunk.”84
At the end of February, Ruppelt left Blue Book for a seven-month assignment in Denver, replaced by Lt. Bob Olsson, whose staff consisted of one airman. Olsson later told Ruppelt that his five months as head of Blue Book “was like being president of Antarctica on a nonexpedition year.”85
By March, prominent people in defense were privately urging Keyhoe “to tell the Utah film story.”
Keyhoe continued to be a magnet for military personnel. Already, rumors reached him that the CIA was “slamming the lid down on the saucer stuff.” One source told him:
The air force gave some of their top men a secret briefing. The CIA people advised them to put out a new report, debunking the saucers the way they did in ’49—tell the public the project was ended, and then carry it on underground. It’d probably be top secret.
Keyhoe responded, “They’d never get away with it, not with all they’ve let out now.” But the fight was already over.86
SUMMARY
The year 1952 had brought about the most severe UFO crisis yet. The problem threatened to overwhelm the military in every way: by causing a mass panic, by clogging military communications, by presenting the Soviet Union with an opportunity to make mischief or worse, by causing dissension among the various services and within the ranks, by the air force’s continued inability to stop UFOs from trespassing over restricted airspace, and by the sheer number of objects in the sky that seemed capable and ready to overwhelm the nation.
