FOIA: Standard Project Blue Book Briefing February 1953

Standard_Briefing.pdf
Standard Project Blue Book Briefing
Good Quality Scans of the Standard Project Blue Briefing, possible draft copy with handwritten corrections.
Document date: 1953-02-09
Department: U.S.A.F. A.T.I.C
Author: Unknown
Document type: Report
pages: 20


Archivist's Notes: Report discusses the basic premise, history, operations, analysis and reporting for Project Blue Book. It provides brief history of UFO events, explanation for sightings, explanation for classifications and percentages of each. Acknowledges reports that cannot be explained.

Only a month after the briefing document prepared for the Air Force, due to the interest after Blue Book, another briefing document was prepared this time named just as standard briefing for general purposes. The document dates as February 9, 1953 starts by discussing the security of the project with the majority of information being considered (at the time) as restricted. According to the briefing this is done with the purpose to protect the identify and the names of the people who have given reports.

The briefing makes it clear that the Air Force does not like to use the term flying saucers but prefer as technical name unidentified flying objects. Even in this document, as in the previous one dated January 3, 1953, a short history of the phenomena has been presented and explained the results achieved till that moment. The majority of the cases investigated till 1949 were classified as:

1. Mass hysteria or war nerves

2. Hoaxes or persons seeking publicity

3. Psychopathlogical persons

4. Misinterpretation of known objects.

But as the document stated, after a detailed investigation and a great deal of study given to this documented sightings the wast majority of the reports received are not due to the mass hysteria or war nerves, psychopathlogical persons, publicity seekers etc but they are reports made by persons who have definitely seen something that they couldn't explained themselves at the time of sighting...

Then the document goes one explaining the current situation, the involvement of the Air Force in the investigation and the steps taken to study the phenomena in the depth. The briefing report uses in a great deal of its part, the same material used for the special briefing of Air Force Command.

ATS FOIA related link: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Checking for more informations in the regard (we're all well aware of Blue Book story) I found something that I was looking specifically due to the reach information that it contains. I remembered from the long years of my personal research into the phenomena that Bruce Maccabee had raised some good points and written extensively about those specific years, 1947-1952-53. I did find something in his website that can help in a better understanding of the phenomena in those early years:

On January 3, 1952, Brig. Gen. William M. Garland, Assistant for the Production of Intelligence, wrote a memorandum for General Samford with the title “(SECRET) Contemplated Action to Determine the Nature and Origin of the Phenomena Connected with the Reports of Unusual Flying Objects.” This memorandum begins as follows: “1. The continued reports of unusual flying objects requires positive action to determine the nature and origin of the phenomena. The action taken thus far has been designed to track down and evaluate reports from casual observers throughout the country. Thus far, this action has produced results of doubtful value and the inconsistencies inherent in the nature of the reports has given neither positive nor negative proof of the claims."

Here we find a general in Air Force Intelligence (AFI) admitting that there was no negative proof of the claims. Yet the Air Force had been saying publicly for several years that there was “negative proof”...that all sightings had been explained. Clearly the men “on the inside” were more honest with each other than with the American people about the fact they they had not been able to prove flying saucers were only mistakes or figments of the imagination. By this time it had become a standard procedure to appeal to the Soviet Menace in order to legitimize requests for action and the expenditure of funds. General Garland, too, justified the added effort he would propose by referring to the potential Soviet threat: “2. It is logical to relate the reported sightings to the known development of aircraft, jet propulsion, rockets and range extension capabilities in Germany and the U.S.S.R. In this connection, it is to be noted that certain developments by the Germans, particularly the Horton wing, jet propulsion, and refueling, combined with their extensive employment of V-1 and V-2 weapons during World War II, lend credence to the possibiltity that the flying objects may be of German and Russian origin. The developments mentioned above were contemplated and operational between 1941 and 1944 and subsequently fell into the hands of the Soviets at the end of the war. There is evidence that the Germans were working on these projects as far back as 1931 to 1938. Therefore, it may be assumed that the Germans had at least a 7 to 10 year lead over the United States in the development of rockets, jet engines and aircraft of the Horton-wing design. The Air Corps developed refueling experimentally as early as 1928, but did not develop operational capability until 1948.”

YEARS OF THE UFO