FOIA: Project Blue Book Gen. Garland Briefing 1967

Gen_Garland_Briefing.pdf
Project Blue Book Gen. Garland Briefing 1967
Fair Quality Scans of letter from Gen. Garland to Col. Sleeper and copy of UFO Briefing made by 1st. Lt. William F. Marley.
Document date: 1967-08-02
Department: USAF
Author: Gen. William C. Garland
Document type: Report, Letter
pages: 24


Archivist's Notes: Few pages are unreadable. Correspondence between Col. Sleeper and Gen. Garland discussing an earlier briefing to Gen. Garland and his staff on the subject of Unidentified Flying Objects in which recommendations where made to change the image of Project Blue Book and capitalize on the general population's belief in UFO's while discussing the various aspects of Project Blue Book.

Pg. 2 Project Blue Book briefing presented by 1st Lt. William F. Marley, Jr.

Pg. 4 50 million Americans believe in UFO phenomena in 1967. 11,500 sightings since 1947. No positive evidence UFOs present a threat to US national security. Evidence denies existence of extra-terrestrial origin for UFOs. Public believes Air Force has been withholding information. With so many believing in UFOs, it is to the interest of AF to capitalize on this belief.

Pg. 5 UFOs not new phenomenon, reported throughout history, examples cited. Modern sighting era began in June 1947 with Mr. Kenneth Arnold's sighting and subsequent news reports of "unknown vehicles from outer space," starting avalanche of reported sightings.

Pg. 6 Lt. Gen. Twining(sp?) of Air Material Command sends letter dated 23 September 1947 to Commanding General of Army Air Forces saying detailed study of sightings needed. 30 December 1947 letter from Chief of Staff directs AMC to begin Project Sign, delegated to Air Technical Intelligence Center.

Pg. 7 February 1949 investigation of 243 sightings completed by Project Sign. No definite and conclusive evidence yet available to prove or disprove existence of UFOs. Project Sign changed to Project Grudge 16 December 1948, completing analysis of 244 sightings in August 1949. Project Grudge concludes "UFOs demonstrate no threat to the security of the US. Reports of UFOs the result of mis-interpretation of conventional objects..." Report recommends reducing scope of study. December 1951, AF enters contract with private entity for another detailed study.

Pg. 8-9 Report completed 17 March 1954 referred to as Special Report #14. Same conclusions as previous reports reached. National interest in sightings increased tremendously in early '50s. Scientific Advisory Panel established late 1952. Conclusions and recommendations of panel made public in attempt to remove aura of mystery. Project Grudge becomes Project Blue Book in March 1952. Memo dated 28 September 1965 from Maj. Gen. LeBailly requests scientific panel of both physical and social scientists review Project Blue Book, resulting in Special Report of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board Ad Hoc Committee, which concludes program would be strengthened by in-depth scientific study of selected sightings. July 1966, Commander of the Foreign Technology Division (Col. Sleeper ?) requests in-depth study of 50 sightings to identify what procedural changes should be made to Blue Book methodology. Results of study revealed no evidence of extra-terrestrial vehicles nor anything beyond range of current scientific knowledge. Likely explanation for sightings man-made objects, natural phenomena, or psychological causes. Public education stressed. Release of official books, reports, and news items recommended.

Pg. 10 UFO phenomena mainly public relations problem. Public expected to accuse AF of withholding information as investigation assigned to AFTI.

Pg. 11 Opinions of Scientific Community. Astronomers speculating on extra-terrestrial life. Interstellar space travel possibly developed by other civilizations. Dr. Carl Sagan's work cited.

Pg. 12 Possibility of life from Mars or Venus investigated by Dr. Charles Smiley of Brown University. Launch windows studied. No corelation found.

Pg.13 Dr. Menzel of Harvard Observatory states of many observatories around the world, none have ever photographed a spaceship. The Space Detection and Tracking System would certainly detect such craft. Project Ozma noted no "intelligent" radio signals in its one year program. Dr. Menzel concludes no UFO has originated outside this planet. Leading Soviet astronomers concur.

Pg. 14 US and Soviet astronomers agree "a high probability for ET life exists. To date, no confirmation of the theory."

Pg. 15-16 Discussion of Project Ozma. Search for possible radio signals from neighborhood of certain stars. Signal to target stars sent in July 1960. Results, if any, will not be known until 1982. Meteorites only items of ET origin available for study. Organic materials not of earth origin found in meteorites would support existence of ET life.

Pg. 18 Conclusions
*UFOs no threat to national security
*UFO capabilites not beyond range of present scientific knowledge
*No evidence UFOs are extra-terrestrial in origin
*AF classification of UFO projects and intelligence community association contributes to public skepticism and distrust.
*Disclosure on ongoing basis necessary

Pg. 21 New image for Project Blue Book recommended.

Pg. 23 Letter from Col. Sleeper to General Garland in regard to report.

Pg. 24 Response from General Garland to Col. Sleeper expressing concern about UFO phenomenon being tied to ET research.

Analysis

It appears that the initial Sign and Grudge Projects were attempts by the Army Air Force to sweep the UFO phenomenon under the rug. A cursory examination and a "nothing to see here folks, move along now" approach. The UFO phenomenon, however, would not go away. In fact, it seems these brush off attempts only served to deepen public curiosity about UFOs, and fuel public skepticism at the "official" explanation. There was considerable back and forth within the emerging Air Force in regard to just what to do, and how to go about doing it. Project Blue Book was the answer.

Considerable attention is given to speculation on extra-terrestrial life and its connection to UFOs. Final conclusions are to the effect that the two are not related, and odds of ET life contacting earth are slim, on the order of once per thousand years. The subtext suggests to me, from the proclivity of references to UFO technology being within the bounds of current scientific knowledge, that the AF knows UFOs are terrestrial in origin, but they don't want to, or are prevented from, coming right out and admitting it. General Garland even goes so far as to state, in his last communication to Col. Sleeper regarding the report, that he doesn't believe it is a good idea to link UFOs and ET life.

[edit on 7-3-2008 by Icarus Rising]

At the NICAP site there is a great coverage of the events related to 1967. Since Garland's report includes a great overview of the phenomena and a thorough analysis of sightings and conclusions, I think is interesting to take a look at the official report belonging to that era. Here is an excerpt:

" I am more convinced than ever that a positive program in extraterrestrial life or communications studies should not be tied to the UFO problem...I am convinced that we would really open the flood gates on UFO problems if the public thought that the Condon group was about to get involved in extensive research on extraterrestrial activities." - Brig. Gen. William Garland (NARA-PBB87-602)

www.nicap.org...

go here for all the documents


www.majesticdocuments.com...