What was Project Blue Book?
Tom DeMary – 18 February 2005
Where can I find more background information about the reports?
The NICAP website (www.nicap.org)
contains commentaries on many PBB reports. The Project 1947 website
(www.project1947.com)
also contains much useful material. Reading the administrative files
of the NARA microfilm can be useful, particularly the Project Grudge
report. (A bound copy of the Grudge Report is available from FUFOR.)
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956) by PBB’s first
chief, Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, is a history of PBB and a summary of
Ruppelt’s years there. Dr. J. Allen Hynek discusses his years
as a consultant and many PBB reports in The Hynek UFO Report (1977).
The introduction to Brad Sparks’ Comprehensive Catalog of 1500
Project Blue Book Unknowns (downloadable from www.CUFOS.org)
gives a concise history of PBB with more detail than is given here.
While the Air Force had primary responsibility for UFO investigations,
other original documents concerning UFOs exist in the files of other
agencies: Federal Bureau of Investigations, Central Intelligence
Agency, Department of Energy (Atomic Energy Commission), Defense
Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, the State Department,
US Army, US Navy, and other agencies of the government.
Within the Air Force there are large collections of UFO documents, including
UFO reports not in Project Blue Book files: Air Force HQ intelligence
correspondence files (about 2000 pages), Project Sign/Grudge
correspondence files (about 900 pages), Public Information files
(1948–April 1952), and 4th Air Force UFO files
(1947–1950). A few UFO documents also exist in other Air Force
agencies’ files. Early Air Force unit histories often discuss
UFO reports made by or to that Air Force activity, and in some cases,
a copy of the UFO report is contained in the unit history.
Some of these documents have been released to the public and are available
on government websites, others have been released as the result of
Freedom of Information Act requests, and still others have been found
or wait to be found in various official archives, in some cases in
very unlikely places.