Pentacle memo
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 9 January 1953 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Government programs (topic) |
| People | Howard C. Cross, Edward Ruppelt, Jacques Vallée |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 48 |
| Year | 1953 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1953 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 9 |
The Pentacle memo is a memorandum of 9 January 1953 from Howard C. Cross of the Battelle Memorial Institute to the U.S. Air Force's Project Blue Book, written days before the CIA's Robertson Panel met. It recommended waiting for Battelle's statistical study of UFO reports and proposed controlled experiments, and was later published by researcher Jacques Vallée, who saw it as evidence of a hidden level of UFO study.[1][2]
Background
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Under a classified contract later associated with the name Project Stork, Battelle, in Columbus, Ohio, had been analysing Air Force UFO reports since 1952, coding about 30 characteristics of each case onto punched cards. That work produced Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 (1955), which found that the best-documented cases were more likely, not less, to remain unexplained, though the Air Force's summary played this down.[2][3]
The memo
Cross's memo recommended that the CIA-sponsored panel of scientists, due to meet in January 1953, wait for Battelle's results before drawing conclusions. It also proposed setting up controlled observation areas with planned aerial activity, to test how well observers and instruments could identify objects in the sky.[1][4]
Publication
Vallée first published the memo under the codename "Pentacle", to hide Battelle's identity. He argued that it showed a level of UFO study above Blue Book, with the Robertson Panel used to steer public policy while serious work continued elsewhere. Others read it simply as a contractor protecting its own research.[1][4]
Aftermath
The Robertson Panel met from 14 to 18 January 1953, found no threat and recommended efforts to reduce public interest in UFOs. The memo is genuine, but the full Battelle archive has never been released.[3][5]
People and topics
- Battelle Memorial Institute — The Ohio research institute that analysed Air Force UFO reports.
- Project Stork — Battelle Memorial Institute's classified analysis of Air Force UFO reports from 1952.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Blue Book Special Report No. 14 — Blue Book Special Report No. 14
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- Robertson Panel — Robertson Panel
- Howard C. Cross — Battelle scientist who wrote the 1953 "Pentacle" memo.
- Edward Ruppelt — Head of Project Blue Book in 1952–53 and author of The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.
- Project Blue Book — The Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 until its closure in December 1969.
- Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
On the Timeline
- Fort Polk crash claim (1953) (1953) — An Army source says he saw an egg-shaped craft crash-land at Fort Polk, Louisiana.
- Robertson Panel (18 January 1953) — The CIA's Robertson Panel recommends stripping UAP of special status and reducing public interest.
See every 1953 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "Why the 'Pentacle memo' still matters", UFO Cosmos · ufocosmos.pages.dev · archived copy
- Project Blue Book — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Robertson Panel — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Jennie Zeidman, "I remember Blue Book", Project 1947 · mail.project1947.com · archived copy
- "Report of Scientific Panel — IAC-D-67", CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- Project Stork documents — UFOScans / CUFON · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- pbs.twimg.com · pbs.twimg.com · archived copy
- pbs.twimg.com · pbs.twimg.com · archived copy
- cufon.org · cufon.org · archived copy
Further reading
- Pentacle memorandum — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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