U.S. Air Force

U.S. Air Force

Type	Organization
Also known as	Air Force
On the Timeline	200 events, 1947–2022

The U.S. Air Force became a separate military service in September 1947, months after the first wave of flying saucer reports. It took over responsibility for investigating UFOs and ran the official projects from 1948 until 1969: Project Sign, Project Grudge and Project Blue Book, all based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

Role in the UFO story

Air Force officers wrote some of the key early documents, including the 1947 Twining memo and the reported 1948 "Estimate of the Situation". The service also issued the reporting rules AFR 200-2 and, with the other services, JANAP 146. Critics argue the Air Force publicly played the subject down, as the 1953 Robertson Panel recommended, while handling sensitive cases through intelligence channels; the 1969 Bolender memo said such reports would continue outside Blue Book.

Later involvement

Air Force bases appear throughout UFO history, from Roswell Army Air Field in 1947 to reports at nuclear missile bases such as Malmstrom and F.E. Warren. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations was at the centre of the Bennewitz disinformation affair in the 1980s, and the Air Force published two reports on Roswell in 1994 and 1997.

On the UAP Timeline

• Walter Haut sealed affidavit (8 July 1947) — Roswell press officer Walter Haut's affidavit says his commander told him the base had recovered crash debris from a disc.
• Thomas DuBose affidavit on the Roswell debris (8 July 1947) — Col. Thomas DuBose's affidavit says the Roswell debris went via Fort Worth to Wright Field and the balloon photos were a cover story.
• Garrett's suspicion of secret U.S. tests (1947) (19 August 1947) — An Air Force officer tells the FBI he suspects secret U.S. military tests explain some flying disc reports.
• War Department denial of a U.S. disc program (1947) (19 August 1947) — The War Department says it knows of no U.S. program that could explain the flying discs.
• Twining memo (1947) (23 September 1947) — Gen. Nathan Twining writes that the flying discs are real and could be a secret U.S. or Soviet project.
• Hillenkoetter letter of 24 September 1947 (24 September 1947) — A letter attributed to the CIA director allegedly names Air Force and Navy intelligence units as leads on recovered objects.
• Pretty memo on the Horten brothers (1947) (16 December 1947) — A U.S. Army officer reports locating the German Horten brothers, designers of flying-wing aircraft.
• Laredo UFO crash claim (1948) (1948) — An anonymous retired colonel claims a craft crashed near Laredo, Texas, and witnesses were sworn to secrecy.
• Truman's oral UFO briefings (1948) — President Truman reportedly asks for spoken-only quarterly briefings on UAP research, with no records kept.
• Research and Development Board dismisses the discs (1948) (31 January 1948) — A Pentagon research board publicly dismisses flying saucers as mirages and mass self-hypnosis.
• Hebgen Lake disc report (1949) (17 August 1949) — An Air Force base reports an informant's account of seven discs and two crashed ones; a lake search finds nothing.
• Bell Labs source on 1950 crash files (1950) — A Bell Labs source says a former NASA employee had technical files on a 1950 crash retrieval.
• Henry J. Taylor secret-weapon broadcast (1950) (27 March 1950) — A broadcaster announces saucers are secret U.S. weapons; the story is later called CIA disinformation.
• RAND memorandum RM-365 (14 April 1950) — An Air Force-funded RAND paper studies using superstition and the paranormal for psychological warfare.
• Holloman cigar-shaped object film (1950) (July 1950) — A Holloman AFB contractor films a cigar-shaped metallic object and hands the film to the base.
• Proposal to collect UFO home movies (1950) (6 July 1950) — An Air Force officer wants to quietly collect UAP home movies from the public with FBI help.
• Dewey Fournet's motion study and Navy inquiry (1951) — A Blue Book officer reportedly runs a private, Navy-assisted inquiry into undersea and aerial UAP.
• Anthony Mirarchi's challenge to the balloon explanation (27 February 1951) — The head of Project Twinkle tells reporters the Navy is misleading the public and real UAP show controlled motion.
• Wright-Patterson guard and the tarp-covered craft (1952) (1952) — A former guard is said to have seen a tarp-covered craft taken into a secure area at Wright-Patterson.
• Air Force officer's crash-retrieval remark (1952) (1952) — A source says an Air Force officer told an aerospace meeting he had been at a crash retrieval scene.
• Project Twinkle kept classified (1952) (19 February 1952) — The Air Force's science advisers recommend keeping Project Twinkle, a UAP study at atomic sites, classified.
• Submarine encounters study (1952) (24 April 1952) — Air Force and Navy intelligence study nine undersea UAP encounters reported by U.S. submarines.
• Whitley Strieber's childhood memories (October 1952) — Author Whitley Strieber says he may have been tested at a Texas air base during childhood encounters.
• CIA–MIT talks on UFO study (1952) (2 December 1952) — A CIA science chief meets MIT leaders about studying UAP through Project Lincoln.
• Ruppelt held back before the Robertson Panel (9 December 1952) — An Air Force colonel stops Blue Book's Edward Ruppelt from sharing strong cases with the CIA before the Robertson Panel.
• Toronto dematerialization claim (1953) (1953) — An RAF instructor claims he saw a successful 'dematerialization' experiment in Toronto.
• Warrant officer and the crates of bodies (1953) (1953) — A former Army warrant officer claims he saw crates of small humanoid bodies at Wright-Patterson.
• Pentacle memo (9 January 1953) — A Battelle scientist suggests using Project Stork to reassure the public that everything is under control.
• Robertson Panel (18 January 1953) — The CIA's Robertson Panel recommends stripping UAP of special status and reducing public interest.
• Albert Chop and the Tremonton film release (9 February 1953) — Air Force spokesman Albert Chop claims the CIA killed a press release and ordered a debunking campaign.
• CIA memo on Civilian Saucer Investigation (9 February 1953) — A CIA officer admits monitoring a public UAP meeting in Los Angeles.
• Garrison, Utah crash and burial claim (1953) (20 May 1953) — An anonymous Air Force official claims a craft crashed and was buried near Garrison, Utah.
• Air Force Regulation 200-2 (26 August 1953) — Air Force Regulation 200-2 tightens UAP reporting and routes key reports away from Project Blue Book.
• JANAP 146(C) (10 March 1954) — Directive JANAP 146(C) covers UAP reports and bars civilian pilots from discussing them.
• Roswell-area helicopter crash claim (1954) (12 April 1954) — An Air Force helicopter trainee says he was sent to a desert crash near Roswell in 1954.
• Navy FLYOBRPT reporting instruction (1954) (23 July 1954) — A new Navy directive orders UAP sighting reports sent to several intelligence commands.
• 4602d AISS crashed-object claim (1954) (14 October 1954) — A Marine aviator says he was told an Air Force intelligence squadron ran a crashed-object program.
• Project Silver Bug and the Avrocar (1955) — The Air Force acknowledges a contract with Avro Canada, later known as the flying-saucer project Silverbug.
• Douglas Aircraft unconventional propulsion study (1955) — An aerospace executive claims he worked in a UAP group at Douglas Aircraft from 1955.
• Mrs. G and the Wright-Patterson catalogue (1955) — A Wright-Patterson worker reportedly said she catalogued about 1,000 incoming UAP items.
• Blue Book Special Report No. 14 (5 May 1955) — Blue Book Special Report No. 14 analyzes 3,200 sightings and finds no proof of advanced craft.
• Senator Russell's Soviet sighting (1955) (15 October 1955) — Sen. Richard Russell sees two discs in the Soviet Union; the CIA classifies the case.
• Bernard Schriever and Wright Field technical intelligence (1956) — Gen. Bernard Schriever's testimony describes close work with technical intelligence at Wright Field.
• Joshua Goldberg and Air Force gravity research (Late 1956) — Wright-Patterson's labs hire physicist Joshua Goldberg to manage relativity and gravity contracts.
• Afghanistan saucer reports (1956) (24 January 1956) — Wright-Patterson monitors a reported saucer landing in Afghanistan and plans an overflight.
• Ruppelt's account of the Estimate of the Situation (February 1956) — Edward Ruppelt writes he once saw a top-secret 'Estimate of the Situation' on UAP.
• Air Force Manual 190-4 (1 May 1956) — A former Air Force spokesman says a manual governed all official statements about UFOs.
• John Moss and Special Report 14 (1956) (5 July 1956) — Rep. John Moss asks why the unclassified Blue Book Special Report 14 isn't public.
• Navy pilots' shoot-down orders claim (1956) (5 July 1956) — Unnamed Navy pilots claim standing orders to shoot down hostile UAP over the Pacific.
• White Sands landing reports (1956) (September 1956) — Unconfirmed reports describe a domed disc landing in front of personnel at White Sands.
• NICAP fed a fake crash story (1957) (May 1957) — Civilian group NICAP is fed a fake UAP crash story by a source with NSA ties.
• Mach 3 radar target alert (1957) (24 September 1957) — The Air Force intelligence chief warns of a radar target crossing the U.S. at Mach 3.
• Hill AFB landing claim (1958) (1958) — An anonymous military source claims a UAP deliberately landed at Hill AFB.
• Man in Space Soonest (1958) — The Air Force's pre-NASA 'Man-In-Space-Soonest' program funds a Lockheed spacecraft, later cancelled.
• Rudolf Lusar and the Nazi disc claims (1958) — An Air Force intelligence group analyzes a German author's claims about Nazi flying discs.
• John Lilly and the alleged hypnosis project (1958) — An alleged Air Force project used drugs and hypnosis; one participant believed he contacted aliens.
• McClellan subcommittee persuaded against hearings (1958) (28 February 1958) — An Air Force general says informal talks persuaded Senate investigators no UAP hearings were needed.
• Henderson UFO briefing (1958) (20 June 1958) — The Air Force briefs members of Congress on handling constituent questions about UAP.
• McCormack subcommittee UFO briefing (1958) (13 August 1958) — The Air Force tells a House committee civilian UAP groups are its biggest UAP-related challenge.
• Hunter AFB "UFO crash" letter (1958) (30 October 1958) — An Air Force colonel writes about a 'UFO crash' near Hunter AFB, Georgia.

…and 140 more.

References