Gun-camera films sent to the CIA claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 10
| Claimant | Richard H. Hall (1930–2009), former assistant director of NICAP |
|---|---|
| Source | Uninvited Guests (1988), citing a former head of Project Blue Book |
| Claim | Gun-camera film from jet fighters' encounters with unknown objects was routinely sent to the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC), not analysed by Blue Book |
| NPIC | Created in January 1961 as a joint CIA–DIA imagery centre |
| Documented | NPIC gave covert technical help on UFO photographs to the Condon Committee in 1967 |
| Status | A routine gun-camera pipeline is unconfirmed |
| Date | 1962 |
| Topics | Beings & bodies (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Richard Hall |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 65 |
| Year | 1962 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1962 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
The UFO researcher Richard Hall wrote in his 1988 book Uninvited Guests that a former head of Project Blue Book had told him something about fighter film. Gun-camera film taken by jet fighters during encounters with unknown objects was routinely sent to the CIA's National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC), he was told, rather than being analysed by Blue Book.[4] If true, the claim would mean that some of the best photographic evidence bypassed the Air Force's public UFO office.[1][4] Declassified CIA records confirm that NPIC examined UFO photographs on occasion, notably for the University of Colorado study in 1967.[2][5] A routine pipeline of gun-camera film from fighter intercepts has not been confirmed.[5]
Richard Hall
Richard H. Hall (1930–2009) worked for the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) from 1958 to 1969, rising from executive secretary to assistant director.[1] His career in outline:[1]
- NICAP. He researched and edited much of NICAP's The UFO Evidence (1964), which was sent to every member of Congress. He wrote a sequel in 2001.
- Later work. He directed the Fund for UFO Research and edited the MUFON Journal.
- Reputation. The astronomer John B. Carlson called him "the dean of ufology", a researcher who was "scientific, careful". Hall rejected what he called the "ding-a-ling fringe".
- His views. He held that UFOs were extraterrestrial craft.
Hall had his own contact with the CIA. In 1964, after Director John McCone asked for a fresh evaluation of UFOs, CIA officers met Hall. The agency's historian describes him as NICAP's acting director at the time, and says Hall gave them samples from NICAP's sighting files.[1][5]
The claim
The claim appears in Uninvited Guests: A Documented History of UFO Sightings, Alien Encounters & Coverups (1988), in a passage cited at pages 99–101 and 179.[4] Hall attributed it to a former head of Project Blue Book: fighter gun-camera film of unknown objects went to NPIC rather than to Blue Book.[4] The book could not be read for this article; the only online copy is a restricted lending copy. Hall's exact wording, and which Blue Book chief he meant, could not be checked.[4]
NPIC
President Eisenhower authorised the National Photographic Interpretation Center shortly before leaving office in January 1961. It was a joint project of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, part of the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology, and its main job was imagery analysis.[6] In 1962 its analysts discovered the Soviet missiles in Cuba. It became part of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, in 1996.[6]
What the records show
The CIA's 1997 history by Gerald Haines documents NPIC's UFO work for the Condon Committee:[5]
- The liaison. In February 1967 Brigadier General Edward Giller of the Air Force proposed an informal liaison to NPIC's director, Arthur C. Lundahl. Under it NPIC would give the committee technical help in examining UFO photographs.
- Low profile. Lundahl and the CIA's deputy director for intelligence approved, on condition that the CIA "maintain a low profile" and that "no work done for the committee by NPIC was to be formally acknowledged".
- The visits. On 20 February 1967 Edward Condon and four colleagues visited NPIC. They were told that any help "must not be identified as CIA work" and heard about equipment "not available elsewhere" that the CIA had used to analyse UFO photography supplied by the Air Force. In May 1967 they returned to hear an NPIC analysis that debunked photographs from Zanesville, Ohio.
- Silence. The Condon Report of 1969 did not mention CIA participation.
Earlier, the CIA had obtained UFO photographs from the Cleveland television cameraman Ralph Mayher in 1957. Haines notes that the Air Force held the original negatives and that the CIA's records were "probably destroyed".[5] Fighter film featured in the 1953 Robertson Panel's review, which attributed images in a 1950 Great Falls, Montana, film to sunlight reflecting off two Air Force interceptors.[5]
A CIA reading-room document on NPIC photo analysis of UFO imagery is among the sources. As retrieved, the page showed only the reading room's front page.[2] A MuckRock article on a formerly secret memo about Air Force UFO photo analysis refused automated access.[3]
Significance
The claim is often cited in arguments that Blue Book was not the whole story. Its strongest material, on this view, may have gone elsewhere.[1][4] The documented NPIC work shows that the CIA's imagery experts did examine UFO photographs, and that the agency took care to keep its role hidden.[5] It does not show that gun-camera film from intercepts was routinely routed there.[5]
Assessment
The claim rests on Hall's report of what an unnamed former Blue Book chief told him.[4] Hall was regarded as a careful researcher.[1] CIA records confirm only occasional, deliberately unacknowledged NPIC analysis of UFO photographs, not a standing arrangement for fighter film.[5]
People and topics
- Richard Hall — NICAP assistant director and author of Uninvited Guests.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Central Intelligence Agency — The U.S. foreign intelligence agency, which has followed UFO reports since the 1940s.
- NICAP — The leading U.S. civilian UFO group of the 1950s and 1960s.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Project Blue Book — The Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 until its closure in December 1969.
- National Photographic Interpretation Center — The CIA-run center that analysed spy-plane and satellite images.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
On the Timeline
- Moon Dust, Blue Fly and UFO draft policy (1961) (13 November 1961) — An Air Force draft policy names intelligence teams for Projects Moon Dust, Blue Fly and 'UFO'.
- Navy reserve pilot's Wright-Patterson saucer claim (1962) (1962) — A Navy reserve pilot says he saw a saucer at Wright-Patterson in 1962.
See every 1962 event on the UAP Timeline →
Further reading
- Project Blue Book — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Project Blue Book records — National Archives · archives.gov · archived copy
- Project Blue Book files — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
References
- Richard H. Hall — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- NPIC photo analysis of UFO imagery — CIA reading room · cia.gov · archived copy
- Formerly secret memo on Air Force UFO photo analysis — MuckRock · muckrock.com · archived copy
- amazon.com · amazon.com · archived copy
- Gerald K. Haines, "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90", Studies in Intelligence (1997) (PDF) · cia.gov
- National Photographic Interpretation Center (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “Richard H. Hall”, “National Photographic Interpretation Center (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency)”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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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