◆ SpookStack

Who’s Minding The Store? PROJ ECT BLUE BOOK: Public excitement aroused by a series of UFO sightings in 1947, prompted the Air Force to inau- gurate a clearing house for such reports, and a public information official to announce the conclusions arrived at by Air Intelligence as to what those UFOs really were. The Project was born under the name Sign, later became Grudge and is known today as Blue Book. its history has been a stormy one. Private investigative organizations have accused Project Blue Book of concealing information, distorting reports and dismissing important evidence as irrelevant or misconceived. The Air Force’s own consulting scientists have indicated something less than satis~ faction with the final conclusions released to the press by Air. Intelligence. Air Force pilots have been quoted as being thorough- ly out-of-patience with the treatment their objective and detailed reports have been given by Project Blue Book and its guiding intelligence. - There have been charges that the Air Force knew more than it was revealing and that its weasel-worded reports were an affront to the public’s intelligence and an insult to the reputable persons who submitted the reports. There have been suggestions that the Air Force was convinced of the existence of interplanetary craft and had accepted the likeli- hood of actual landings and of exploratory operations. The ac- knowledged incidents of ‘‘dogfights’’ between our ‘own jets and UFOs, plus the known occurrences of jets ordered up to intercept these aerial phenomena lent support to these suggestions. In 1952 Edward Ruppelt was placed in charge of Project Blue Book. His efforts at honest appraisal of the major sightings, pitted against the sometimes confusing, sometimes conflicting and often downright aggravating obstinancy of ATIC to accept and/or to re- lease for publication the whole story, provide the material for Rup- pelt’s comprehensive, no-punches-pulled, account of his years as chief of Project Blue Book, The Report on Unidentified Flying Ob- jects (Doubleday).