--- 09204_2004_001_a.jpg --- SAUCERS OVER HaRry 6. sanues, senior ain ROUTE TRAFFIC LONTRO

--- 09204_2004_001_a.jpg --- SAUCERS OVER HaRry 6. sanues, senior ain ROUTE TRAFFIC LONTROLLER FOR THE CIVIL AERONAUTICS ADMINISTRATIONWAS IN [SHARGE OF THE WATIONAL AIRPORT, WASHINGTON, 0.C.,A.R.T. CONTROL CENTER ON THE NIGHT OF JULY 19, 1952. “TBRIEFY,"HE STATES INA NEWSPAPER ARTICLE, "...0UR JOB 18 TO CONSTANTLY MONITOR THE SKIES ARGUND THE NATIONS CAPITOL WITH THE ELECTRONIC EYE OF RADAR...” SHORTLY AFTER MIDNIGHT ON THAT DATE, SEVENPIPS APPEARED SUDDENLY ON THE CONTROL CENTER'S SCOPE. ED NUGENT, JIM COPELAND, AND JIM RITCNEY,ALL EXPER: NENCED RADAR CONTROLLERS, CHECKED THE OBSERVATIONS. THE AIRPORT CONTROL TOWER RADAR OPERATORVER!~ GiGD JME SAME SlouTING. THEY MERE OVER “THE RESTRICTED AREAS OF WASHINGTON, INCLUDING THE WHITE HOUSE 4ND THE CAPITOL..* ss (Captanc.s. PIERMANA CAPITOL AIRLINES PILOT OF 17 BARNES STATES: “OURING THE NEXT 14 MINUTES, HE ‘YEARS FLYING EXPERIENCE, SHORTLY AFTER TAKING OFF, (PIERMAN) REPORTED THAT NE SAW SIX SUCH LIOHTS, . MAS ASKEDTO CHECK THESE MYSTERIOUS OBJECTS. ME. EAGH SIGHTING COINCIDED WITH A PIP WE COULD RADIOED BACK. SEE WEAR HIS PLANE, WHEN HE REPORTED THAT THERE'S ONE. AND Te: THE LIGHT STREAKED OFF AT HIGH SPEED," DIS- THERE TT OOEST = . S| APPEARED FROM OUR SCOPE...” (3 THAT MEANS IT. ZOOMED OUT OF OUR BEAM JBETMEEW SHEEPS! \T ACCELERATED = FROM /30 MILES PER NOUR TO ALMOST 500. IN LESS THAN 4 SECONDS. - fPIERMAN DESCRIBED IT AS A BRIGHT LIGHT MOVING FASTER, [AT TIMES, THAN A SHOOTING STAR... 7, ‘WASHINGTON, D.C. --- 09204_2004_002_a.jpg --- Barnes en states: “serone NOTIFYING THE AIR THERE IS NO OTHER CONCLUSION Z CAM REACH BUT THAT. FORCE... OUR TECHNICIANS HAD CAREFULLY FOR SIX NOURS ON THE MORNING OF THE 20TH OFJULY THERE ‘CHECKED THE EQUIPMENT TO MAKE CERTAIN THAT WERE AT LEAST IO UNIDENTIFIABLE OBJECTS MOMNG OVER IT WAS OPERATING PERFECTLY. -* WASHINGTON. THEY WERE NOT ORONARY AIRCRAFT. COULD TELL THAT BY THEIR MOVEMENT ON THE SCOPE “ST can SAFELY DEDUCE THAT "...AND COMPLETE REVERSALS [*NOR \N ux OPINION COULD ANY THEY PERFORMED GYRATIONS WHICH OF FLIGHT...” NATURAL PHENOMENA 8UCM, WOKWOWN AIRCRAFT COULD ‘AS SHOOTING STARS,ELECTRI~ PERFORM, ® THIS T MEAN THAT CAL DISTURBANCES, OR CLOUDS ‘OUR SCOPE SHOWED THAT THEY : [ACCOUNT FOR THESE SPOTS ON OUR, COULD MAKE A/GHT ANGLE TURNS" rapaR. 7 He aR DEEPIN AN EFFORT To SoUiRM OUT sovee aete Tue ain Force ove oe fo sou our [74s was THe ain Fonce's exe | Boys: oF This SionTiNe. aTwocLOcK ON JULY 29,1982, 4. | 24 c Ee PRESS CONFERENCE WAS HELO. gomes 0 seater cone: | (1) THE ACTUAL “GENTLEMEN? THE RAgAR-SIGHTINGS OVER Tune-rvension raconr. wren | TEMPERATURE- TMMERSIOM. "we OSICCTS WERE REFLECTIONS ewes a Caren OF Wa INVERSE 0 Clow nays ane nereacreo.as’ | OVER WASH- THEY Aas TuRoveN.\F a TeM- | INGTON ON THE pevarune- version iz rmowe | NIGHT OF JULY Storencnoe. cient nave way | 19,'52, WAS. Even ve nericereo.rwsiewet| JUST ONE causes amates on oesentson | “DEGREE WEATED ROADS. Lice LIeh 9 ‘mares ane szgonarnscreo on'| FAHRENHEIT! REFLECTED."reupenarone~ ‘AND (2) YOU ronce sai. | FORGOT THE VISUAL SIGHTINGS?* --- 09257_2005_001_a.jpg --- 26 July 1952 Memorandum for Record Subject: Trip to Washington, D. C. 1. On 21 July 1952, Col D. L. Bower and Capt EB, J. Ruppelt went to MATS Hq at Andrei Afr Weather Service end Flight Service assisting in Project Blue Book. Col AFB, Maryland, to Gisouss the possibility of the MATS was contacted. He celled in Major from the Director of Intelligence Office of Hq MATS. The proposition that these people could help us in Project Blue Book was presented, ‘The Air Weather Service could help 18 by assisting the reports that we receive for possible balloons and Flight Service could help us by attempting to identify reports that turned out to be aircraft, 2. Capt ‘and Warrant Officer were called into the meeting, These men vere from Air Weather Service, The project was outlined to ‘these people and @ discussion was held as to how they can help us. Capt Ruppelt showed several examples of how we had tracked balloons previously and asked these People if they could do the same, After a lengthy discussion these people left the meeting and it was decided that ATIC would draw up a proposal stating what we wanted these people to do end submit it to them on an informal basis, They vould then review this with ATIC people and make necessary corrections to arrive at a final proposal, then this final proposal would be sent to them through channels, They were advised that if the task appeared to be a big one a transfer of funds from ATIC to MATS could be arranged. 3. The of the meeting with the weather people, Lt Col. who 1s Intelligence Officer, and Deputy for Operations of Flight Service, vas --- 09257_2005_002_a.jpg --- celled in, The problem of identifying these objects as aircraft was discussed. It wes previously known that it is a difficult Job to trace aircraft back to a given position in the U.S, or merely using flight plen reports, etc. However there is a possibility of working sonething out. Several suggestions were offered, (1) that ATIC vould furnish personnel so that there will be one person at each Flight Service Center throughout the U.S, merely to handle unidentified aerial object reports, In this way as soon as a report comes in it could be easily checked. The possibility of having a roving representative visiting various flight services was also discussed. There was no definite plan made as to what would be done 4n this instance, It wes decided however that it would be very advantangeous for ATIC to prepare a letter to CAA and have it distributed to all CAA's ine stallations. This letter would state how to report unidentified aerial objects ‘and would give the CAA facility authorization to send a collect telegran directly to ATIC. This would alleviate much handling of messages. At the present tine CAA facilities relay the messege several times before it reaches the AF Flight Service. After it reaches Flight Service it is handled several more times before At reaches ATIC, In this interim handling it has been found that the message becomes distorted. The meeting ended with an agreement that ATIC would draw up what they desired in the vay aid from Flight Service and that this would be presented to Flight Service and they would put any suggestions or corrections that they felt necessary. Lt Col also agreed to contact CAA and see how inch cooperation they could give us on this subject. 4. On the next dey Col Bower and Capt Ruppelt spent the day in the Pentagon. The prime purpose of the visit was to coordinate the articles that have been written for the copy of the digest,of the Air Intelligence Digest, that will devote about half the issue to the investigation of unidentified --- 09257_2005_003_a.jpg --- aerial objects. Dished in with this was @ great deal of confusion on the recent sighting by radar over Washington Municipal Airport on Saturday night, 5, The first thing in the morning Col Bower and Capt Ruppelt visited the Digest Office. The visit was rather brief and they proceeded to the office of Lt Col Peaberg, in the office of the Deputy for Estimates, Col Peaberg stated that under the reorganization of the Directorate of Intelligence, Major Fournet at AFOIN-283 would no longer be the contact man in Washington for unidentified object reports, A new agency handling this coordination is under the Topical Intelligence Division and the Current Intelligence Branch. Col Bower and Lt Col Peaberg also visited the Office of Public Information of the Air Force. It was there decided that ATIC would send a monthly status report to these people. This status report would be either a classified copy which they could disseminate the information they felt was not classified or a special unclassified report, In addition to this, various things will be send to these people such as memorandums for record that we feel vould be of interest, etc, on Feapt Ruppelt was in the Digest Office, he received a call from tr, Al Chop from the PIO, Mr. Chop stated that the Washington Daily News wished to speak to Capt Ruppelt but he was advised that this could not be done due to existing regulations and that Mr. Chop would have to go through D/I channels to get permission for this interview. Mr. Chop called back and said that the PIO had contacted Gen Ackerman and that Gen Ackermen said in light of tho fact that ‘there had already been publicity that the Daily News could speak to Capt Ruppelt, He was advised hovever that 4t could not be a personal interview due to the time element involved and that they would contact him by telephone, Capt Ruppelt called ‘the Daily News and talked to one of the reporters. He stated that he had been --- 09257_2005_004_a.jpg --- requested by Mr. Chop to call the newspaper, He answered several questions none of which were used in the subsequent news story. One thing that he did stress was that he was not in Washington specifically for the recent sighting. 7, A telephone call was also received from.aGenLandryte-secretary. She into hat toed Dad omen, en lent. to 98 ov he dataa the sighting that had occurred in Washington on Saturday night. She was advised a ‘that ATIC had the report and was working on it and that an evaluation would be | forthcoming. 8, While visiting Mir Weather Service and Flight Service the Director of Intelligence at MATS requested that they be put on a distribution for reports, This was noted and they will be put on the distribution list. } arte