596293

26 July 1952 Memorandum for Record Subject: Trip to Washington, D, C. 1. On 21 July 1952, Col D. L. Bower and Capt E, J, Ruppelt went to MATS Hq at Andrews AFB, Maryland, to discuss the possibility of the MATS Air Weather Service and Flight Service assisting in Project Blue Book, Col was contacted, He called 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 us 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 were from Air Weather Service. The project was outlined to these people and a 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 and submit it to them on an informal basis, They would 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 is Intelligence Officer, and Deputy for Operations of Flight Service, was Called in. The problem of identifying these objects as aircraft was discussed. It was previously known that it is a difficult job to trace aircraft back to a given position in the U.S, or merely using flight plan reports, etc. However there is a possibility of working something out, Several suggestions were offered, (1) that ATIC would 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 in this instance, It was decided however that it would be very advantangeous for ATIC to prepare a letter to CAA and have it distributed to all CAA's in- stallations. This letter would state how to report unidentified aerial objects and would give the CAA facility authorization to send a collect telegram directly to ATIC. This would alleviate mech handling of messages. At the present time CAA facilities relay the message several times before it reaches the AF Flight Service, After it reaches Flight Service it is handled several more times before it 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 way 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 mich cooperation they could give us on this subject. 4. On the next day 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 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-2B3 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 would be of interest, etc, A Jorgi Ruppelt was in the Digest Office, he received a call from Mr, 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 Ackerman said in light of the fact that there had already been publicity that the Daily News could speak to Capt Ruppelt, He was advised however that it 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 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.a,Gen-Landryts-secretary. She stated, that tec Brosidant, dad xoqueeted, Gen Landry. to find. out the detatia. of. the sighting that had occurred in Washington on Saturday night, She was advised ql that ATIC had the report and was working on it and that an evaluation would be | forthcoming. 8, While visiting Air 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.