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This Black Vault compilation contains a September 1997 reply from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense to John Greenewald's FOIA request, enclosing its UFO records. The enclosures include a Navy information sheet dismissing the Philadelphia Experiment and an Air Force UFO fact sheet listing 12,618 Project Blue Book sightings, 701 of them unidentified. They also include the National Academy of Sciences review endorsing the University of Colorado report and the concluding pages of a 1994 Air Force Roswell report attributing the wreckage to Project MOGUL.
“Sightings”41 pages
• -, .-t I ~ . --,- . ' ' .' .' .- SC!EN By James Oberg F rict10n between science and fly- ing saucers has generated a bliz- zard of sparkS over the years. The s•des are well defined: Establishment scientists tradrtionally dtsmiss UFO data as tancitulliction, wtme UFO enthusiasts ponray themselves as outcast Galileos. prophets ol a new scientific revolution. Advocates of Unidentified Aying Ob- jects •nsist that tney are onto some extraor- dinary phenomenon unaccountable by contemporary science. The tavonte theory involves alien spacecraft. but growmg splinter groups promote various psychiC, interdimens1ona1. cross-temporal, con- splfatorial. or even more bizarre hy- potl'leses. Whatever it is. UFO enthusiasls asser1. the confirmation of extraterrestrial ·ngs could be a key to the next great 3kthrough in human knowledge. rew could argue such a premise. Early 1n 1977. the wire services reported that astronomers now favllr scientific stud- ies of UFOs. AccorcMg :o The New York Times . ·unidentified flying ob jects should be •nvestigated further. a ma,ority of trained astronomical ooservers said in a survey disclosed recently.· Closer analysis showed that the pnvate pro-UFO survey actually meant that only one-quarter of thOse polled responded that UFOs ·certamly" or ·probably· de- served ::.:Udy. w1th a few more agree•ng .•Y.Jr··.· .~ .; ..... .........• .. NFL ......-....- __ ! that they ·possibly" ~esetved study. More to tl'le point. onty on~er o11 percent of the astronomers thought that UFOs were important enough to warrant their personal attention. But the poll did nevertheless seem to bestow some measure of scientific re- spectability to thi$ topic. previOusly ranked among the lunatic fringe. ·The poll was symptomatic of the changing image of UFOs. and the new status of UFO re- searchers. After three decades ol exuberant if ama- . teurish fieldwork. furious propagandizing, and aimless theorizing, a number of UFO groups have finally begun to play the game using rules ot science. Accepting the burden ot proof. they have mounted an impressive scientific program designed to demonstrate. finally. that UFOs exist. On a dark hillside in Texas. white- uniformed men monitor a battery of instru- ments. hoping to catch and record the subtle physical effects alleged to accom- pany UFO visitations. In photographic labOratories across the country, data pr~ cessing specialists analyZe computerized images of alleged UFO photographs. seeking ev1der1ce of forgery and potential proof of authenticity. A computeriZed data base in Chicago pnnts OUt pan em analy- ses of UFO sightings. seeking a signal behind the noise of thousands of annual • Spectacular g1ow.ng UFO was p!'lotograptted lrom a Coneorde durmg 1973 SO/at eClipse. • reports. Pieces ot metal picked up near..aJieQed landing. sites undergo spectr~ scopic examination in weU-eQuippecl laboratories. These are the techniques of science. appMd to a subject long regarded as be- yond the fringes of science. But these are the techniQues that will produce proof. if proof is p0$Sible. Standards are .now tighter and tt'le experience of UFO investigators greater, so that many ·unknowns· have dimin- ished. More and more cases have been SOlved. but always a traction remain un- solved. unexplained. unidentified. This reskiue of unknowns is the basis tor UFO enthusiasts' hope. Skeptics disagree, saying that inherent limitatiOns in human perception. memory. and knowledge will always introduce a small artificial restdue of unknowns. So what kind of data will stand up to sCi- entific standards. not as a leftover residue of mysteries but as a definitive list of r• c01ded events? Laying aside the possibilities that a ~en ambassadors will land at the White House or that the fabled ·s,.:rel captured flying saucer· will ever be rescued from alleged governmental oblivton. hard evidence for the reality and respectability ot UFOs must come from laboratories now engaged in scientific research. The "Pro,ect Starlight International· team. privately but generously funded by some Texas millionaires. has assembled an array of instruments that could produce incontrovenible ev1dence. They have cam- eras. radar, spectrometers. magnetome- ters. ra~uon sensors. gravitometers. and a small laser beam to commumcate wtth extraterrestria ls should they happen Oy. The Starlight UFO trap has now been in full operation tor nearly three years. New eQuipment conttnues to be added. includ- ing a radar set and computerized alert system that automatically telepnones vol- unteer sJ<ywatchers m the vicinity ot a computed UFO posttlon. The system ~s well in dnlls-but nothing substan- tive has resulted. The most exctting recent e~·e nts have dealt With a fi erce wooc t1ck 1nfesrat10n or
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