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, • FRmCH AIR FORCE VERSUS THE ~Os
(5 Jlz Lt Col G:ton Alexis· --
Since last year, the specialist and g~neral press, radio :and televisio!l netwrks
have been paying an increasing amount of attention to UFOs. Certainly, public
interest in this subject has not yet reached the level of 1954, which caused
two l-iPs, Messrs Jean Nocher and Leotard, to put a written q-aestion before the
Secretary-of State for the Armed Forces, on October 22, concerning the role
o.f' tho armed forces in this area. It is true that Mr Galley, the the%!.
Minister of Defence, recalled it clearly at his interview on France-Inter~
In view of the currency of· the subjcc~ however, it seems useful tc recall
the role of the air force in this matten to present the UFO dossier held by
thea and to summarize the various theories and counter-tbeorie& which e~ist in
.France.
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At the end of the last world war, a scientific bureau was set up within the
Air Ministry to follow the development of aero-apace techni~~eo and technologies
and the progress in the knowledge of the aero-terestrial and spatial envh-onment
in which aircraft and satellitas have their _being~ It has since become a fore-
casting and development bureau but its roles have not changed. In 1951, when
the wave of statements on the appearance o! "mysterious heavenly objects''
increased in volume in France, this bureau, on its O'l.'n initiative, opened ~
dossier on the subject in order better to appreciate the r~ture and location of
these manifestations in French airspace.
In 1954, the Secretary of State foy: the Armed Forces asked the air force to follow
up this question on an official basis from that time on.
An Instruction !rom the air force eta£! put th~a decision iuto conerete form.
All high. commands were asked to communicate to the "air" scientific .bureau all ·
evidence of U?Oa coUect~d on their territory.