Many groups in the Pentagon and the Office of Naval Research requested ufo briefings.  Civilian groups, made up of some of the nation’s top scientists and industrialists, and formed to study special military problems, worked in a ufo briefing.  Top Air Force commanders were given periodic briefings.

Every briefing I gave was followed by a discussion that lasted anywhere from one to four hours.

In addition to these, Project Blue Book published a classified monthly report on ufo activity.  Requests to be put on distribution for this report were so numerous that the distribution had to be restricted to major Air Force Command Headquarters.

This interest was not caused by any revolutionary information that was revealed in the briefings or reports.  It stemmed only from a desire to get the facts about an interesting subject.

Many aspects of the ufo problem were covered in these official briefings.  I would give details of many of the better reports we received, our conclusions about them, and how those conclusions were reached.  If we had identified a ufo, the audience was told how the identification was made.  If we concluded that the answer to a ufo sighting was “Unknown,” the audience learned why we were convinced it was unknown.

Among the better sightings that were described fully to interested government groups were:  the complete story of the Lubbock Lights, including the possible sighting of the same V-shaped light formations at other locations on the same night; the story of a group of scientists who detected mysterious nuclear radiation when UFO’s were sighted; and all of the facts behind such famous cases as the Mantell Incident, the Florida scoutmaster who was burned by a “flying saucer,” and headline-capturing sightings at Washington, D.C.

I showed them what few photographs we had, the majority of which everyone has seen, since they have been widely published in magazines and newspapers.  Our collection of photographs was always a disappointment as far as positive proof was concerned because, in a sense, if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.  We had no clear pictures of a saucer, just an assortment of blurs, blotches, and streaks of light.

The briefings included a description of how Project Blue Book operated and a survey of the results of the many studies that were made of the mass of ufo data we had collected.  Also covered were our interviews with a dozen North American astronomers, the story of the unexplained green fireballs of New Mexico, and an account of how a committee of six distinguished United States scientists spent many hours attempting to answer the question, “Are the UFO’s from outer space?”

Unfortunately the general public was never able to hear these briefings.  For a long time, contrary to present thinking in military circles, I have believed that the public also is entitled to know the details of what was covered in these briefings (less, of course, the few items pertaining to radar that were classified “Secret,” and the names of certain people).  But withholding these will not alter the facts in any way.