Some weeks after the first ufo was seen on June 24, 1947, the Air Force established a project to investigate and analyze all ufo reports.  The attitude toward this task varied from a state of near panic, early in the life of the project, to that of complete contempt for anyone who even mentioned the words “flying saucer.”

This contemptuous attitude toward “flying saucer nuts” prevailed from mid-1949 to mid-1950.  During that interval many of the people who were, or had been, associated with the project believed that the public was suffering from “war nerves.”

Early in 1950 the project, for all practical purposes, was closed out; at least it rated only minimum effort.  Those in power now reasoned that if you didn’t mention the words “flying saucers” the people would forget them and the saucers would go away.  But this reasoning was false, for instead of vanishing, the ufo reports got better and better.

Airline pilots, military pilots, generals, scientists, and dozens of other people were reporting UFO’s, and in greater detail than in reports of the past.  Radars, which were being built for air defense, began to pick up some very unusual targets, thus lending technical corroboration to the unsubstantiated claims of human observers.

As a result of the continuing accumulation of more impressive ufo reports, official interest stirred.  Early in 1951 verbal orders came down from Major General Charles P. Cabell, then Director of Intelligence for Headquarters, U.S.  Air Force, to make a study reviewing the ufo situation for Air Force Headquarters.

I had been back in the Air Force about six months when this happened.  During the second world war I had been a B-29 bombardier and radar operator.  I went to India, China, and later to the Pacific, with the original B-29 wing.  I flew two DCF’s, and some Air Medals’ worth of missions, got out of the Air Force after the war, and went back to college.  To keep my reserve status while I was in school, I flew as a navigator in an Air Force Reserve Troop Carrier Wing.

Not long after I received my degree in aeronautical engineering, the Korean War started, and I went back on active duty.  I was assigned to the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio.  ATIC is responsible for keeping track of all foreign aircraft and guided missiles.  ATIC also had the ufo project.

I had just finished organizing a new intelligence group when General Cabell’s order to review past ufo reports came down.  Lieutenant Colonel Rosengarten, who received the order at ATIC, called me in and wanted to know if I’d take the job of making the review.  I accepted.

When the review was finished, I went to the Pentagon and presented my findings to Major General Samford, who had replaced General Cabell as Director of Intelligence.