'TR c nsFrm TO h rmc USAF Historica l Archives ASI(ASHAF-A ) Maxwell AFB, Ala 36112 'el:ASSIFIED 7 . Alt~ F1'D ia DOW tbe otttce or pr intere t pr iDS eport ot UD1deattt1ed f'ly1Jal obJecta. tb1 letter 1 beiDI forwarded to .m due to 1tG earlier OC 1atiOD. With thi OJ ct the fact that n ,,.,.., or tm repo-t are oo ' PeR THE CORCAIDER EDWARD H .. Colonel, US tor oience Calp)DeDtG SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY OJrP'ICit OP' THE DIRECTOR A8TftOPHY81CAL OBSERVATORY eo GARDEN 8TRIET CAMBRIDQI 38, MA88ACHU8EII8 Major Robert J. Friend Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Dayton, Ohio Dear Major: I believe you might be interested in the enclosed reply to my letter to General Holzman. Cordially, J. Allen Hynek Associate Director _ ... rice the Command r it orce e eazch Di v1a1on ir c search and Dcve l o ment Comma.n United t tes L1r orce I ahington 25, D. C. De r Genet'a l H lzman: Thank y ou ve~J mu ch for you r letter of 14 J. nu ry 1 60 in \Vhich you informe d me of you r appo1nt m n t by L1euten' nt Oenera l B . Schr~iever' as Director or the ne ir Force Rese 1~ch Division. It is my understanding that the 1r Force ... esearch D!vialon is now one or tlte four maJor divisions of the 1r Force devoted to scientific work, nd that 1t has cogni~ance over tt1e ,ir Force Of"f1ce of Scientific Rose rch, tlte era ut!c 1 ese rch ba r tory at Dayton and certain b s:l.c search acti- vities at the Oeophysics Rese rch Director te and t other "3earch centers. I unde s tand also th t Colonel ' P . Gagg , of ~hom I h ve hear many good reports, \"11 .l assume Directorsh p of the ffice of ac1ent1fic esearch. I nish to tll nk you for JOUr 1nv1t t1on to offer advice nd s uggestions H1th respect t o the policies nd oper tions of the new ir Force esearch ~)!vision. -.:inc I continue to have c l ose contact \11t h both the Geophysics and Eluct ronica esearch Directordtea t Cambridge and \~ith the Lr .,_'orce Office or Scientific Reaearch, as we l l s with the ~erosp~c Technic--.1 Intelligence Cente r , I welcom t his op ortun1ty tJ congr tulate you on youJrl neu posit i o n of gt"eat respons1b1.1 t y nd t o offer~ if I m y , fer comments nd suggestions. At present under the "ponsol"Shi p of GRD I supervise n unm nned balloon project directed touard tile study of stell r c1nt111 tion and image motion a t h gh ltitu es. ith the /c\ir Fo r c e Office of S c ie1 tific Reae .... rch I m presently directing the scientific spects or a series of high ltitu c nned balloon flight s . rur'' pilot i .s c~ pt in Joe Kittinger, nd the t~ork 1a being done under the careful eye or r . ennersten. I should like t o report t h t I have f ound Dr. 1ennersten a most amiable and capable person wit h Llh,lm to t'lorlc, and I ho e tha t our association continues \-lell into the ture . I . ave cently directed to Dr. fo/ennersten an To General Holzman 1nfonn l summary ant outl1n or \t1h t, n my opinion, the futut, of so1ent1r1c r cat'oh from hlgh atmosphel"ic lt1tudea holds. I ohoul be pleased to d1 ct copy to your attent1 l should you so wish. I eshoul al o like to comment '11th pleasure 011 the immense (th t seems to b the moat appropriate word :t:or 1t) enthusiasm and ok111 or captatn 1tt1ngel". I considei' myself ext1--emely fortuna t to be associated ',11th cap in K1tti er in the execution r the balloon flights. I have no specific commendations 1th respect to our balloon worlc, which 1s do in \'lell, exce :>t, of course, to express the hope tha t as it continues to develop it 111 receive your personal good wishes and support. I do, holever, have some apec:tfic recormnendationa in connection \J1th totally d1ffercnt spect or my wo 1< \'41th the 1r Force. For more than a decade I have been consultant to t he erospace T .chnical Intelligence Center at Dayton. During this time I have been rimarily concerned uith the pr~blem or Unidentified lying bjects, particularly their astro- nomical aspects. Aa you l1ell kno~1, the ir Force has tte pted to do aa creditable a job on this touchy m tter as Has l'Vithin their pt"'Ov1nce. However, much of their ork hao been misunderstood by the public, and all too often such public o 1n1on has been unfavor'able to the . ir Force. It seams that the \11ahful thinking portions of the public are 11 too ready to accuse the 1ir Force of covering up the evidence and misleading tha public. 'Ibis is most unfortunate, but is 1n part a natural outcome or placing this problem in an intelligence d1v1a1on of the Air Force rather thnn 1n an out-and-out scientific department. By this I in no way imply an unfavorable compari- son; I merely point out that the obJe!:ti'lea of' an intelligence division re necessarily somewhat d1ffc:J.''-nt th n those, say, of the Geophysics Research Director t e . Since you h. ve been kind enough to asl<: tor my suggestions_, therefore, cting in my capacity s consultant to the ~ir Force, but entirely on my om s ons1b111ty, lll<e to recommend that the scientific aspects f the U"F problem be transt~erred f'11or.1 TIC to a division more directly concer11ed with atmospheric physics, perh pa to the Geophysics Rese rch Directorate To aene1~l Holzman Febru ry 17, l '!be ubjeot or un1<2ent1f1ed lyl bjects more logic l y belong ln a so1ent1t'1o ort1oe rather than in an 1ntell1gence center. M3 reaaona tor 1ng this are these' I think t 1 ampl.J clear a, now that thoee relatlvel ~ew a1ght1nga t h t re puzzltns are related to upper atmoaphere phenomena and muy o er 1ntereat1ng e lea or meteorological and atmospheric optics phenomena and, as 8\IOh, be worthy or study 1n themselves . lte apart from the public 1nterea t in such tters, which should be kept quite separate rrom the l r Force's scientific ottlcee, and ehould properly be the rovince or the public into t1on otrlce, there ma, well be nuggets of scientific value 1n the orten well reported eightings which continue to into the otf1ce of ATIC. I need only remind you that leas than two cen~r1ea ~o the en~ire provlnoe of meteorites was kept out or legitimate astronomy because stories of ustones that fell from the sky" were regarded as old wives t les. Had these accounts been 1ven careful ttent1on by the scientists or that day, the productive branch or astl"onomy which we no\1 know aa meteoritics would have been born well over a contury eurl1er than it was. I do not 1nt in that thete is eces rily ny parallel bet ween the "atones t h t fell rom heave11" nd the many " f ying sauce r ' stories e hear to ay. lh t I do say, h o1:rever, is that since the I~il" Force I because or 1 t s defense obli .. a t1on to the nation to ke~p track of potent lly ost1 e bjects in the sky, must take account or such report , that cart in of those repot--ts m1ch re deemed to h ve possible scientific value should be brought to the cognizance of sc1ent1f1c offices most directly able to cope with them. 'ith its excellent roster of phys1c1sto and upper atmosphere apec1al1ats, i t seems to me that the Geophysics eae rch Directorate might \trell undertake this aspect or the UFO problem. I do b ~11cve that \'lith their starr of ec1ent1ato many of the repl) l'ted s1ghtin s which !'omaln " unknown" nd evelo p into political heud chea ~or the ir Force (since it so frequently happens that the public i e uick to write to ita reas1onal representatives th: t these s1ght1ng3 are net gett1n6 a square deal from the orce) ~oul be quickly cle red up n d second1y, n o gre ter import ce to me a a scientist, ny such re_orts, pro cry ex mined, ml~t add rich ch~pter to tmos l1er1c o tics and upper a t mosph 1~ reseu.rch. I do, therefore, t"~commencl th t consideration be given to the transfer of the c1ent1fic spects of the Uh1 entif:ted tlying Object pr'oblem to the co niza.nce of the Geophysics Research Dlrectoriatc or another appropri t e scientific 1v1- s ion of the ,\1I' FOJ."Cc HEADQUARTERS AIR FORCE RESEARCH DIVISION AI,_ AESEAACH AND DI!VEL.OPMENT COMMAND UNITilD ITATEI AlA frOACE WASHINGTON 21, D. C . Aatroph7Bical Obeen-atoey Snd. thaoaia I uti tution 6o Gardan Stnet Caa dp )8, Massachusetts Dear Dr. HJDBk: 8 March 1960 I vu ftJT happy to receiw JOur letter of 17 Fe I have read with interest your nggestion that the stud7 or UFOs be tr intelligence ls to the scientists. Accordingly, I am forwarding a COp)" or your letter to Headquarters , Air Research aDd Dewl C with a requeet that i t con- sider ,our suggestion. Again, ray appreciation for your thought.rulness. Brir, r G"'. vr Rtrl' Tl.l HEADQUAHTERS FOREIGN TECHNOLOGY DIVISIO AIR FORCE SYSTEMS COMMAND UNIT r> 5 T !t. ff: S "Il-l CHH. E' WRIQHTPATTER"ON AIR FOJ.ICE BA-.1, OHI O su Her: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena ro TD-G {Colonel Carlisle) 1 . Reference our letter to AFCIN-P, subject: "Project Bl ue Book (Uniden- tified Flying Objects) , " dated 20 April 1962, relating information concern- ing the briefing on unidentified flying objects given to Mr. Edward R. Trapnell, Assistant for Public Relations to the Secretary of the Air Force . 2. Paragraph 6 of the referenced letter expressed that in the opinion of FTD the UFO program s hould be discontinued a s a special project and the function absorbed by the Air Force in the conduct of i t s overall missi on. Investigating and evaluating UFO sightings should be the res ponsibility of the Air Force facility nearest the scene of the incident. Attempts shoul d be made to determine the cause for all sightings , but the primary objective would be directed toward determining the threat potentia l of the occurrence. 3. Our opinion that the UFO progrwn s hould be discontinued a s a specia l project i s drawn from the following: During the past 15 years the USAF has st udied over 7300 ca s e s of sightings of unidentified f lying object s without discovering one shread of evidence indicating that UFO sightings are due to interplanetary space b. Discontinuation of the UFO project would not result i n the loss of valuabl e information. For thos e incidents which may be significant other than a s UFO s ightings , reports are made to other Air For ce elements through channels completel y independent for t hose spelled out f or UFO reports . Based on experience gained from handling thousands of ca s e s , it i s believed that field organizations could determine the caus e s for approximately 75 percent of the cases and evaluate the threat potential of them all. Due to the time element and familiarity with the loca l environment, field organizations are often in a better position t o determine t he cause for sightings , such as those which resu l t f r om the misidentification of air- raft, balloons launched locally, etc., than i s FTD with the present method operation. 4. Some of the sightings which take pla ce during a year require more sophis - ticated treatment than some field units are capable of giving; howev er, i n these instances the field unit s h ould recognize the significance of the sighti ng and notif y s ome agency with a specialized capability, e . g . , the ~ Smithsonian Institute, i n the instance of suspected meteorite impacts. In other cases it s hould onl y be necessary for the field unit to collect the data and forward it to some interested agency for analysis, e . g . , radar scope films to RADC. 5. Before t he UFO pr ogram cou l d be discontinued a s a specia l project the public woul d have to be educated to accept this new philosophy. The follow- ing information would have to be brought t o their attention: USAF' s primary interest i n UFO' s is to dete!1nine their threat potential and/or military val ue . Positive determination of the caus e s for a l l sightings i s desirable, but to accompl i s h this would require extensive inv e stigation and study of all sightings , in most ca s e s placing an unnecessary Gtrain on the Air Force's Probable causes for sightings based on limi ted information shoul d be d . The Air Force should not be required to dispr ove the claims of inde- pendent UFO organizations or investigators that sightings are due to inter- planetary space vehicles. 6. If, contrary to our suggestion, the UFO program is continued a s a specia l project, the following is offered a s an alternate solution: UFO project office be divorced from any connections with intelli- gence and assigned t o some organization within the Air Force' s scientif i c b. The project office be staffed with personnel who have the proper backgrounds to analyze the sightings , conduct the investigations of significant incidents , and to conduct an effective public-relations program. public education program designed to allow discontinuance of the p r ogram a s a special project after a specified time period, be a part of the mission of the project office. - --EDWARD H. WYNN Deputy for Science and Components MEMO ROUTIIB SLIP NH J.'Oii AI'I' ROVAL.o.; DISAPPROVALS CURRENCE ', OR S1M1LAR AC7'10NS ' INFORMATION VIERIATION SICINATUitl Reolaoee DD Form 9(, 1 Feb 50 and DD Form 96, 1 Feb 50 which will be ueed until exhausted. HEADQUARTERS FOREIGN TECHNOLOGY DIVISION AIR FORCE SYSTEMS COMMAND UNITED STATES AlA FOACE WRIQHTPATTERSON AIR FORCE. BASE, O H I O ATTH oF: TD-E/Lt Col Friend sueJEcT: Trip Report (UFO) To : TD-E (Colonel Wynn) On 6 April 1962 Lt. Colonel Friend, TD- E, visited DOD to participate i n a briefing on the Air Force ' s unidentified aerial phenomena program for Mr. Edward R. Trapnell , Assistant for Public Relations to the Secretary of the Air Force. Also present were Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Project Consultant, and Major c. R. Hart, SAFOI-3b. Mr. Trapnell requested this briefing after his interest in the matter was whetted by a statement by Dr. Robert Ca lkins , President of Brookings Institute . The gist of Dr. Calkins' state- ment was that it was unfortunate the Air Force must suffer the bad publicity associated with unidentified flying objects, with a suggesti on that some private agency might relieve the Air Force of the problem. During the briefing Mr. Trapnell was informed of the origin of the pro- gram, the Air Force method of handling it, conclusions and recommendations regarding it by s uch groups a s the Robertson Comrnjttee of January 1953, Air Force conclu sions after 15 years of study, current problems, and recommen- dations for sol ving them. The foremost conclu sion was that no evidence has avail able to the Air Force indicating that UFO' s constitute a threat to national security or are interplanetary vehicles bearing life or intelli- gence of any sort. The outstanding recommendation was that definite step s be taken to carry out the recommendations of the Robertson Connrdttee; to that the UFO program be stripped of the aura of mystery and put into its proper prospective and that a program designed to inform the public regarding UFO' s be instituted. In the eyes of the lay public anything associated with intelligence assumes an air of great se crecy; therefore, it was suggested that the first step toward stripping UFO' s of their cloak of mystery would be to divorce the program from its connections with the intelligence c ommunity. Mr. Trapnell was amazed to learn that the UFO traffic today was three times that of the earl y years of the program and observed that this could grow into a life-time job unless headed off in some manner. He stated that following a planned meeting with Mr. Zuckert, Secretary of the Air Force, Dr. B. McMillian, SAFRD, and Dr. Calkins, Brookings , one of the following ctions mjght be taken. a. The UFO program will be transferred t o some agency such a s NASA, NSF, or Smiths onian and pursued under an entirely different title such as mospheric Physics b. Transferred within the Air Force from technical intelligence t o a strictly scientific caoplex and contracted to some private organization, such as Brookings . Contracted to same private organization, such a s Brookings , which will make positive statements regarding the program and the Air Force s handling 0f it in the past and make recommendations regarding its f uture , i.e., disban the program completely or handle it a s outlined in A or B 4. Following his planned meeting with Mr. Zuckert, Dr. McMillian, and Dr. CaJ kins , Mr. Trapnell plans t o visit FTD with Dr. Calkins for an informaJ discussion prior to a decis i on regarding the UFO program. No date has been set for this visit. Mr. Trapnell s uggested that the UFO files be put into order to allow transfer of the complete office at a moment's noti ce. 5. It i s my opinion that it will prove very difficult, if not impossible, to transfer this program to another agency because none of them want to inherit the public relations problem that goes with it. The final solution will probably be either to disbanl the project entirel y and allow the Air Force to absorb it in the nor111aJ course of its overall mission or to contract it to some private organization, the contract being monitored by some agency within the Air For ce's scientific structure. I recently sat beside Dr. Robert Calkins, president of Brookings, at dinner. Among the items we discussed was the UFO business . He feels that the Air Force should get somebody to take an independent look at this thing , probably some kind of a citizen co1mnittee which could review the matter and issue a report in such a way as to get the Air Force off the spot it seems to think we are have agreed to stt down with him some time and discuss the possibilities. He says Brookings would be willing to help in whatever way it can. In the meantime, I would like to have your views on what might be done constructively in this connection. TD-/Lt Col F iend/vw/69?16 Project Blu Boo (Unident ifie, FJ;ying ~ ct ) Wa sh 25 OC 1 . 6 April 1962 FTD participated in a briefing on the U unidentified flyins objectn proJect which vas siven t o l w d R . Tra n 11, Ass1 tant for Publ i c Relations to the ecr tary of the Air Force. This brief1ng s equeoted by Mr. Trap 11, ollo-w-i.Da a. c ual conver at i on bet~ en him and r . Robert Cal kin of Brookings Research Ins t itut wh re th l.atte1 ande a renark regar ins how unfortunate it wa.o that th Ail' For e w fore to suffer the bad publicity associated \{i:th unidentified f'lying objoctc . 2 . ing the rieting Mr. apnell uao intol'mcd of the history of th pro- gram, the Air Force s n~ethod of ha