The Investigation Of Ufo Events At Minot

The Investigation of UFO Events at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota Thomas Tulien Sign Oral History Project www.minotb52ufo.com Following the UFO events in the early morning on 24 October 1968, Strategic Air Command, Offutt AFB, NE, initiated investigations. Immediately after the B-52 landed, pilot Maj. James Partin reported for a debriefing in the office of the Base Operations commander Col. Ralph Kirchoff. The designated Minot AFB UFO investigating officer, Lt. Col. Arthur Werlich, was awakened and informed of the situation. Later, the Bombardment Wing commander requested an analysis of the B-52 radarscope film by targeting studies officer SSgt. Richard Clark. Later, the 810 Strategic Aerospace Division commander Brig. Gen. Ralph Holland debriefed the B-52 crewmembers. Werlich phoned SAC headquarters requesting technical assistance for his investigation. Denied assistance, he was instructed to comply with Air Force Regulation 80-17. That afternoon, the Strategic Missile Wing commander dispatched a team to investigate the break-in at Late in the day, Werlich phoned Project Blue Book at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, reporting the UFO events, and began the process of collating the case data per Air Force Regulation 80-17. Several days later, he submitted the Basic Reporting Data, and the next day, Blue Book staff requested supplemental information. Werlich also forwarded all information he collated to Gen. Hollingsworth at SAC headquarters for briefing Vice Commander in Chief Gen. Keith Compton and staff (on 31 October). In the week following, Air Force officers arrived from off base to review the radarscope film and invited B-52 Navigator Capt. Patrick McCaslin to join the meeting. Oscar-Flight Security Controller SSgt. William Smith informed Werlich of numerous reports of unusual lights near the Canadian border, and recalls an officer spent a few days at Oscar-2 camped in a vehicle. Blue Book chief Lt. Col. Hector Quintanilla evaluated the case data received from Minot AFB, and submitted a final case report on 13 November 1968. Preceding text: A Narrative of UFO Events at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. From 1946-1992, Strategic Air Command was the operational establishment of the United States Air Force, responsible for the bomber-based, and ballistic missile-based strategic nuclear arsenal. Minot AFB, in northwestern North Dakota, was a principal SAC dual-wing base, consisting of the 5th Bombardment Wing, with 15 B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers capable of delivering nuclear and conventional ordinance worldwide; and the 91st Strategic Missile Wing, responsible for 150 Minuteman, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) housed in underground Launch Facilities scattered across an area of 8,500 square miles. In addition, the 862 Support Group provided base security and material support to the wings. At the time, the wings were subordinate to 1. Background The modern UFO era was ushered in on the afternoon of 24 June 1947, when private pilot Kenneth Arnold reported nine, silvery crescent-shaped discs traveling at high-speed near Mt. Rainier, Washington. Based on Arnolds description, headline writers coined the phrase flying saucers for the new phenomenon heralding the story in newspapers across the country. The repercussions encouraged other citizens to come forward with their own reports of puzzling things seen in the skymany before Arnolds account. The considerable increase in sightings over the first week of July 1947 brought the first official statements in the press. On 4 July, the New York Times quoted a spokesman as stating the Air Force is inclined to believe either that the observers just imagined they saw something, or that there is some meteorological explanation for the phenomenon. Evidently, officials assumed that flying saucers were merely some sort of transitory phenomenon and would soon go away. The situation took an alarming turn on 8 July, when Air Force pilots, other officers, and a crew of technicians at a high-security research and development facility in the Mojave Desert, observed reflecting, silver-colored flying discs traveling at high-speed against prevailing winds. All attested that they could not have been airplanes. Pentagon officials suddenly wanted answers, issuing orders for Air Force Intelligence to investigate all reports. By August, analysts had concluded that the phenomenon was real, and of a disk-like aerial technology with very high-performance characteristics. For purposes of analysis and evaluation, it was assumed that the flying saucers were manned aircraft of Russian In response, USAF headquarters established Project Sign in January 1948, with the directive to collect, collate, evaluate, and distribute to interested government agencies all information concerning sightings and phenomena in the atmosphere which can be construed to be of concern to the national security. Project Sign investigated dozens of sighting reports from credible observers that they could not explain, and considering the performance characteristics and inconceivable power plant requirements; possibly nuclearor even more exoticdetermined it was impossible they could be ours, or even the Soviets. In September 1948, they drafted a formal intelligence summary, or estimate of the situation, concluding that the flying objects were interplanetary spacecraft. The Strategic Aerospace Division at Minot AFB, which was responsible for mission support at Minot AFB, ND, Glasgow AFB, and Malmstrom AFB, MT. The 810 SAD was subordinate to the Fifteenth Air Force, March AFB, CA, and Strategic Air Command, Offutt AFB, NE. Today both wings continue operations under the major command of the Air Force Global Strike Command. For a better understanding of the military environment surrounding the UFO events, see web site: Background section. Schulgen, George F., Intelligence Requirements on Flying Saucer Type Aircraft (Draft of Collection Memorandum), 30 Oct. 1947. Available from: http://www.roswellfiles.com/FOIA/Schulgen.htm. estimate made its way up into the higher echelons of the Air Force, but when it reached all the way to Chief of Staff General Hoyt S. Vandenberg it was batted back down without his approval. The conclusion lacked proof. In February 1949, Sign issued its report qualifying the project as still largely characterized by the collection of data. On the other hand, proof of non-existence is equally impossible to obtain unless a reasonable and convincing explanation is determined for each incident, acknowledging that the lack of data in reports by qualified and reliable witnesses prevents definite conclusions being drawn. Unable to easily resolve the issue, and disengage itself from the public side of the controversy, Air Force policy shifted to downplay the significance and effectively put an end to UFO reports. Project Sign staff, and top people in the intelligence division, were transferred or reassigned. The project was even given a new nameProject Grudge. New staff operated on the premise that all reports could be conventionally explained, however, throughout 1950 attempts to terminate the project proved ineffective. The one uncontrollable variableUFO sightingsrefused to go away. As Cold War tensions escalated with the Soviet Union, Air Force commands responsible for the air defense of the North American continent were continuing to experience unexplained UFO incidents, and justifiably concerned, if not perturbed, about the way the Pentagon was handling intelligence on these matters. USAF, Director of Intelligence, General Charles Cabell agreed, ordering an immediate reorganization of the project. Under the leadership of Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, new staff designed and instituted plans for a systematic study of the UFO phenomenon. In March 1952, the project received a new name, Project Blue Book, and formal authority promulgated by Air Force Letter 200-5. Reports were on a dramatic increase nationwide, culminating over two consecutive weekends in late July, when radar systems tracked UFOs cavorting in high-security areas above Washington, D.C. On Saturday 19 July, at 11:40 p.m., a group of unidentified flying objects appeared on the long-range radarscopes in the Air Route Traffic Control (ARTC) center, and the control tower radarscopes at Washington National Airport. The objects moved slowly at first, and then shot away at fantastic speeds. Several times targets passed close to commercial airliners, and on two occasions, pilots reported lights they could not identify that corresponded to radar returns at ARTC. Captain S.C. "Casey" Pierman, a pilot with 17 years of experience, was flying between Herndon and Martinsburg, West Virginia, when he observed six bright lights that streaked across the sky at tremendous speed. "They were," he said, "like falling stars without tails. Senior air traffic controller for the Civil Aeronautics Administration, Harry G. Barnes, tracked some of the UFOs that were reported over Washington, D.C. in July 1952. In a widely distributed newspaper account, he wrote: There is no other conclusion I can reach but that for six hours on the morning of the 20th of July there were at least 10 unidentifiable objects moving above Washington. They were not ordinary aircraft. Nor in my opinion could any natural phenomena account for these spots on our radar. Exactly what they are, I dont know. The Air Force explained the cause of the reports as anomalous radar propagation due to temperature inversions. The full text of the article is available here. The following weekend, once again, Washington National Airport and nearby Andrews AFB, Maryland, radar picked up as many as a dozen unidentified targets. This time, Air Defense Command scrambled F-94 jet fighter-interceptors from New Castle AFB, Delaware, resulting in what one pilot described as an aerial cat and mouse game. When the F-94s arrived in the area the UFOs would disappear, and when they departed the UFOs reappeared. The Background summary is abridged from: Sign Oral History Project, History of the United States Air Force UFO Programs (1947-1969). Source references are in the original work. See also: Gross, Loren E. UFOs A History: 1952 June July 20, (Fremont, CA, 1986), p. 67-84; and, UFOs A History:1952 July 21-31, (Fremont, CA, 1986), p. 20 70. In addition, the Pentagons Press Information Officer for Blue Book, Al Chop, was present in the radar control room at Washington National during the events: Chop, Albert M., 1999. Transcript of Interview by Thomas Tulien and Brad Sparks, November (Sign Oral History Project), 10-14. On Monday morning banner headlines across America heralded the story of UFOs outrunning fighter planes. In Iowa, the headline in the Cedar Rapids Gazette read like something out of a sci-fi flick: SAUCERS SWARM OVER CAPITAL. An unidentified Air Force source told reporters We have no evidence they are flying saucers; conversely we have no evidence they are not flying saucers. We don't know what they are. Responding to headlines and public alarm, President Truman ordered the Director of Central Intelligence, General Walter Bedell Smith to look into the matter. The front page of the Washington Post on 28 July 1952. The full text of the article is available here. General Smith assigned a special study group in the Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI), anchored by Assistant Director of Scientific Intelligence, Dr. H. Marshall Chadwell. The group was to focus on the national security implications of UFOs, and the CIAs statutory responsibility to coordinate the intelligence effort required to solve the problem. In August and September, OSI consulted with some of the countrys most prominent scientists. Chadwells tentative conclusions addressed national security issues, recommending psychological-warfare studies and a national policy on how to present the issue to the public. He also acknowledged the air vulnerability issue, and the need for improved procedures for rapid identification of unknown air traffica vital concern of many at the time since the U.S. had no early warning system against a surprise attack. Furthermore, he briefed Gen. Smith on 2 December, convinced something was going on that must have immediate attention. Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles. Chadwell recommended an ad hoc committee be formed to convince the responsible authorities in the community that immediate research and development on this subject must be undertaken, with an expectation that this would lead to a National Security Council, Intelligence Directive for a prioritized project to study UFOs. What he got was something quite different. In January 1953, the CIA convened a panel of prominent scientists, chaired by Caltech physicist and defense consultant Dr. Howard P. Robertson, in order to evaluate any possible threat to national security posed by Unidentified Flying Objects and to make recommendations thereon. After four days, the panel concluded that the evidence presented shows no indication that UFOs constitute a direct threat to national security, however, it acknowledged continued emphasis on UFO reporting does in these parlous times, threaten the orderly functioning of the government, while cultivating a morbid national psychology in which propaganda could induce hysterical behavior and distrust of duly constituted authority. A clearly defined approach to the problem was established. The Robertson panel recommended that the national security agencies debunk UFO reports and institute policies of public education designed to reassure the public of the lack of evidence (and inimical forces) behind the UFO phenomenon. Air Force Regulation 200-2 To achieve this, the Department of the Air Force introduced Air Force Regulation 200-2 in 1953. Later revisions required air base Commanders with the responsibly for all investigative action necessary to submit a complete initial report of a UFO sighting, and instructed to make every effort to resolve the sighting in the initial investigation (par. 3b). Further, all Air Force activities will conduct investigations to the extent necessary for their required reporting action (see paragraphs 14, 15 and 16). This amounted to collating a formatted list of Basic Reporting Data and transmitting it to Blue Book; with the caveat, no activity should carry an investigation beyond this point without first obtaining verbal authority from Blue Book at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio The REPORT OF SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY PANEL ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS CONVENED BY OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE, CIA, January 14 - 18, 1953 (The Durant report of the Robertson Panel proceedings) is available from: http://www.cufon.org/cufon/robert.htm. Thus, Air Force investigators were explicitly limited to compiling responses to a formatted list of questions prescribed by AFR 200-2 (par. 14), and restricted from conducting any full-scale investigations and gathering all the available data. Blue Book was relieved of any investigative burden. If the UFO report remained unidentified at the base level, it was their responsibility to simply evaluate the data it received and submit a final case report. In order to reduce the percentage of unidentifieds to the minimum, Blue Book adopted the premise that all UFO reports result from either hoaxes, or the misidentification of a natural object or phenomenon. They broadened the identified category to include possible and probable explanations, allowing investigators to identify a report based on the probability that a sighting was of a known phenomenon. In press releases, and year-end Blue Book evaluation statistics, the possible and probable subcategories simply disappeared and the sightings were listed as identified. For nearly two decades Air Force officials led the public, as well as members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, to believe they were engaged in a meticulous and objective investigation of the UFO phenomenon. In fact, they viewed the UFO program as a low-priority public relations problem, which they were mandated to implement in order to assure the public of their responsibility to the nations air defense. For instance, in July 1968, a research assistant to the USAF-funded, University of Colorado UFO study, Herbert Strentz, queried Project Blue Book chief Lt. Col. Hector Quintanilla regarding the nature of the Blue Book investigations. According to Quintinilla: Our primary responsibility is to collect data and then check the subjective material to see what the stimulus might be . . . Were not an investigative force . . . We collect data. Its a misnomer to think we investigate. United States. Department of the Air Force. Air Force Regulation No. 200-2, Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO), Washington D. C.: 20 July 1962. Preceding versions available from: AFR 200-2, 12 August 1954; and, AFR 200-2, 5 February 1958. Regarding the decision to task the 4602d AISS with UFO investigations, see: A Different Perspective. The 4602d AISS was disbanded in July 1957, and the investigative duties reassigned, however, funding was reduced and investigations were curtailed. The Feb. 1958 revision of AFR 200-2 restored investigative responsibility to the Air Base Commanders and Blue Book's responsibility for analysis and evaluation. See: Jacobs, David M. The UFO Controversy in America (Indiana University Press, 1975), pp. 133-136; 150-151. Quintanilla was then asked to clarify his statement since it was contradictory to published statements by Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Thomas D. White, that all unidentified flying object sightings are investigated in meticulous detail by Air Force personnel and qualified scientific consultants. So far, not a single bit of material evidence of the existence of spaceships has been found, and by Secretary of the Air Force, Harold Brown, who explained to the House Committee on Armed Services on 5 April 1966, that the Air Force is both objective and thorough in its treatment of all reports of unusual aerial objects over the United States. . . . In evaluating these sightings, the Air Force has used carefully selected and highly qualified scientists, technicians, and consultants. These personnel have utilized the finest Air Force laboratories, test centers, scientific instrumentation, and technical equipment for this purpose, and will continue to investigate such phenomenon with an open mind and the finest technical equipment available. Quintanilla clarified: We are more or less a collection agency.... We contact everybody we can with regards to trying to identify the stimulu