◆ SpookStack

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE OFFICE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION WASHINGTON 25,0.C. Rei it iy 2@ en ie The following information concerning Air Force investigations of unusual aerial phenomena is eubmitted in answer to your request. In the Fall of 1947 the United States Air Force took official notice of reports of so-called “flying saucers” becanse the reports from the publio indicated that the problem might be related ta the Air Force responsibllity for the air defense of the United States. On Decembor 30, 19k7 the Air Foree dtrected its Afr Materiel Command, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, te set up a project to collect and evaluate all available facts concerning "flying saucer” sightings. To perform thia task the Air Materiel Command obtained the services of civilian and military astronomers, psychologists, electronic specialists, meteorologists, aeronautical engineora, and physicists. On December 27, 1949, after 375 reported sightings had been investigated, the Air Force, with ths concurrence of the Army and the Navy, annouxed the findings of the "flying saucer" project. The evidence at that time indicated that the majority of. the reports of unidentified flying’ objects could be accounted for as misinterpretatiens of various conventional objecta, a mild form of hysteria, meteorological phenomena, light aberrations, or fosxes, There remained, however, a number of unexplained sightings, and the Alr Force has continued its investigations inaamch as it is an Air Force responsi- bility to identify and analyze aerial phonomena that could possibly be a menace to the United States. Subsequent to December 1949, these inveatigations have been conducted as a normal intelligence function, rather than a special project, by the Air Technical Intelligence Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Payton, Qhio. aod a 7 ; '