◆ SpookStack

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE OFFICE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION Al (hang ee WB The following information concerning Air Force investigations of unusual aerial phenomena is submitted in answer to your request. In the Fall of 1947 the United States Air Force took official notice of reports ef so-calied “flying saucers” because the reports from the public indicated that the problem might be related te the Air Force responsibility for the air defense of the United States. On December 30, 197 the Air Foree dtrected its Aix 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 this task the Air Materiel Command obtained the services of civilian and military astronomers, psychologists, electronic specialists, meteorologists, aeronautical engineers, and physicists. On December 27, 1989, after 375 reported sightings had been investigated, the Air Force, with the concurrence of the Army and the Navy, announced 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 aa misinterpretations of various conventional objects, a mild form of hysteria, meteorological phenomena, light aberrations, or loaxes, There remained, however, a number of unexplained sightings, and the Air Force has continued its investigations inasmuch as it is an Air Foree responsi- Dility to identify and analyze aerial phenomena that could possibly be a menace to the United States. Subsequent to December 1989, these investigations have been conducted as a normal intelligence function, rather than a special praject, by the Air echnical Intelligence Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Qhio. 62-33 579-Zep