Abstract:

A civilian employee at an AFB confirmed an earlier report that base personnel had made an UFO sighting, although official sources denied that such an event had occurred.

Background:

A rumor was relayed to this project by a source considered to be reliable, reporting in the fall, 1967, six UFOs had followed an X-l5 flight at the AFB. It was suggested that motion pictures of the event should be available from the Air Force.

Investigation:

Before initiating a field investigation, Project members checked by phone with Base Operations for confirmation of the rumor. There was no log book record of an UFO report and no X-l5 flight on that day. The last X-15 flight had been 8 days previously and the last recorded UFO report submitted to the base had been a month before.

The rumor persisted, however, with indications that official secrecy was associated with the event. If reports of the event had been classified, no record would appear on the operations log. Although there apparently was no association with an X-15 flight, a responsible base employee (Mr. A), who wished to remain anonymous, had reassured our source that there was a sighting by pilots and control tower operators. Mr. A had left the AFB for temporary duty elsewhere. His replacement, Mr. B, was unable to obtain details of the event but was quoted as saying that there apparently was something to it because "they are not just flatly denying it."

Mr. A was contacted by telephone at his temporary assignment by a project investigator. He said he actually did not know too much about the incident, since all the information had been turned over to the public information officer, who was the only one at the base who could discuss it. According to Mr. A the information had come to his desk; his action was to pass it on to the PIO.

Attempts to learn more about the reported event from the PIO were met with apparent evasion from that office. The Director of Information was reportedly unavailable when phoned. He did not return calls. On one attempt to reach him, the investigator indicated to a PIO secretary that he would prefer to replace the call when the Colonel was in, rather than to speak with a lieutenant who was available at that moment. The secretary's response was "Well, the Colonel is busy this year - but you'd still prefer to wait until next Monday?"

On Monday, the Colonel was again unavailable and once again did not return the call. A request was then made through the Pentagon for determination of whether or not an UFO event had in fact, occurred at the base on the day specified. A Pentagon officer, transmitted a request to the base Director of Information that he telephone the project investigator and clarify this situation. This resulted in a telephone message, left by an assistant to the Director of Information, that there was no UFO event at that base on the day in question.

Mr. A was contacted later, after his return to the base, and asked for clarification of the incident. He responded only that the Director of Information had told him to "stay out of that."

Conclusion:

Although it is true that the report of this incident was never more than a rumor, it is also true that project investigators were not able satisfactorily to confirm or deny that an UFO incident had

occurred. Attempts to investigate the rumor were met with evasion and uncooperative responses to our inquiries by base information.