The Interplanetary
Phenomenon Unit (or IPU) was a United States military unit
established by at least 1947 and dissolved by the late 1950s.
Officials have confirmed that the IPU existed, but little else is
known about it. It seems to have been an unidentified flying
object-related undertaking. Some ufologists have suggested that the very
name "Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit" is an indication that the
IPU was convinced that the extraterrestrial hypothesis was a
viable explanation for UFOs.
There has been speculation that the IPUwas another name for
the Majestic 12 or MJ-12, an unconfirmed (and controversial) U.S.
UFO research group said to have been founded in 1947. However, another
MJ-12 related document of questionable authenticity, indicates
the unit was established early in 1942 by General George Marshall
following a well-publicised UFO incident, the so-called "West coast
air raid," in which an unidentified object over L.A. resulted in a
massive anti-aircraft barrage.
Others contend that General Douglas McArthur was involved in the
formation of the IPU, during or towards the end of World War II,
because of the many UFO incidents occurring under his command in the
Pacific. Allegedly McArthur reported directly to General Marshall.
Maybe supporting McArthur's involvement is the fact that he did make
public statements on at least two occasions that Earth might have to
unite to fight a future war against an alien menace. (One such
quote was in the New York Times, October 8, 1955)
In May 1984 researcher William Steinman first wrote the Army
Directorate of Counterintelligence, since, according to Steinman's
information, the IPU was run out of the Scientific and Technical Branch
of the Directorate. Steinman received the following somewhat
evasive reply from a Lieutenant Colonel Lance R. Cornine. Cornine
claimed that the IPU had only an unofficial existence and refused to
definitely acknowledge the existence of any unit records:
"As you note in your
letter, the so-called Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit (IPU)
was disestablished and, as far as we are aware, all records, if any,
were transferred to the Air Force in the late 1950's. The 'unit' was
formed as an in-house project purely as an interest item for the
Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence. It was never a 'unit' in
the military sense, nor was it ever formally organized or
reportable, it had no investigative function, mission or authority,
and may not even have had any formal records at all. It is only
through institutional memory that any recollection exists of this
unit. We are therefore unable to answer your questions as to the
exact purpose of the unit, exactly when it was disestablished, or
who was in command. This last would not apply in any case, as no one
was in 'command'. We have no records or documentation of any kind on
this unit."
In March 1987, British UFO
researcher Timothy Good also wrote the Army Directorate of
Counterintelligence and again received a letter confirming the
existence of the IPU from a Colonel William Guild. Guild was more
definitive about the existence of IPU records and that they had
been turned over to the U.S. Air Force Office of Special
Investigations (AFOSI), the USAF counterintelligence unit,
and the Air Force's
Project Blue Book:
"...the aforementioned
Army unit was disestablished during the late 1950's and never
reactivated. All records pertaining to this unit were surrendered to
the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations in conjunction
with operation BLUEBOOK."
(letter in Good, Above
Top Secret, p. 484).
Good also stated that
the IPU reported directly to General Marshall. Documents
from AFOSI about the IPU, if they exist, have never been
released.