Declassified on July 23, 1997, Project Grudge was
originally released in August of 1949 as a SECRET Technical Report
(NO 102-AC 49/15-100) by the headquarters of the Air Materiel
Command, Wright Patterson AFB, Dayton Ohio. Approved by Lt. Col.
Hemstreet
and Col. Watson, it is 406 pages long and covers a large
number of UFO sightings along with investigation analysis,
conclusions, and supplementary reports. Overall, it is just the
basic background work on pedestrian UFO sightings by
many credible military witnesses. No discussion of crashes, alien
bodies, or the other TOP SECRET material found in more classified
reports — just the way you would expect it.
The following extract (classified SECRET) is taken from the SUMMARY to
the U.S. Air Force’s PROJECT GRUDGE TECHNICAL REPORT on
UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS of August 1949. Prepared by Lt.
H. W. Smith and Mr. G. W. Towles for the Commanding
General Harold E. Watson, Colonel, USAF, Chief Intelligence
Department, it states:
While there are
approximately 375 incidents on record, only incidents Nos. 1 thru
244 are encompassed in this report. Of the later incidents, many
have not yet been investigated, few have been completely tabulated,
and none have been submitted to the consulting agencies. It is
certain that better over-all results will be obtained in the
analysis of the later reports, as these incidents generally have
been more completely investigated.
Since 5 December 1948, a series
of recurring phenomena described as “green fireballs” have been
reported in the general vicinity of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dr.
Lincoln La Paz, noted meteoritic expert, has been directly,
though unofficially, associated with the investigation of these
sightings and has himself observed the phenomena. Dr. La Paz
states he is convinced the green fireballs are not ordinary meteors.
This group of incidents has little or nothing in common with other
incidents on file with Project “Grudge”, therefore,
these incidents are not considered in this report. The Scientific
Advisory Committee was asked to investigate this matter and had
advised that an independent investigation be conducted in the field
of atmospheric research.
Upon eliminating several additional incidents due to vagueness and
duplication, there remain 228 incidents, which are considered in
this report. Thirty of these could not be explained, because there
was found to be insufficient evidence on which to base a conclusion.
It is important to stress
that Project Grudge was one of three acknowledged
U.S. Air Force projects dealing with UFO investigations – the
other two being Sign and Blue Book.
Between 1948 (the year that saw the creation of Project Sign) and
1969 (the year in which
Project Blue Book was officially terminated), 12,618 UFO
reports were investigated by personnel assigned to these three
projects.
According to the Air Force, out of this total only 701
UFO reports remained unexplained; and that with respect to the
remainder, “…there was no indication of a technology beyond our own
scientific knowledge…” The Air Force further asserted (and continues
to assert to this day) that no sighting “…could be considered an
extra-terrestrial vehicle [and] throughout Project Blue Book
there was never a shred of evidence to indicate a threat to our
national security.”
How then do we reconcile these statements with the Majestic
documents, the very demonstrable threats to national
security posed by UFOs and cited in the documents, and the
data pertaining to UFO crash-retrievals suggesting that at least
some
UFOs are alien spacecraft? It must be noted that the bulk of the
data pertaining to projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book
was classified up to Secret level only.
However, as the
Majestic documents
make abundantly clear, data pertaining to crash-retrievals was
classified at Top Secret level and need-to-know clearance to access
such information was strictly required. Furthermore, consider the
following extracted from a 1969 USAF memorandum
prepared by
Brigadier General C.H. Bolender, the Air Force’s Deputy
Director of Development:
“[R]eports of unidentified
flying objects which could affect the national security are made in
accordance with JANAP 146 or Air Force Manual 55-11,
and are not part of the Blue Book system.”
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