Project Blue Book The First Year Of Unexplained Cases
Project Blue Book as formed by the U.S. Air Force to debunk UFO sightings. It was opened in March 1952 and ceased all operations in 1970. We were told its purpose was to investigate UFO sightings, but this simply was not the truth. They had neither the manpower to do this nor the mandate. They were there to only provide excuses for what was seen in the sky. Blue Book had supposedly “examined” 12,618 sightings and “solved” all but 701 cases which remained unidentified. I thought it might be interesting to look at some of those unsolved cases. I have started with some cases from the first year. A lot of the objects were described as being balloon shaped, which I believe was on purpose to take away the serious nature of the reports. One has to keep in mind the fact that since Project Blue Book was there to explain away true UFO sightings the amount of unexplained cases is far higher than the 701 officially listed. It is estimated at least 4,000 cases or more are of true UFOs and this number could be as high as 7,000.
The first sighting I want to mention which was never listed as solved took place on June 20, 1952. The sighting took place near Paulette Mississippi at 8:26 p.m. A US Air Force pilot named Lt. Milo Roberts and his bombardier Lt. Julius Prottengeier were flying a B-29 for the 308th Bomber Squad of the 310th Bomber Wing from Forbes Air Force Base, Kansas. While they were flying at a speed of about 190 miles per hour at an altitude of 17,000 feet they saw something very unusual. It was a cone-shaped object and was on a collision course heading from the 2 o’clock position. Before the pilot of the B-29 could make a course change the object turned abruptly to the left and disappeared. It was followed by a second object which also turned left. The witnesses said the first object was about 3 times longer than wide and estimated it was about 8 to 10 feet long if it was 1,200 to 1,500 feet away, or 100 feet long if it was about 15 miles away. As you can see it is very hard to tell size and distance in the sky, but the witnesses were very credible, both being familiar with planes and both knowing this was no plane.
The next sighting I want to mention took place on August 1, 1952 near Troy, Ohio at 10:51 to 11:13 a.m. The witnesses were working for the military at a radar site at Bellefontaine. Lt. James Lott was a radar controller at USAF ADC radar site 664th AC&W atop Campbell Hill which has an elevation of 1549 feet. He tracked an object heading toward Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at Dayton, Ohio. The object was traveling about 500 miles per hour at the time. Two F-86 pilots saw the object, Major James B. Smith and Lt. Donald J. Jemer from 97th FIS, Wright-Patterson. They were at 30,000 feet and about 10 miles from the UFO. They made visual contact at about 10:55 a.m. and then climbed to about 48,000 feet. Twice the jets followed the object to 48,000 feet, but the second time lost the signal. Gun camera film was shot and a silver-colored sphere was seen at an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 feet. The planes broke off the intercept at about 11:13 a.m. They were about 60 miles WSW of Dayton.
That same month another unexplainable sighting took place on August 25, 1952 in Fontenac-Pittsburg, Kansas at 5:35 a.m. A man named William Squyres, a musician for a radio station was driving his car when he saw a platter-shaped dull aluminum color object to the right side of the road about 750 feet away from his position. He could see the head and shoulders of what he thought was a man through one of the windows on the craft. He drove the car to about 300 feet from the object, stopped it and got out. He noticed the object was making a deep throbbing sound, was rocking back and forth and had many 6-7 inch rapidly rotating propellers. He watched for about 30 seconds before the craft, which had been floating at about 10 feet high, rose rapidly into the air making a screeching sound. The craft disappeared into the clouds but left a 60 foot circle of matted grass.
On August 28 1952 at Chickasaw and Brookley Air Force Base at Mobile Alabama, between 9:30 and 10:20 p.m. three civilians in Chickasaw reported to the duty officer a USAF Captain at Brookley Air Force Base that they saw multiple red object to the south. They said some were stationary while others were maneuvering and these were moving south to west. An investigator from the Air Base arrived at Chickasaw at about 9:50 a.m. He saw the objects and estimated their distance as 8 to 12 miles away. Radar operators saw the object on their radar. A control tower officer at the base saw the objects and so did the duty officer. One of the stationary objects was confirmed by radar as being at about 4,000 feet altitude. While witnesses watched, one object seemed to explode and then did a figure 8 maneuver. Another witness saw a flat oval shaped object with 4 to 6 objects flying around it.
It was August 29, 1952 and west of Thule Greenland at 10:50 a.m. when two U.S. Navy pilots were flying a P4Y-2 patrol plane when they saw 3 white disc shaped objects. The objects were hovering when first seen then they fly very fast in a triangular formation. Their plane was at 10,000 feet and the pilot was Lt. John C. Callaghan and copilot Lt. JG Bill O’Flaherty and a Mr. Merchant. They were following a Skyhook balloon when they saw the discs around the balloon’s instrument package before they flew off. The discs were at about 90,000 feet for several minutes before flying away.
On September 13, 1952 at 7:40 p.m. a private pilot named W.A. Hobler was flying a Beech Bonanza at about 10,000 feet from Allentown to the Caldwell-Bright Omni station in Pennsylvania. He noticed a strange looking object which was only about 3 feet in size and shaped like an American football. It was a flaming orange-red in color at his 11 o’clock position and about 450-600 feet away. It was heading on a collision course for his plane so he made a sharp climb to avoid it and then the object began to climb and went in front of his plane. He then made a quick right turn, but lost sight of the object which was now traveling at about 700 miles per hour.
It is important to note this is only from the first year of Project Blue Book and there were many more sightings I never mentioned that year.
