SUBJECT: UNEXPLAINED CASES FROM BLUE BOOK FILE: UFO143
PART 2
And they are even more numerous in the files of Project Blue
Book. The urgency with which Blue Book officials tagged answers
onto cases without having done the proper investigation is
obvious, though not proven. But if the Air Force was so eager to
label cases "identified", despite the lack of supporting
evidence, then those few cases which it labeled "unidentified"
presumably withstood every attempt to apply every other kind of
label. And so it may be that those cases are truly
unidentifiable in familiar terms.
Indeed, the Air Force defines "unidentifiable" cases as
those which "apparently contain all pertinent data necessary to
suggest a valid hypothesis concerning the lack of explanation of
the report, but the description of the object or its motion
cannot be correlated with any known object or phenomenon."
To meet such criteria, a report must obviously come from a
reputable source, and it must not bear any resemblance to
airplanes, balloons, helicopters, spacecraft, birds, clouds,
stars, planets, meteors, comets, electrical phenomena, or
anything else known to frequent the air, the sky, or nearby
space.
Unfortunately, the Air Force failed to stick to its own
rules. Some of the "unidentifiable" cases most certainly can be
correlated with known objects or phenomena. But most of them
cannot. Moreover, many of the so-called "identified" cases
cannot honestly be so correlated. But we are primarily concerned
here with those cases which Project Blue Book openly admits it
tried to explain and failed.
The amount of detail in these cases varies enormously. Some
cases - frequently those which were well publicized at the time
of the event - contain considerable information, while others are
vague and seriously incomplete. Project Blue Book generally
placed the blame for such incompleteness on the witnesses, but it
should take its own share of the responsibility. 'In thousands of
cases, there is no completed questionnaire in the Project files,
nor even any indication that one was sent to the witness. And in
most of the instances where a questionnaire was filled out, it
was never followed up to get more complete answers to questions
which the witnesses failed to deal with properly. For much of
the life of Project Blue Book and its predecessors, there was no
satisfactory.questionnaire at all. And one of those used for a
lengthy period was so badly organized that a witness should not
be held to blame for giving incomplete answers.
Yet, despite all the roadblocks, many reports are
sufficiently complete to tell a pretty clear story of a puzzling
experience. With this data now available, anyone can look at
Project Blue Book's "unidentified" UFO reports and make up his
own mind.
July 3, 1947; Harborside, Maine. 2:30 p.m. EDT. Witness:
astronomer John Cole of South Brooksville, Me. Watched 10-15
seconds while ten very light objects, with two dark forms to
their left, moved like a swarm of bees to the northwest. A loud
roar was heard.
July 4, 1947; over Emmet, Idaho. 8:17 p.m. PDT. Witnesses:
United Air Lines Capt. E.J. Smith, First Officer Ralph Stevens,
Stewardess Marty Morrow. Watched for 12-15 minutes while four
objects with flat bottoms and rough tops moved at varying speeds,
with one high and to the right of the others.
July 6, 1947; Fairfield-Suisan Air Base, California. Daytime.
Witnesses: Army Air Forces Capt. and Mrs. James Burniston.
Watched for 1 minute while one object having no wings or tail
rolled from side-to-side three times and then flew away very fast
to the southeast.
July 8, 1947; Muroc Air Base, California. 9:30 a.m. PDT.
Witnesses: lst Lt. Joseph McHenry, T/Sgt Ruvolo, S/Sgt Nauman,
Miss Janette Scotte. Watched for an unstated length of time
while two disc-shaped or spherical objects--silver and apparently
metallic--flew a wide circular pattern, and then one of them
later flew a tighter circle.
End of part 2
**********************************************
* THE U.F.O. BBS -
http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
**********************************************
