PROJECT 1947

Also included was a copy of LTC Wayne Mattson's history of Holloman AFB and White Sands proving ground, “Reasons Why the Tularosa Basin Was Important in Space History”.  (Holloman AFB is located in the Tularosa Basin of south-central New Mexico).

LTC Mattson's publication included this little-known entry about Roswell:

“4 June 1947 First balloon launch from Holloman AFB. Cluster of rubber balloons was launched by New York University team under contract to Air Material Command. Fifth Project Mogul Launch mission number 5 (some consider this launch mission number 4): time 0517 MST. Stayed aloft for 343 minutes, reached a maximum altitude of 58,000 feet. First success with a heavy load. Three lifter balloons 26 main balloons. Landed northwest of Roswell, New Mexico. Considered by the USAF to be responsible for the Roswell UFO Incident.”

The 2 July 1947 mission #7 was probably the first use of neoprene balloons.  It was noted that equipment from some of the balloon launches was stolen before the arrival of recovery teams.

I also sent David Marler Binder #4 on “Communications Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence (CIRVIS)/JANAP 146”.  This mostly consisted of queries to Air Force Intelligence and other agencies about files of CIVRIS reports.  Many of the letters contained obfuscations and outright misinformation about the disposition of information submitted to CIRVIS.  It wasn't until Ann Druffel wrote to the Secretary of the Air Force and secured an answer confirming there were files of CIRVIS reports in existence that the amount of official effort trying to “snow” the public was revealed.

Bernard Thouanel, editor of the French magazine VSD, had previously interviewed the Commander of NORAD where he was informed that Canadian personnel at NORAD were aware that such CIRVIS files existed.

Canadian researcher Chris Rutkowski recently informed me that the latest CIRVIS report that he had received from the Canadian government was from 2019.  Previously, researcher Robert Todd's inquiries about CIRVIS reports had elicited an Air Force complaint that his constant requests for UFO information was wasting officials' time.

The Air Force could have easily resolved the issue by admitting that CIRVIS files existed instead of creating a never-ending production line of responses full of half-truths and misdirection.

David Marler's Home: The Work Begins

David Marler (front), Barry Greenwood (right), Jan Aldrich (rear)

Upon arriving at David Marler's home for a two-week stay, I gifted him a hefty book containing “Headquarters USAF Command and Staff charts from 1947 to 1984”.  With pleasantries out of the way, Barry set up the flatbed scanner and we went to work, firstly scanning mostly NICAP files from 1965.

We knew we had a lot of work ahead of us and were grateful for the opportunity to be aided in this effort by the generosity of some of our colleagues.

The trip was paid for by CUFOS with funds inherited from the late Carl W. Feindt, author of “UFOs and Water”.  So it was that the thoughfulness of one departed friend contributed to the ongoing CUFOS Scanning Project.

Another old friend who is no longer with us, Lou Farish, also contributed with a grant from his legacy “Foundation for UFOs and Governments.”  Most of the items we requested from various institutions came to us for free.  So the grant money and the Project 1947 bank account were closed out, about $5.5K, and used to top off the University of Manitoba Scanning Project for Chris Rutkowski's UFO collection.  This project encompassed significant Canadian government material from Canadian Forces, Transport Canada, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and non-meteoritic files which were sent to Chris as the point of contact for UFO government matters in Canada.  We felt in the current pandemic era where travel was curtailed that this was probably the best use of the money.

As the work commenced, I found about 75 unsorted Project Blue Book cases which had been re-evaluated by Hynek/CUFOS and scanned and filed about half of them.  Doing some detective work, we found that several cases were missing various documents and/or needed reconstruction: 

The Log was located among a great deal of unsorted material.  I originally read about the Log in the July-August 1968 issue of “UFO Investigator” years ago, and asked researcher Isabel Davis for a copy.  She replied that it had been misplaced.  I'm pleased to report that nearly 50 years later, it is no longer misplaced.  Additionally, David was able to locate a recording of the attempted radar-aided interception of the UFO by fighter jets and ground based radar near Vandenberg AFB.

There were several files about the July 28, 1967, Coarsegold incident including details of the investigation by the LANS, Paul Cerny and the Bay Area NICAP Subcommittee, and Isabel Davis at NICAP Headquarters.  [On 30 September David informed me that he had completed digitizing an interview on the Coarsegold incident and secured it in the Coarsegold file.] All of these are now combined into one folder.

We were also on the lookout for information regarding the Crestview Elementary School UFO case of April 8, 1967 which appeared to be missing.  Eventually we realized that the incident was documented as occuring in Miami rather than Opa Locka, Florida.  The case file contained the longest National Enquirer article ever and details of investigations by NICAP and APRO.

Previous detective work had also located a missing Australian police UFO report misfiled in the NICAP files.  There are many more such files to be discovered.

We interrupted our scanning and filing efforts to discuss our work with a visitor who had recently sent in a generous donation towards our archiving project.  He was the unseen studio audience when the three of us appeared on the Martin Willis Podcast UFO program where we discussed the results of the Scanning Project and other work.

Later we talked by phone to another benefactor who had paid for much of the equipment that would be used to process the CUFOS files.  The new apparatus included microfilm digitization machines, a flatbed scanner and audio and video digitizing equipment.  He had a number of ideas about how the end products of this electronic archiving might be best used in various computer-aided search programs.

Time To Visit The New Home of Project 1947 and CUFOS Files

The Zimmerman Library, University of New Mexico

We took a break to meet with officials at the University of New Mexico, Tomas Jaehn, the Director of the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections (CSWR), and Ms. Carol Kennedy from the University of New Mexico Foundation.  The UNM will be the ultimate repository of all the files from the Project 1947 and CUFOS collections.

We were taken on a tour of the locations for various collections and visited the documentation work areas.  Mr. Jaehn said that while he did not consider UFOs something he believed in or was interested in, he did say it was a subject that the University would want to preserve for future studies.  His personal opinion does not decide what should be accepted for long term retention and contracts with the University would so state.  He also explained that Curator position(s) could possibly be created at the University if sufficient salary support was made available via donations or endowments.

Going through the CUFOS files, I saw evidence of several stalwarts of UFO research from the past; C. Reed Ricks covering northern Idaho for NICAP, Orvil Hartle, head of the first Indiana NICAP Subcommittee, John Oswald investigating the shoreline and southern New Hampshire, Donald Flickinger, head of the North Dakota NICAP Subcommittee and June Larson, APRA and later the Seattle Subcommittee.  We also saw items from Dr. Harrison Salisbury, University of Utah, who was sometimes provided evidence and case files by the late Junior Hicks.  (Do we know the location of the final disposition of the Hicks' files?)

The University of New Mexico holdings are impressive and should prove a valuable resource to future researchers.

Returning to David's archiving efforts, we witnessed his ability to digitize old audio recording tapes.  He now has access to a large collection of NICAP tapes formerly in the possession of Richard Hall in the Keyhoe Archives.  Rod Dyke's collection of material from his Archives for UFO Research (AUFOR) was also made available for scanning.  Other tapes and videos have also been digitized ensuring their survival for future generations of researchers.

Thanks to this new audio technology I was able to listen to Tom Tulien and Brad Sparks interview 1LT Robert Olsson with the background noise and atmospheric chatter filtered out.  I was able to clearly hear Olsson say that Blue Book under Edward Ruppelt was not robust enough to do a good job of investigations because the typical intelligence report did not contain enough information for serious analysis.

Prompted by Sparks, Olsson was able to give his impressions of various personalities at ATIC (US Air Force Air Technical Intelligence Center).  He said he only visited the Pentagon one time and then only as a courier.  He confirmed what 1LT Rothstein told us that Ruppelt kept everything close to his vest and seldom informed his men what he was up to.  Olsson remembers him as a happy-go-lucky guy but also a real leader.  Ruppelt gave up on UFOs before he left the service, and Olsson said that he too later decided there was nothing to them.  He added he felt that both Kenneth Arnold and Hynek were in it for the money with Arnold admitting as much in a conversation with Olsson.  Olsson did not remember the meeting he and Hynek had with Coral Lorenzen, the co-founder of APRO.

During our time at David's archive, Barry Greenwood's tireless effort resulted in 34,670 raw scans.  Some are blank pages and bleed through but that represents 13 file drawers of 1965 and 1966 files.  1966 represents the biggest year of UFO files in the CUFOS collection, with 1967 the second largest.  So almost all case files of the Keyhoe era at NICAP are covered with the exception of a few months in 1967.  As to be expected, most of the cases are explainable or trivial, but there are also many well investigated cases which are hard to account for.  In addition, Greenwood scanned what Antonio Huneeus had of the Spanish Air Force files and newsletters and documents from Iran and other countries.

Greenwood also found a number of UFO journals and newsletters which he will send to Isaac Koi to update the Swedish AFU journal collection.  One was "Uranus", later renamed "Atlantis." This one publication is not well known but it does give an account of researchers undertaking a 1955 meeting with the British Air Ministry.

We consulted with Rod Dyke of AUFOR.  He informed us that he had found more NICAP tape recordings which he would forward to David for digitizing.  We also talked to some CUFOS board members including Mark Rodeghier who asked us for a status report. Erica Lukes who received Ann Druffel's files agreed to an exchange arrangement which would include digitizing Druffel's tape collection.

Philip Mantle, a long time British researcher and author, agreed to donate his collection of files and specialized materials such as the “Alien Autopsy” investigation to David.  We already have the files of a fellow Yorkshireman, Andy Roberts, so Philip's donation is greatly appreciated.  Some in Europe are upset the collection will go to the United States but it should be pointed out that significant North American collections have been shipped to Europe, mostly AFU in Sweden.  The important fact to acknowledge is that these collections will be preserved for future reference and exploration.

Interesting in light of the “Tic-Tac UFO” incident are two somewhat similar events that occurred in UFO history.  The Chorwon, Korea 31 May 1952 incident involved a plane from the 319th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron.  (Intelligence Report IR 160-52, Detachment 1, 1006th Air Intelligence Service Squadron (AISS). The report is in Project Blue Book Files but with one page missing:

A later encounter in 1961, involved a Navy intelligence aircraft loaded with sensors.  Journalist Lloyd Mallan sent the account to Hynek.  The PBY with various sensors encountered the UFO off the Pacific Coast.  The detection equipment on this aircraft represented an increase in technology since 1952 but the sensors experienced considerable interference.  (Interestingly enough CUFOS received a later report of a detection off the Atlantic Coast of a high speed unknown beyond then current capabilities except for one experimental test aircraft.  Neither of these last two incidents are recorded in Project Blue Book files.)  Mallan was able to determine that the 1961 witness was assigned to the base as he stated.  However, no other vital details were confirmed.

Additional note: The magazine Combat Aircraft Journal for September 2021 quotes Former Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot Ryan "FOBS" Graves as saying, “Graves added that another strange feature [of the Tic-Tac UFO] was that they would appear ‘jittery’ while stationary.  Compare that to the 1943 case of Gerry Casey.  Other such cases exist.

Over the years, UFO sightings by pilots were sometimes labeled “not logical”.  Here is another one to add to the collection pointed out by Chris Rutkowski.  See UFO Report that wasn't “Logical” in Ufology Research: June 2021 (uforum.blogspot.com)

One more similar Aircraft/UFO Encounter: Capt. Holland, US Marine Corps fighter pilot and decorated veteran of Korean War had his UFO sighting detailed in PROJECT 1947.

Capt. William B. Nash, a Pan American airline pilot, was able to reach Capt. Holland by telephone and verified the details of the newspaper account.  Nash reported this in letters to other friends, and Holland's Commanding General vouched for his pilot's character and skill.

Before we departed from David's home, I scanned an early version of Dr. Haines’ aircraft interference files in Larry Hatch's collection which Dave had received. 

After two weeks of stalwart scanning and filing, Barry left for home and I went to the University of Wyoming whose American Heritage Center Archive houses Dr. Richard Haines’ aircraft pilot UFO collection.  The hotel I stayed in is walking distance to the Archive building which is shaped like a teepee.

The Haines Collection is more extensive than I expected and would probably take about 3 weeks to properly examine.  As expected, many cases are culled from Project Blue Book and the NICAP website, but many cases represent decades of Haines' research.  Many new cases, at least to me, were found.  Mark Rodeghier told me that Haines did send CUFOS some pilot cases but it is not in line with the number he claimed he had.

The late Lt. Col. Wayne Mattson, USAF retired, and formerly with the New Mexico Space History Museum in Albuquerque had a UFO incident in 1969 while flying over Laos crossing into Thailand.

Mattson wrote Richard Haines that he knew he should have reported the encounter under the CIRVIS system, but he said if he did he and the other airmen on the plane would have lost their flight status.  So here is the conundrum:  if you report a UFO which you are ordered to do, you are punished with the potential loss of flight status.  And what if you do not report a threat to the USA which potentially has dire consequences?  Neither position is tenable but how is one to judge the correct course of action?

LTC Mattson was not the only one to be reluctant to report such incidents.   A shocking number of such difficult choices which have led to self-imposed silence could easily be assembled from UFO witnesses who have been intimidated by circumstance and official disdain.

Departing from the University of Wyoming to Kalamazoo, I headed to Michigan for the UFO History Group meeting.  Part of the meeting involved participation in a Zoom conference where Tom Wertman updated us on his work in Ohio.  Barry Greenwood, home by now, told us about his archiving experiences.

Michael Swords thought that his file collection should be re-scanned due to the addition of more material since his files were first digitized years ago.  Swords also allowed how he might write some updated blogs covering material he was interested in discussing.  Both Swords and Powell are collecting “dumbbell” UFO reports — two objects connected by a tunnel or rod.  At least two reports appear to show UFOs shaped like the old telephone handsets of the 1950s and 60s.  We also found a drawing similar to the the 24 October, 1967 Minot AFB image before the Minot missile case.

We discussed Avi Loeb's Galileo Project.  I speculated — and this is pure speculation — that Loeb is not interested in history because he might have early indications that his project will be successful.  Harvard, the home of Dr. Howard Menzel, former head of the Harvard Observatory and arch UFO skeptic, is supportive of Loeb's investigation which indicates he may have tipped his hand.  I wonder if perhaps the search for near-earth orbit asteroids might have found some anomalous objects approaching Earth?  Complete speculation and only my opinion.  Time may tell...

We met with Michael West, the CEO of AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. and current owner of Michael Swords' former home.  He had a number of ideas and proposals for possible improvement of UFO investigations, preservation activities, and computer analysis.  He thought the Kalamazoo house could be used as an overflow facility if more UFO collections and material become available.  It currently houses Swords' extensive files, Ivan Sanderson's SITU (Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained) collection managed by Dr. John Reed, and John Timmerman's collection as well as a huge collection of UFO Journals and publications.  There are also significant tape recordings which Mike West said he would fund to have digitized.

A complete library of case files pre-1947 to 1970 have been scanned so far and are retained at Kalamazoo, with other locations for the collection to be secured soon.

Scanning activities will continue and we welcome donations and exchanges of material which lead to more complete assemblage of files.

Historian Loren Gross noted that the NICAP, APRO, and Project Blue Book files did not have a lot of overlap.  Each collection had duplication of only the most highly publicized accounts, while others were unique to the individual collections.  Add to this the huge Gribble newspaper clipping collection and other such material which covered rarer, smaller newspapers and the audio assets of the National UFO Reporting Center.  Together this accumulation represents an extensive amount of the newly available files.

Gribbles' newspaper clipping files contain events discussed in Robert Salas' Washington DC press conference.

Barry Greenwood continues his scanning expertise digitizing a huge collection of the ACOS (Australian Co-ordination Section, Centre for UFO Studies) files.

Keith Chester's Foo Fighter material will be updated with documents located at the National Archives since his book Strange Company: Military Encounters with UFOs in World War II was published.

I will continue to scan my collection with the goal of transferring it to New Mexico next spring.  My next target are summaries of the Project Blue Book files Airman Max Futch sent to Ruppelt.  Most of the summaries are not in the Project Blue Book files.  Three collections are now earmarked to go to New Mexico.

Ufology is like 18th century science.  Mostly data is observational with incidents recorded in the form of witness testimony.

We find ourselves with hundreds of thousands of UFO reports coming from a myriad of sources: the public, law enforcement, maritime services and the various branches operating under government authority.

When preparing any type of analysis of an incident it's vital to have correct information to hand.  But sometimes the data is contradictory due to mistakes in the reporting process, primary documents being misplaced, and so on.  At other times the sheer volume of material makes it a daunting exercise. Case in point: The 1956 “pop up” UFO incident at Castle AFB, CA.

To get the full story on the Castle AFB UFO one would have to consult Project Blue Book, and 4602nd AISS files, Dr. James McDonald's interview of the pilot (recalling the wrong date) and local news coverage.  Even then, the final accurate summation of the incident would only be resolved thirty-five years later when additional data was located at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, that was supposed to be at the National Archives Blue Book holdings.

People with good memories could possibly read through all the data in a case and try to correlate that information into some bigger understanding of the phenomenon.  But we now have over 75 years of UFO reports to deal with.  Project Blue Book directors Captain George Gregory (1956) and Major Hector Quintanilla (1963) both separately told Hynek that every UFO case was unique and there was no need to try to keep track of UFO cases by computer to see if there were any patterns or similarities to be divined.  Clearly this is false.

21st century computer science maybe be able to tease relationships from this voluminous data using AI.

Let us have access to all the data and see what modern information technology processing can teach us.  The paranoid actions of the current US governments refuse to openly discuss or reveal their cases.  They refuse to look at the vast amount of information in the historical records and mainly concentrate on current sightings which are mostly aircraft.

I want to use AI to look at large numbers of cases.  Dr. Hynek and Dr Willy Smith had over 50 items for each UNICAT case.  Smith was using an obsolete computer operating system so human memory was still needed to correlate cases with similar facets.

Michael West, of AgeX Therapeutics demonstrated how this process might work.  His gene database “GeneCards, The Human Gene Database” is “ a searchable, integrative database (which) automatically integrates gene-centric data from ~150 web sources.”  GeneCards makes this data available for research purposes long before it appears in the peer reviewed scientific literature.

Further research trips are ongoing in 2022 as the quest for answers continues.  The information contained in the FBI, CIA, Project Blue Book, CSI-LA., APRO, NICAP, CUFOS, 4602nd AISS and 1st Marine Air Wing files along with newspaper clippings and case accounts may just be waiting to reveal their correlations using 21st century methods and technology. 

— Jan L. Aldrich