Documents / Hearing transcript
This declassified transcript, released by the Office of the Under Secretary of War, records a March 1952 presentation by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt on the Air Force's reorganized UFO investigation. Ruppelt reports that about 20% of roughly 800 cases remain unexplained and notes clusters of reports near Los Alamos, Albuquerque and Oak Ridge. He discusses the Lubbock lights photographs, the Phoenix 1947 photograph and the Mantell case. He concludes that the Air Force has no firm evidence about what the objects are.
From the source: Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 3/26/52, Boston, Massachusetts. This document is a transcript of a March 1952 presentation by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt outlining the U.S. Air Force’s reorganized investigation into unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The presentation previews prospective technical methodologies, such as diffraction-grating photography and radar-scope synchronization, that were subsequently incorporated into Project Blue Book, a U.S. Air Force program active from 1952 to 1969 that investigated the nature and origin of UFOs. Ruppelt explains that out of approximately 800 historical cases reviewed by the Air Force, approximately 20% remained unexplained after technical analysis. These unresolved reports were sourced from credible military personnel, commercial pilots, and other qualified technical observers. He highlights geographic report concentrations around sensitive national security and nuclear weapons installations (including Los Alamos, Albuquerque, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories) and notes recurring anomalous characteristics, including silent high-speed flight and radar detections indicating unconfirmed air speeds between 1,000 and 3,500 miles per hour. Emphasizing that the Air Force found no conclusive evidence regarding the nature or origin of the phenomena, Ruppelt underscores the national security need for a systematic physical data collection effort to better evaluate these sightings.
10 phenomena or object or something floating around down that area, and that's these green fireballs. Now, I don't know whether you've been reading about that in the paper, but there's a Dr., uh, Lincoln LaPaz down in Albuquerque at the University of New Mexico who's been making a big deal out of these green fireballs. They appear to be, uh, similar to a meteor except that they have a definite flat trajectory. Uh, they're reported to be a brilliant, uh, greenish-blue color, and they, uh, they don't explode. I mean, they appear to be very low at, uh, about a third or a fourth the size of a full moon and they're very low and they just go out like that, they don't explode. Now Dr. LaPaz's theory on this thing is that if it's a normal meteor, there should be a terrific explosion because of the size of these things, uh, indicates that they're down low in the atmosphere and there should be a terrific explosion when they, uh, when they get down low enough to explode. It's, uh, again, we don't know what they are. I mean, they actually exist. There's no doubt about it. I mean, it's not anybody's imagination because they've been reported by, well, Dr. LaPaz himself has seen one, and we've had some very fine reports and they all, uh, follow the same path. There's a definite flat trajectory right across the, uh, well, parallel to the Earth's surface. Uh, they, they go out with no explosion and they're a brilliant bright green. Now, airline pilots have seen them and maybe if they meet them head-on or something like that, they'll rack the airliner up, just about toss everybody out of the seats because they think they're going to have a head-on collision with this, uh, whatever it may be. Now Cambridge, uh, labs have been working on that for two years and they came up with no conclusions whatsoever as to what they might be. So, I understand that we're going to take it over again and see if we can't possibly come up with, uh, some idea. Uh, we've talked to, uh, well, Dr. Kaplan's idea, or, uh, LaPaz's idea is that they come from Russia. And he said that they're using some kind of a self-destruction missile that and they're zeroing in on, uh, Los Alamos. Now that's a good story. I mean, it, it, uh, sounds real exciting and and there's a possibility. I mean, we can't say that it isn't because we don't know what it is. Uh, we've talked to Dr. Kaplan quite a bit on this subject, uh, probably, probably know him from the, uh, University of California. Uh, he thinks that they're either some kind of a, possibly a new meteor that we are not familiar with, or, uh, some phenomena that's related to the aurora. Uh, he, he claims that he can duplicate this color in his lab and I, I'm not, uh, sure of just exactly how he does it. I believe he uses, uh, well, I don't know, I won't say. I've got a report but I don't want to quote something I don't know about. But anyway, he can duplicate this color, and he believes that that's what it is. Now, uh, as I say, that is a definite division of these things. I mean, they, they definitely exist and our problem is to find out, really find out what they are. If they're some kind of phenomena, why then we can turn it over to the astronomers and let them take it. Uh, if they should happen to come from Russia, why then we better start finding out what they're trying to do on it. (Question from audience) • "How many of these green light reports do you have?" • "We have quite a few, sir. I'd hate to say, I mean, I couldn't tell you exactly a number, but they started out in, I believe, '49. Yes, sir. There was a big outbreak of them in '49, and
Hearing transcript, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 19 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.