UFO's and Defense What Should we Prepare For

I establishment had within it the skills and resources appropriate to this mission, in
particular, engineers and personnel with high-level technical knowledge who were in close
touch with scientific circles. A scientific council chaired by Hubert Curien and composed
of twelve members who were representative ofthe social and exact sciences guaranteed
that this complex and delicate subject would be handled with all the necessary precision.
This council had the job of guiding, organizing, and reviewing the work ofGEPAN
annually.
I Three phases can be distinguished in the progression of the activity connected with the
study of UFOs in France, which culminated in 1988 in the creation of the Service
d'Expertise des Phenomenes de Rentree Atmospherique (SEPRA), which succeeded
I GEPAN, still within CNES:
- a phase that consisted of setting up the organization and defining the procedures for
the collection and processing ofdata, which is described in this chapter,
I - a phase that consisted ofdefining the scientific method for studying cases,
- a phase that consisted ofimplementing the previously defined methods and
procedures, the last two of which are discussed in the next chapter.
I SEPRA plays a more limited role in the study of UFOs than does GEPAN, the scientific
council of which has ended its mission
I 6.1 The Setting Up the Organization Phase
I GEPAN's first job was to form a partnership among the different public, civilian, and
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military agencies with a view to organizing the collection and analysis of reliable data.
The Gendarmerie Nationale, the civil and military aviation authorities, the National
Weather Service, etc., were approached and brought together in this organization via
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agreements and protocols established with GEP AN.
The first goal set was the rapid acquisition and provision ofdata collected at the sites
where a phenomenon was sighted. To do this, in accordance with the directives of the
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scientific council, GEP AN was tasked with the mission offorming teams ofspecialized
investigators for the collection of psychological and physical data, such as, for example,
taking samples of tracks in the ground. In parallel to this organization, various civilian and
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military research laboratories were asked to participate in expert's appraisals and analyses
of the data collected in investigations, such as, for example, the processing of
photographic documents and radar recordings.
6.2 Participation of the Gendarmerie Nationale
I It was in February 1974 that the first instructions were given tasking the Gendannerie
Nationale with the job of collecting and centralizing spontaneous testimonies on UFOs.
I Previously, these testimonies had been collected on an occasional basis in the regional
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[gendarmerie] forces and rarely gave rise to the drafting of reports or to in-depth
investigations (the Valensole case in [ 1965]). The administrative or technical authorities
did not process or use these documents.
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Beginning in May 1977, one of the six copies of the report drafted by the regional
gendarmerie forces was forwarded to GEPAN, which from then on became the recipient
of all information collected on UFOs.
6.2. t Role and Action of the Gendarmerie Nationale
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