Section 4 : Government UFO documents online

Section 4.1 : Google searches for government documents
Section 4.2 : Some sources for government UFO documents
Section 4.3 : Some frequently discussed government UFO documents

 

 

 

Section 4.1 : Google searches for government documents

I’ll give an outline below (in Section 4.2) of some sources of government UFO documents. However, the specific links change fairly frequently so I think it is probably more useful to start by referring to a couple of useful Google searches.

There are a few tricks that can be used when using Google. Instead of simply searching all websites for a particular term, it is possible to limit the try to limit the search to websites operated by Government agencies. Most websites operated by Government agencies in the USA include “.gov” or “.mil” in their url. A Google search can be limited to such websites by including “inurl:mil” or “inurl:gov” within a Google search, e.g. searching for “inurl:gov ufo” or “inurl:mil ufo”.

More keywords can be added if you are looking for documents referring to a particular individual or location etc.

However, a glance at the Google search results above will show that they include non-government websites that include “gov” or “mil” in their descriptions.

Slightly better is a Google search which seeks results which end with “.gov” or “.mil”. Such a search can be performed by limiting the search to results from websites with any address ending in “.mil” or “.gov”. This can be done by including “site:*.mil” or “site:*.gov” within the Google search, e.g.
searching for “site:*.gov ufo” or “site:*.mil ufo”.

The same method can be adapted to search for ufo documents generated by government agencies outside the USA. This webpage provides a helpful list of the Internet domain suffix for a long list of different countries. This helps if you want to do a search for ufo documents from an individual country. For example, for material from British military agencies (including the British Ministry of Defence) do a Google search for “site:*.mod.uk”.

If you are only interested in documents originating from Government agencies in the USA, a more efficient and effective method is to use the Google “Government Sites” search function at this webpage. I haven’t seen anyone discuss this Google search function, but it is quite useful. See, for example, the results for a search for “ufo” performed using the “Search Government Sites” button on that webpage for “ufo”.

 

 

 

Section 4.2 : Some sources for government UFO documents

Quite a few US Government agencies include sections on UFOs. These usually give a good indication of the response that will be received if a blanket request is made in the USA under the Freedom Of Information Act (“FOIA”) to that agency for documents relating to UFOs.

A long list of such links can be found in the existing thread on ATS here. The links in that thread were compiled quite a while ago and many no longer work.

I’ll briefly highlight below some of the relevant webpages:

• The Department of Defense’s webpage on UFOs includes a concise summary of the USA Government’s position in relation to UFOs and links to a selection of relevant Government documents. These include links to rather large PDF files of the full text of the US Air Force’s “Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert” report on Roswell (1995) and its subsequent “Case Closed” report on Roswell (1997).

 

• The FBI’s webpage on UFOs includes 16 PDF files, containing a total of about 1,600 pages of short (often almost illegible) memoranda and letters. These documents have been discussed on ATS in various threads, including in this one. My favourite sequence of documents within the FBI files relates to the memo dated 24 September 1947 from FBI Assistant Director D M Ladd to FBI Director J Edgar Hoover summarises, and attaches, a memo dated 23 September 1947 from Colonel R H Smith (Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence) revealing that the FBI had been asked to assist the Air Force in UFO investigations “to relieve the numbered Air Forces of the task of tracking down all the many instances which turned out to be ash can covers, toilet seats and whatnot”.

 

 

• The NSA’s webpage on UFOs includes a fairly limited number of UFO documents. Several of these are, however, quite interesting. They include the infamous “UFO Hypothesis and Survival Questions” document.

 

 

• The CIA’s webpage includes a search function which can be used to search for UFO document. The resulting list of files is somewhat difficult to navigate. “A Die-Hard Issue : CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90” by Gerald K Haines (a National Reconnaissance Office historian) is a useful, if somewhat controversial, guide to the CIA’s UFO documents. (For some balance, see also Bruce Maccabee’s comments on the most controversial part of the Gerald Haines’ article.)

 

The US Air Force’s UFO files are available at the US National Archives and most of their contents have not been made available online by the US Air Force. However, the under-appreciated efforts of those behind the Bluebook Archive website are making many Project Bluebook documents available online. Those documents include Project Blue Book reports, including the very interesting Special Report 14. Due to the sheer mass of material and cases covered by the Bluebook Archive website, it is useful to consider those documents in conjunction with the somewhat misleadingly named “Comprehensive Catalog of 1,500 Project BLUE BOOK UFO Unknowns” by Brad Sparks.

 

 

Another non-governmental website that has to be mentioned is, of course, the Black Vault. It contains a large section on UFO documents, but is somewhat difficult to navigate and incomplete.

Many other websites purport to contain UFO documents generated by governmental agencies, but the contents are often not verified. Most such websites fail to distinguish between those documents which have questionable origins and those documents obtained as a result of Freedom Of Information Act requests. An honourable exception is the CUFON website, which includes a section on verified documents, with helpful brief comments.

 

 

 

Section 4.3 : Some frequently discussed government UFO documents

I realize that there is a huge mass of documentation at the above links. It may be helpful if I highlight some of the particularly interesting documents and reports generated by, or funded by, various Governments.

My 1,800 page UFO Chronology (discussed in Section 2.2 above) includes references to discussion of each of these documents within various UFO books.

• 23 September 1947 : Memo from Lt-General Nathan F Twining (chief of Air Materiel Command) to Brig-General George Schulgen (Commanding General, Army Air Forces) reports on the current knowledge of UFOs and recommends that a permanent project be set up to study them. (Commonly referred to as “the Twining memo”). Complete text of memo available online here and here.
  
  
• 24 September 1947 : Memo from FBI Assistant Director D M Ladd to FBI Director J Edgar Hoover summarises, and attaches, a memo dated 23 September 1947 from Colonel R H Smith (Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence) stating that the FBI had been asked to assist the Air Force in UFO investigations “to relieve the numbered Air Forces of the task of tracking down all the many instances which turned out to be ash can covers, toilet seats and whatnot”. Mr Ladd recommended that the FBI “protest vigorously” and that the FBI discontinue all activity in this field. Complete image of relevant memo available online at pages 20-21 (of 77) in Part 4 (of 16 parts) of the UFO material on the FBI’s FOIA website.

 

• 30 October 1947 : A memo from Brigadier General G F Schulgen entitled “Intelligence Requirements on Flying Saucer Type Aircraft” set forth the intelligence requirements in the field of Flying Saucer type aircraft. (Commonly referred to as “the Schulgen memo”). Text of memo available online here and here.

 

 

• 30 December 1947: A letter from Major General L C Craigie (Chief of Staff) to the Commanding General of the Air Materiel Command directed the setting up a project to collect, collate, evaluate and distribute information concerning UFOs. The letter gave this project the code name, Project Sign, and assigned a priority 2-A. Complete text available online here.

 

 

• 10 December 1948: “Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the United States”, Study #203, by the USAF Directorate of Intelligence (“DI”) and the Office of Naval Intelligence. (Commonly referred to, controversially, as “the Ghost of the Estimate”. Also referred to as “Air Intelligence Report No. 100-203-79”). Text available online on various websites, including here and here.

 

 

• 24 December 1959: “UFOs – Serious Business” memo sent out by the US Air Force Inspector General. Text available online here.

 

 

• February 1949 : Final report of Project Sign (“The Findings of Project Sign”), officially cited as Technical Report-TR-2274-IA of the Technical Intelligence Division, Air Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. (Commonly referred to as “the Project Sign Report”). Complete images of the Project Sign Report available online here.

 

 

• 27 April 1949: The US Air Force released a “Memorandum for the Press” entitled “Project Saucer”. Complete text available online here.

 

 

• August 1949: Project Grudge final report completed, containing analysis of 244 cases was released. Report concluded that Unidentified Flying Objects posed no direct threat to the national security of the United States. Report designated as Technical Report No. 102-AC 49/15 – 100 (commonly referred to as “the Project Grudge Report”), originally classified “Secret”. Complete images of the Project Grudge Report available online here.

 

 

• January 1953: The report of the CIA’s Robertson Panel (i.e. the “Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects” chaired by Robertson) available online here. More detail of the Panel’s deliberations and views is can be found in the memo dated 16 February 1953 from Fred C Durant to the Assistant Director for Scientific Intelligence, which contains “comments and suggestions of the Panel Members which they believed were inappropriate for inclusion in the formal report”. The text of Durant’s memo can be found here.

 

 

• March 1966: Report of a United States Air Force (“USAF”) Scientific Advisory Board (“SAB”) Ad Hoc Committee (the “Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project Blue Book”, commonly known as “the O’Brien Committee”). Report produced following a one day meeting on 3 February 1966 to review Project “Blue Book” under the chairmanship of Dr. Brian O'Brien. The complete text of the O’Brien Committee report is available online at here.

 

9 January 1969: The Condon Report (“Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”, Edward U Condon (Director) and Daniel S Gillmor (Editor) (1969)) was released to the public. It is probably the most influential (and longest) publication by scientists presenting a skeptical view of UFO reports. For one of the best known articles criticizing the Condon Report, see John G Fuller’s article “Flying Saucer Fiasco”, Look, Volume 32 (14 May 1968) - which is also available online here

In Britain, there are two documents that I’d highlight:

• June 1951: The British Ministry of Defence’s “Working Party on Flying Saucers” produces its final report. The cover sheet for the report read as follows: “Ministry of Defence : Directorate of Scientific Intelligence and Joint Technical Intelligence Committee : UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS : DSI/JTIC Report No. 7”. See this article by David Clark and Andy Roberts in their article entitled “Britain’s Secret ‘X-Files’ Revealed” and this article by Georgina Bruni and Nick Pope.

 

• More recently, The Condign Report. See the relevant Tinwiki page I created here and the more detailed comments in my post here.