1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,640 During 1947, we had a rash of unidentified flying objects reported to the Air Force. 2 00:00:10,640 --> 00:00:16,400 During this time, General Samford directed the Air Force to establish an office to try 3 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:22,200 to determine what these unidentified flying objects were. 4 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:30,320 The program is threefold, and the Air Force interested in UFOs is first to determine if 5 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:36,320 a possible threat to the security of the United States exists. 6 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:42,400 Second to determine the technical or scientific characteristics of any such UFOs. 7 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:52,000 Third to try to explain or identify all UFO sightings reported to the service. 8 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:59,120 The UFOs as such do not pose any threat to the security of the United States. 9 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:07,040 I do get a number of reports from people who claim that they have seen little green men, 10 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:15,240 have seen space vehicles of sorts, but as far as having trouble with crackpots, no, I don't. 11 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:20,160 Most of these UFOs that have been reported to the Air Force have been determined to be 12 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:32,320 aircraft or a natural phenomena under intelligent control, but strictly an earthly control. 13 00:01:32,320 --> 00:01:36,080 Not anything extra terrestrial in any way. 14 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:42,880 The FBI has no function as far as a role in investigating UFOs. 15 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:51,200 If the FBI gets into the picture in any way, it is because maybe a State Highway Patrol Department 16 00:01:51,200 --> 00:02:01,400 or some office that does not know how to contact the Air Force UFO officer caused the FBI into the picture, 17 00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:05,240 but they have no function in investigating UFOs whatsoever. 18 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:13,880 We do get a number of queries from time to time when television reruns a commercial picture 19 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:17,880 like the Hollywood version of UFOs. 20 00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:26,360 We have no tapes of sounds or tapes of any sounds reportedly being of UFOs. 21 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:32,720 All the satellite tracking networks do report objects in the sky, 22 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:37,000 but they're not really unidentified flying objects as such. 23 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:45,800 We have the spate-ass people who keep track of the degree, space degree. 24 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:54,720 And we do occasionally have degree coming back into the atmosphere and they, of course, reported through official channels. 25 00:02:54,720 --> 00:03:04,240 We do get reports from the Army and the Navy, and usually these reports come through official channels and through official communication. 26 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:10,120 Usually when we get a report, an official report through Air Force channels, 27 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:18,040 we direct the UFO officer at the nearest air base to immediately conduct an investigation. 28 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:25,160 First of all, we try to contact the people who were the observers or the witnesses of the object. 29 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:30,720 Then we try to take photographs of the area or the object if possible. 30 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:38,440 We try to go to the site, go through the observation with the people, 31 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:47,520 determine, even try to go back at the specific time when this individual or individuals observe this phenomena 32 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:57,520 or the object. And from there on, we come back to the office, try to determine exactly what it was. 33 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:07,480 And here we have different courses of action which we can take according to what we can determine at that specific time, 34 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:22,480 whether it was celestial, whether it was an object, something like a refueling operation, or maybe balloons, birds, or what have you. 35 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:29,360 We have had reports from crew members inside of an aircraft reported in the UFO. 36 00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:41,080 We have determined these and we have evaluated them to be reflections of light on the windshield and that were from the source within the aircraft. 37 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:53,440 The largest number of people that were involved in the single sighting were the people who observed Sputnik 4, the man at the Walk West Conson, coming back into the atmosphere. 38 00:04:53,440 --> 00:05:07,480 We had approximately 40 witnesses reporting to the Air Force that they had observed a phenomena or an object and they reported it as an unidentified flying object. 39 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:15,480 We have had reports from the ground observer corps and we and we haven't had any problems with them. 40 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:21,280 They usually come from official channels. All photos have been evaluated. 41 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:25,400 However, we haven't had any unidentified photos. 42 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:28,960 You said pilots have reported sightings in the past year. 43 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:32,400 Some of them have been determined to be satellites. 44 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:41,080 Some of them meteors, some of them missile decays coming back into the atmosphere. 45 00:05:41,080 --> 00:05:48,520 Airline pilots are pretty good. And of course they report meteors as well as missile decays. 46 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:53,120 No, we have no policies with other countries regarding UFOs. 47 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:58,760 We do from time to time receive reports from American embassies overseas. 48 00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:10,120 We had one from Italy not so long ago that a gentleman turned over to the embassy and they in turn submitted it to us for evaluation. 49 00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:15,040 The FAA doesn't report any UFOs as such. 50 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:27,840 However, they do help us out in trying to determine whether any whether there was any activity of any particular nature within their area. 51 00:06:27,840 --> 00:06:33,240 At the present time, we have nine hundred and ten unknowns in the file. 52 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:39,720 The only sighting which we have on file that has left mark is the Secura sighting. 53 00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:46,680 And I really can't classify it as an unknown as yet because the case is still under investigation. 54 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:54,160 Well, we have status reports or progress reports one through twelve. 55 00:06:54,160 --> 00:07:00,880 But they were not reports such as special report 14. 56 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:04,240 Now, we don't have a 13. It's missing. 57 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:14,680 Maybe the Air Force just decided to skip number 13 because of because the project officer was probably superstitious. 58 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:25,240 Well, as far as I'm concerned, any case that has been thoroughly evaluated and has not been explained is baffling to me. 59 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:34,080 I haven't in any way come to the conclusion that any of the UFOs that have been reported to the Air Force 60 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:36,560 are guided by intelligent beings. 61 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:43,880 However, the majority of classified cases date back to the early part of the project. 62 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:51,720 I would say that less than one percent of the cases are now classified since, say, nineteen hundred and sixty. 63 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:57,920 And most of these are because of radar techniques and not because of the sightings themselves.