
Project Blue Book
During that 22 year period, the project team investigated a reported 12,618 sightings of unidentified objects. Out of that impressive number, only seven hundred one of the sightings remained unidentified. It has been reported that the investigations of the Unidentified Flying Objects were lacking in professionalism and scientific methodology which brings into questionable authenticity.
In January 1970, Project Blue Book was officially closed and all records and files were transferred to Maxwell Air Force Base. At that time, the records were put on public view at request only and five years later were transferred to microfilm and placed in the public archive for public use. Before making them openly available, all references to witnesses was blacked out or removed to protect the privacy of the public, although in years past, the documents were unchanged. In 1998, a set that had not been redacted was discovered that contained all the information including some documents that did not exist in the archives.
Why would previously open documents suddenly be evaluated and have certain key pieces of evidence removed before making them public property? Was there something in those documents that the Government did not want leaked to the general public?
Many UFO researchers are convinced that the investigations were conducted in an unscientific fashion and that the goal was to label findings as identified to avoid public hysteria. This ideology has been given support by the subsequent release of CIA documents about UFOs that suggest that any evidence contrary to an identified sighting were passed to authorities but never included in project blue book.
Dr. J. Allen Hynek served as the astronomical consultant to the United States Air Force and worked in Project Blue Book. Dr. Hynek was a professor of astronomy at Ohio State and the chairman of the astronomy department at Northwestern. His role with project blue book was to assist in the determination of astronomical explanations for any UFO sightings.
Hynek was an initial skeptic of UFOs but hundreds of UFO reports later became convinced that the phenomenon deserved serious study. Hynek became disillusioned at the casual handling of scientific evidence and the non-scientific manner in which the projects were being ran. After Project Blue Book closed, he formed a private organization to study UFOs that was staffed with scientists and trained technical experts. In 1972, Dr. Hynek wrote and published, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Study, that presented his categorization of sightings.
The incomplete case files in Project Blue Book are categorized as being mishandled and poor document maintenance. Copies of other “missing cases” reported as lost by Project Blue Book have been discovered in certain other files from other organizations. Copies of some of the missing files have been found at CUFOs. Is it worth noting that these missing files had indeed been kept by the very researcher contracted to research UFOs? Perhaps Dr. Hynek considered the documents important to prove something that was being hidden.
Does this evidence of the poorly handled files and document management point to a larger cover up in the Government regarding Unidentified Flying Objects and evidence of extraterrestrial beings? Government cover ups and misinformation have always been tossed around concerning UFOs and extraterrestrials. Perhaps the evidence and lack of evidence in Project Blue Book is just another piece of the conspiracy worth noting.



















