Page:Ruppelt - The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.djvu/265



By the time I’d finished telling about the Mainbrace Sightings, it was after the lunch hour in the club and we were getting some get-the-hell-out-of-here looks from the waiters, who wanted to clean up the dining room. But before I could suggest that we leave, Major Sadowski repeated his original question—the one that started the whole discussion—“Are you holding out on us?”

I gave him an unqualified “No.” We wanted more positive proof, and until we had it, UFO’s would remain unidentified flying objects and no more.

The horizontal shaking of heads illustrated some of the group’s thinking.

We had plans for getting more positive proof, however, and I said that just as soon as we returned to Major Sadowski’s office I’d tell them what we contemplated doing.

We moved out onto the sidewalk in front of the club and, after discussing a few more sightings, went back into the security area to Sadowski’s office and I laid out our plans.

First of all, in November or December the U.S. was going to shoot the first H-bomb during Project Ivy. Although this was Top Secret at the time, it was about the most poorly kept secret in history—everybody seemed to know all about it. Some people in the Pentagon had the idea that there were beings, earthly or otherwise, who might be interested in our activities in the Pacific, as they seemed to be in Operation Mainbrace. Consequently Project Blue Book had been directed to get transportation to the test area to set up a reporting net, brief people on how to report, and analyze their reports on the spot.

Secondly, Project Blue Book was working on plans for an extensive system to track UFO’s by instruments. Brigadier General Garland, who had been General Samford’s Deputy Director for Production and who had been riding herd on the UFO project for General Samford, was now chief at ATIC, having replaced Colonel Dunn, who went to the Air War College. General Garland had long been in favor of trying to get some concrete information, either positive or negative, about the UFO’s. This planned tracking system would replace the defraction grid cameras that were still being developed at ATIC.

Thirdly, as soon as we could we were planning to gather