Colonel Wendelle Stevens Discusses Project Blue Book & Airforce UFO Sightings

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When I came back from the war in the Pacific in 1945, I was reassigned as a flight test pilot to the Flight Test Division of the Air Technical Service Command at Wright Field, now called Wright- Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio. Part of my duties was to service test captured former enemy aircraft and to evaluate their flight characteristics against our own aircraft. I was surprised by the masterful engineering of the Japanese, German, and Russian aircrafts, which were certainly better built than I had been led to believe during the conflict.

After completing two years at the Flight Test Division, in July 1947, I came up for rotational reassignment, which sent me out to the Alaska frontier. My additional duty was to supervise a team of highly classified technicians installing special equipment aboard the B-29s that were being “winterized” in Alaska, in preparation to be sent on their target profile missions over the Arctic. This special equipment was supposed to capture any technical data available in case of an encounter with the socalled anomalous aerial phenomena— UFOs— over the Arctic.

In fact, we had occurrences of two to three sighting reports every month. In one event, the B-29 came upon a big silvery disc sitting on the polar ice pack. The disc then launched itself and flew rapidly away, leaving no trace of any kind.

Another time, the B-29 approached a large disc sitting on the open Arctic sea. The object submerged and disappeared under water. At that point, I was certain that these vehicles, whatever they were, had to be truly extraterrestrial because I knew of no such developments on Earth. I tried to convince my superiors of my extraterrestrial opinion; however, they disagreed and stated that it was probably some new type of technological development.

At that time, less than two months after my arrival, my boss at Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), General Nathan

F. Twining, came to Alaska to take over the Alaskan command. Before his departure from ATIC, he had written a letter to his incoming replacement, urging him to set up a contact point for all civilian inquiries about the UFO phenomenon someplace in the ATIC command.

In late 1974, Project Sign was created by the U.S. government and undertaken by the U.S. Air Force through its public information channel, in order to study UFOs. Project Sign had a ceiling classification of confidential, one of the lowest classifications. Thus, the incumbents, who included a lieutenant, two sergeants and a secretary, were only able to possess or read reports which were downgraded specifically to Project Sign. Reports were downgraded if they were able to be attributed to some type of plausible explanation. Project Sign hired astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek, in order to explain away those reports that could have an astronomical rationalization.

Project Sign started to deteriorate when it began receiving incomplete reports, which clearly had held back important and necessary information.Project Sign dissolved in late1948 when it was no longer able to serve its purpose.All records were boxed and stored, and all personnel were reassigned to different locations.

During the time following the closing of Project Sign, reports of UFOs were constantly coming in. Some of these reports were even getting noticed by the mainstream press. The public began clamoring for real information concealed by the government, including reports of crashed saucers and the bodies of their occupants, some of which were believed to have still been alive and being kept in closed habitats. Moreover, there Was an additional push for information stemming from the reports of those people claiming to have direct contact with extraterrestrial beings.

In order to try and regain control over the situation, the government decided to reopen Project Sign. This request was resisted by the U.S. Air Force, and they tried desperately to have it assigned to the Navy or to a private contractor.

However, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces ordered the Air Force to take it.They grudgingly did so, and that’s why in February 1949, they renamed the new office Project Grudge.

The old Project Sign records were un boxed and dusted off for the new Project Grudge team, which consisted of two officers, three sergeants, and a secretary. Their ceiling classification remained the same, confidential, but still their best and most interesting cases were those coming directly from outside of the ATIC.

Even with no direct funding, the Project Grudge team tried to investigate cases of interest and accumulate a body of information. It is from this information that Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who would go on to become the first head of Project Blue Book, wrote a book entitled, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. This book consisted of reports generated internally by Project Grudge and also reports by other investigators furnished over time. Ruppelt did not submit this manuscript to his superiors for approval before it was accepted and published for readers.

Ruppelt had concluded that there was something behind all these stories, something to be taken more seriously than the government was leading the public to believe. Rumors about Ruppelt’s conclusions infuriated his superiors, and the government ordered all copies of his book, already published and distributed, confiscated and destroyed.

Ruppelt was forced to rewrite the last chapter with a different conclu Conclusion, which now ended with “only time will tell.” The book was then republished and redistributed.

The ATIC began to write a closing statement, which was called the “Project Grudge/Blue Book Report Number 13.” This was a volume almost three inches thick and included appendices and photographs of recovered discs and some of their occupants.Printing only a few copies, this report was meant to be used internally.

Previously, there had been twelve Project Grudge reports prepared.However, when this new final report reached the office of the Chief of the Air Force, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, he became infuriated and ordered all copies collected and destroyed. Some copies managed to avoid destruction, such as the copy held by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE). Under the NATO umbrella, SHAPE needed the report as a source of information for the unknown radar targets, referred to as “bogies,” coming in from the east.

“At that point, I was certain that these vehicles, whatever they were, had to be truly extraterrestrial because I knew of no such developments on Earth.”

The Project Grudge/Blue Book report did not appear in any index of the U.S. Air Force projects summary. When I inquired about it, I was told that there was no Project Grudge/Blue Book report and that the Air Force did not use the number “13” for military reports, contrary to other reports with number “13” in the title.

Eventually, in late 1949, Project Grudge came to an end.The records were again boxed and stored. But the sightings continued to happen, and the public was becoming concerned that the government was not giving them answers that they demanded.

The Air Force again reopened the files in 1952. This time it officially became Project Blue Book, with Captain Ruppelt in charge and a bigger staff and more funding, but still with the ceiling classification of confidential.

Captain Ruppelt was replaced in the mid-1950s first by Captain Charles Hardin, followed by Captain George Gregory and then by Major Robert Friend. In 1963, when a new team leader Major Hector Quintanilla was assigned, the Air Material Command Commander briefed Major Quintanilla and told him that he had all the information the Air Force had. Quintanilla believed it.

In time the Air Force sought to close the public information channel and hired the University of Colorado to find a suitable reason for doing so. When the staff of scientists affirmed a number of the cases provided and wrote their individual reports, confirming the same, the head of that project, Dr. Edward U. Condon, tore up their findings and rewrote his own finding, concluding that the actual information available did not warrant the continuing of Project Blue Book, and recommending that it be closed.

A termination order for Project Blue Book was in fact given in December 1969 and all activity ceased in January1970. All the Project Blue Book records are now stored at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

Thus, I find in all of the government’s apparent efforts to look into the truth behind UFOs as outlined within all of these projects, there were never any serious investigations. The actual serious investigations were only carried out by other intelligence officers in the “need to know” loop and were not made available in circles outside of that loop nor made available to the different projects. The ceiling classification was in fact designed to keep the project members from getting to the real truths being covered up.