Project Blue Book: the missing cases

Between 1952 and 1969 the US Air Force produced a study of UFOs. KEVIN RANDLE finds some gaps in the records…

As happens so often, I’m working on one project and get diverted to another. This time, I was looking through the Project Blue Book file index and noticed that many of the reports were labelled “case missing”. There was a solution attached to the sightings, but, of course the index told me nothing of the case.

I made a quick count, and – given that there are a couple of pages missing in the copy of the index that I have, the notations are sometimes obscured and some of the pages barely readable – came up with over 300 “missing” cases. Most have cards in the files with a little information on them, but this seems to demonstrate that some of those working at Blue Book over the years weren’t as careful as they might have been.

I know what you’re thinking. Just what were these cases?

I went through a couple of the microfilms to see what the project cards had listed so that we would have an idea about them. Following is a sample of what I found.

On 26 December 1956, in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, the witnesses, civilians and military, watched a white, egg-shaped object with a red tinge around the edges. It was the size of a small grapefruit. It flashed with a very bright red light that was around a tenth of the size of the object. It was in sight for 15 to 25 minutes.

An unidentified officer noted on the project card: “Concur with the reporting officer that sighting caused by a/c. Although there was a helicopter in the area and the details of the sighting indicate that this was the cause, the helicopter landed 10 minutes before the object disappeared. However, time in sight might have been incorrectly estimated. Therefore, prob aircraft is evaluation of this sight[ing].”

The details are somewhat sparse but the report seems to indicate that the object looked to be the size of a small grapefruit rather than actually being that small. I’m amused that the “concurring officer”, whoever he might have been, tells us that the sighting was caused by an aircraft because there was a helicopter in the area, but adds that the helicopter landed before the object disappeared. Seems to be a bit contradictory to me.

However, without knowing more about this case, and basing it only on the few lines on the project card, it is difficult to argue with the conclusion. But then it is difficult to believe that one or more of these witnesses (I deduce there was more than one based on the “source,” which was “civilian and military”) wouldn’t have been able to identify the object had it been a helicopter.

In another missing case, we learn that on 27 January near Hellenburg, Germany, a civilian witness saw a bell-shaped object that was “intense black-white with a fiery red trail… [It] was observed for only 3-4 seconds. Exploded before it hit the ground.”

In the comments section, an officer wrote: “Everything here suggests that the object was, without a doubt, a bolide (fireball). See Dr Olivier’s and Dr La Paz rpts [reports].”

It probably was a meteor, but those reports by Olivier and La Paz were nowhere to be found as the index suggested.

The last one I’ll mention here is from Georgetown, Massachusetts, on 8 February 1957. The source is listed as a civilian and an

FBI report – which is somewhat curious. The summary says:

“A very lengthy report to the FBI, which outlines a number of theories concerning ‘flying saucers,’ makes only brief mention of a UFO sighting. A few days after reading books by so-called UFO experts Scully and Keyhow [sic, Keyhoe] source ‘saw a group of saucers.’…”

According to the comments: “Only the date is firmly established. Files show no reports of any strange or unusual objects for that particular date or area. Source is obviously a strong believer in ‘saucers’ which may have colored his very limited report.”

This case is revealing, providing clues about the thought processes at Blue Book. Their search of the files was only a search of the Air Force files at Blue Book: if a case was not in their files, then it simply didn’t exist, at least to them.

In searching the databases available to me in 2019, I found a listing that suggested that this was a disc-shaped object, but the source for that information was the Blue Book files. There is no indication on the project card of what shape the objects might have been: it only mentions “saucers” and that it was a daylight sighting.

Of course, with my access to many additional databases, I carried the search a little further, but I wasn’t able to find anything more on the sighting. Something might be there, especially for those who can access newspaper files.

I will note that most of the cases that are labelled as missing are of the same calibre, which means that I attach no significance to the fact they are missing. The problem is probably more related to sloppiness rather than attempts to hide anything – because if you were hiding something, you wouldn’t list it in the index, noting that it was missing.

This rather quick survey allowed me to see that many of the early cases were, in fact, classified. I found nothing listed as “top secret”, but there were many listed as “secret”, or “restricted” and, when the classification system was reorganised, as “confidential”. Later, most of the files were not classified at all unless there was a national security aspect to them.

So, while some 300 cases are missing, the cases themselves don’t seem to be all that important. It shows that those at Blue Book weren’t taking their work too seriously. They had reached a conclusion, or their superiors had reached a conclusion, and they weren’t going to do anything to suggest those superiors might be wrong.

One thought did cross my mind. When there were inspections of their operation – and there would be inspections – how did they explain the missing cases? Did they blame the earlier administrations… or did the inspectors, knowing the overall opinion of UFOs, just ignore the missing cases? There is nothing to suggest the missing cases were classified, and given that, there probably wouldn’t have been repercussions.

The Best of Project Blue Book by Kevin Randle is available now in kindle and paperback from Flying Disk Press: http://flyingdiskpress. blogspot.com/

2 KEVIN RANDLE isa prominent ufologist and author with over 100 books to his name. He has a PhD in psychology and served in the US Air Force and the National Guard, where he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.