The United States Air Force in discharging it's responsibilility for the aerospace defense of nation was called upon to investigate reports of unidentified flying objects. Two airforce officers have over the years
been very closely associated with this activity.
Lt Colonel Laurence Tacker was formerly the chief spokesman for the Air Force on the matter
and Major Hector Quintanilla who is now the chief of Project Blue Book
Major Quintanilla, what are the objectives of Project Blue Book?
The objectives of the program are two fold
they are the same as they have been since 1953 when the regulation was written
First of all to try to determine
if UFO phenomena presents a threat to the security of the United States
and second to determine if UFO phenomena exhibits any technological
advances which could be turned into research and development
What is the record so far?
Today we have over 10,000 cases at Wright-Patterson Airforce Base, of which 646 of these remain unidentified
that's not to say that we could not have identified more cases
if we had gotten to the observer quickly and checked for local activity
The Air Force has been accused from time to time of hiding information about UFO
What do you have to say to that? These charges are absolutely untrue
Actually the United States Air Force releases statistics
on the UFO phenomena
Through the Department of Defense press desk periodically
and we've always honored accredited media when they want to investigate
a given specific sighting. There is nothing to hide
There is nothing to hide at all. Is there anything in the files,
either classified or unclassified that would indicate that there may be
extra terrestrial visitors?
First of all, the project is completely unclassified and there is nothing in the record that would indicate that
we have been visited by
alien civilization
How does the Air Force look upon people who make reports of UFO? Do they look upon them as qualified observers?
Yes, they do look upon them as qualified observers.
actually most people who report a UFO sighting
are patriotic citizens who have been mystified by
something that they've seen. And through a patriotic
sense, report it to the local law enforcement officials
or to the United States Air Force base near them
What would you consider as a person qualified
to interpret what he sees? Well I would consider astronomers
a genuinely expert in their field.
First of all they have a tremendous advantage over the other physical scientists
and that is that they have powerful telescopes and photographic equipment to confirm their interpretations.
Do astronomical laboratories make any contribution to the UFO program?
In a negative way they do we because
I have never seen a UFO report from an observatory. Not a one. Not a single one.
well how about the tracking and detective abilities of the Air Force itself? How does this fit into the program?
Well actually, to begin with, the United States
Air Force is charged
by an act of Congress to be in defense of the United States
and the North American air defense command and the Air Defense command
have space tracking facilities which
are constantly on the alert 24 hours a day. We're interested in
anything that flies in our atmosphere. Well how about UFO reports in other countries? How are they handled?
UFOs actually occur world wide
however the United States is the only country in the world that
places as much emphasis on the phenomena
Other countries place the burden of proof
on the observer, not on the Air Force
that would make your job a lot easier if they did that here.
Yes it would. Thank you, Colonel Tacker, Major Quintanilla
I would like to close by reading a very brief excerpt from the report of the Air Forces
scientific advisory board
which they made recently upon completing a detailed review of the subject of UFO
This is the statement. The committee concluded that in the nineteen years since the first
UFO was sighted
there has been no evidence that unidentified flying objects
are a threat to our national security.