Customer Reviews

The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects

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The modern UFO phenomenon started in America in the summer of 1947, when a prosperous businessman and private pilot named Kenneth Arnold spotted nine strange "disk-shaped" craft flying over Mt. Rainier in Washington State. His story made headlines across the nation, and the "UFO Era" was born. Over the next five years (1947-1952) many of the most famous UFO sightings in American history took place, and the US Air Force became concerned enough to launch a top-secret investigation of the sightings. Originally called "Project Sign", it concluded in 1948 that UFOs were interplanetary spacecraft from an advanced alien civilization. The Pentagon rejected this analysis, fired most of the staff, and renamed "Project Sign" as "Project Grudge", with the new mission being to debunk all UFO reports. However, in the early fifties the wave of UFO reports reached an all-time high (it has never been equalled since), and even some high-ranking officers in the Pentagon became convinced that SOMETHING strange was taking place in America's skies. So they reorganized "Project Grudge" into "Project Blue Book", and appointed a young but talented USAF Captain, Edward J. Ruppelt, to supervise the new, beefed-up UFO investigation. From 1951-1953 Ruppelt presided over a kind of "golden age" of UFO reports. Under his guidance Project Blue Book objectively and thoroughly investigated each UFO report it received. Ruppelt was naturally skeptical of UFOs, but he also didn't dismiss the subject as "nonsense", and he insisted that his staff take the phenomenon seriously and remain open-minded when they were investigating UFO cases. As a result he wasn't afraid to label a case as "unsolved" or "unexplainable" when he or his staff couldn't find a "normal", rational explanation for a sighting. Ruppelt managed to investigate some of the most famous UFO cases in history, including the "Lubbock Lights" in Texas, which were seen by science professors at Texas Tech University, and which were photographed by a Texas Tech student. He also investigated the two famous UFO "movies" shot in Utah and Montana on old home-movie cameras. The Montana film was shot in 1950 by the manager of the Great Falls minor-league baseball team, and it showed two bright objects moving rapidly across the sky above the local baseball stadium. The Utah film was shot in 1952 near the Great Salt Lake by a professional Navy photographer. The film shows 12-15 bright objects (which bear a remarkable resemblance to the Montana film) flying in formation in the clear blue sky. The US Navy analyzed both films and, as Ruppelt writes, they judged that both films showed "genuine" UFOs - not birds, not planes, nor any other "normal" phenomena. Ruppelt also investigated the great "Invasion of Washington" in July 1952 when UFOs were seen above the nation's capital and were detected by radar at two airports in Washington. (The "Invasion of Washington" made front-page headlines across the country, and even President Truman called Ruppelt personally and wanted to know what was going on). Ruppelt left the Air Force in 1953, and in 1956 - much to the displeasure of the Air Force, which had forced Project Blue Book to return to debunking all UFO sightings - he wrote "The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects". This book is still considered to be the "classic" account of UFO sightings in the late forties and early fifties, and it also provides a wealth of information about how the US government and military viewed the UFO "problem" during those years. Ruppelt is a good writer, and the book is well-written and filled with many interesting stories and anecdotes from pilots, scientists, military officials and others whom Ruppelt talked with about UFOs. Ruppelt himself was an "open-minded skeptic" and he doesn't include any explanations for what UFOs might be - he simply describes his investigations into the subject and his experiences as Project Blue Book's supervisor. This book is an absolute "must" for any UFO buff or anyone who's interested in the early history of UFO sightings in America. Highly recommended!

Originally published more than 40 years ago, this was the first UFO book I ever read, and it is perhaps still my favorite. The late Edward Ruppelt was for several years the chief of Project Blue Book, the Air Force's official task force for the investigation of UFO reports. In that capacity, Ruppelt was privy to the inner workings of the Air Force and to the realities behind official public pronouncements. Perhaps to the disappointment of some, Ruppelt provides no revelations of government coverups or fantastic secrets. Rather, he reveals an Air Force whose attitude to UFOs was most often one of ridicule and annoyance.

Ruppelt himself rises above official diffidence, and steers a middle course between skepticism and credulity as he describes the classic UFO sightings and UFO flaps of the 1950s, including the Lubbock Lights, the Mantell incident, the Washington, D.C. flap, and many others. One gains the impression that Ruppelt is a cautious believer in the phenomenon, if not an enthusiast or apostle.

The 1950s were an era when UFOs were still primarily lights in the sky, not bearers of insectoid abductors or intergalactic geneticists. But despite the absence of the up-close-and-personal horrors of modern UFO reports, Ruppelt's accounts will occasionally send a chill up your spine. I attribute this to the book's excellent writing, which exactly captures the mood and sentiments of the 1950s.

And, ultimately, that is what "The Report on Unidentified Objects" is: a period piece, a wonderful journey back to the innocence and freshness of the 1950s, when silvery disks flashed through the sky and inspired fear, awe, and wonder in a public waking up to the realities of the atomic age.

Anyone with an interest in the subject of UFOs ***MUST*** read this book. This reprint edition preserves the original page numbers from the second edition so that the original work can be cited. The second edition includes three additional chapters of material so if you do decide to buy a used book make sure you find a second edition copy. Unfortunately, second editon copies are hard to come by which makes this second edition reprint all the more valuable a resource. Another nice aspect to this reprint edition is that the text is sharp and the paper is bright white which makes it very easy to read.

Edward J. Ruppelt is no run of the mill UFO author. Ruppelt was the first 'chief' of the USAF Project Blue Book. Upon leaving that post and the service, he wrote this book telling the world what he and the USAF really thought about, and how they handled, the UFO phenomena. Ruppelt is the person who coined the phrase 'Unidentified Flying Object' (UFO) to filter out the negative and demeaning connotations that were associated with the term 'flying saucers.' This is a serious look at the UFO question in the early days from a man at the very center of the UFO investigations by the US military. I'm really surprised that I am the first to write a review for this most important and historic book.

Rating: A
While the UFO phenomenon has died down in recent years, after all the publicity that The X-Files and shows of the sort generated for the forward thinking analytical scientist in us all, books of this sort are now a little easier to come by. This book is probably one of the best reads in my small collection of UFO and metaphysics books, and takes a very good and not too sceptical point of view on the whole UFO craze that began sweeping not only the United States, but the entire world in the late 1940's, and early 50's. Aimed to be more of a round up of gathered information, it is as we travel deeper into the book however that we begin to find that as the years went by on Project Blue Book, they devised new techniques to help prove whether these Flying Saucers were real or not. The only down side to the whole book in my opinion is the authors views and beliefs on whether or not he believes UFO's exist, which is presented in the last couple pages of this otherwise phenomenal book. Honestly, its almost like someone else wrote the last chapter, as Ruppelt has such an open mind throughout the whole project, but after having the project pretty much disbanded from his authority he takes an about face stance on the subject, which some might wonder was either his way to either confuse the leader, or make them think for themselves about the possibilites of what could actually be out there. By presenting us with all the useful information that they could possibly fit into this small but concise book, we are taken to all parts of the globe, but mostly throughout the United States, as the government seems to be trying to find the needle in the haystack awnser for just what in the hell is causing all of these bizarre occurences in our skys. Though the book is extremely old, and modern UFO books might be better (I'm not sure most of the UFO books I have are particularly old) no book I have cme across, has stated the facts for what they are and let the reader decipher for himself or herself on their point of view on the subject afterwards. An excellent read, that really expands your mind to look at all the possibilities out there.

I have read countless works covering the UFO phenomenon, but I haven't found one quite like this in some time. Though dated (not covering anything past 1955), this book reveals some of the most incredible UFO sightings ever reported by our military/civilian pilots.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in UFOs or the global conspiracy that still exists today.

Edward Ruppelt spent years at the helm of Project Blue Book in the days when the Air Force was seriously trying to figure out what was going on, rather than acting solely as an instrument to debunk genuine sightings and placate a confused populace. This book is a great history of the late forties, early fifties so far as the "Martian threat" is concerned.

Ruppelt put together a team of investigators who put serious time and effort into interviewing witnesses and cataloging data. They tried several proactive initiatives to capture verifiable evidence of UFO activity, such as sending up jets loaded with film in the gun cameras, but could never come away with quite enough evidence to convince the top Pentagon brass of the UFO's unearthly nature.

Not that Ruppelt couldn't supply plenty of evidence. Most everyone who looked at what he had compiled became convinced of the interplanetary explanation. The problem wasn't the availability of proof; the problem was in determining how much proof constitutes absolute proof. There never was the smoking gun which would convince the brass to accept the interplanetary explanation as the definitive explanation. So long as the UFO's could possibly be harmless natural light and/or weather phenomena, then there was no reason to take a definitive position.

Ruppelt has a great point of view. He remained stalwart in gathering evidence and trying every possible way to explain each UFO sighting as an explainable occurrence. He had about an 80% success rate. Most sightings indeed were weather balloons, nonconventional aircraft, Venus, temperature inversions, or seagulls. These explanations were given plenty of press. The 20% unknowns were simply unknowns with no further comment given.

This historical document of an interesting era in military and social history takes on added depth with the 1979 bombshell of our supposed recovery of a downed craft in Roswell in the summer of 1947. As you read of Ruppelt repeatedly facing resistance to the extraterrestrial option from the Pentagon, you can question whether the directive was coming down from the top to put the kabosh on the ET explanation until "more proof is made available" while the top brass is sitting on the ultimate proof all along, with Ruppelt none the wiser.

Ruppelt was in a strange position, authorized by the Air Force to investigate UFOs, while, possibly, required not to tell all he knew or found out.
For example, he took the twenty best sightings--extensive ground and air visual reports matching radar records--to Wright Patterson AFB's tactical intel center. The analysts took the best ten and examined them. Absolutely controlled by intelligent direction, was the conclusion. And that was it. That's it!? If there was more to it than that, presumably he'd have said nothing about it at all. But still, incontrovertibly controlled by intelligent direction? And then he changes the subject. Perhaps he was as frustrated as the reader is. If that's all the information he had, that was all he could say.
He was unable to explain ("debunk") many of the sightings, but is careful to say that not being able to explain something doesn't mean it's an invading armada of Bug-Eyed Monsters.
Not too many years ago, the Air Force said--"claimed" for the folks who don't believe the Air Force--that they'd cleared 96% of unknowns not otherwise explained by relating them to known flights of U2 and SR71 flights, more than top secret at the time. The U2 may have figured in Ruppelt's later work, but he was out of the business before the SR71 came along. Nevertheless, this tells us a couple of things. One is that aircraft a generation ahead of anything we know can generate UFO sightings. Another is that when somebody says he saw something, maybe he did. Since these reports reported real aircraft. And we've always had something a generation ahead, under wraps, until it becomes known and then obsolete, but by then, there's another.
In another part of the book, he tells of convening a panel of mental health professionals. Must have had quite a budget for a major. The shrinks opined that the reason could be war nerves due to apprehension over imminent nuclear war. Mass hysteria, mass hallucinations. Correcting for the propensity of people to see things in terms of their own profession, this tells us something that those too young to recall might find interesting. The shrinks saw nothing wrong with positing that so many people were so actively scared of waking up dead one fine morning that they saw UFOs. It's not the UFOs that is the interesting part. It's that the shrinks believed, in their professional competence, that a significant part of the population was scared to death and that it wasn't an irrational fear. Ruppelt, writing in and of that time, didn't think to remark on it since he could expect his readers to understand, because they were living it.
Ruppelt talks about the famous Lubbock lights and the summer of UFOs around DC's airports.
The book will probably disappoint those seeking to validate the existence of extraterrestial visitors. Ruppelt either explains in mundane terms the sightings, dismisses them for lack of sufficient evidence, or simply admits there is no answer. But that doesn't mean XTs are the answer. It merely means he has no explanation.
Or no explanatioin he can put in the book, which is the killer for a reader.
What did he really know?
This is a page-turner, although written decades ago. It will explain some of the ways investigations are done, some of the difficulties encountered, and ground those who are too likely to see BEMs on every shooting star.

This is one of the classic works on the subject of ufos. Simply a must-have for anyone interested in the subject.
However, be advised that there are two editions of the book and Amazon has been switching out different publications that vary between those two editions.
I got involved in a discussion (in the comments section of one of the reviews) since purchasing so I've seen three different versions (by different publishers) so far.

The first edition has 17 chapters. The second, 20. There are rumors about Ruppelt (the author) being pressured into adding the new chapters to lighten the mood of the book by including some of the sillier aspects of the subject. He died shortly after publication of the second edition, fueling further rumors of conspiracy to keep the subject from being taken seriously.

it's interesting to read the report from someone who lived through much of what he's reporting. you'll find more details on some of the stories you may have read in other books, plus some inside info on the government's way of doing things. having worked for the DoD for 20 years, i can certainly relate to how screwed up they are and this is another shining example of their way of handling...or i should say mishandling...things.

i can recommend this book to those of you who have an open mind and want to broaden your horizons. to those of you who are narrow-minded and dull, please don't buy this book then come here and complain about it. it won't be the book's fault you did not like it.

now, a little comment on the publisher. the address for Ægypan Press is an apartment in north hollywood, for cryin' out loud, which leads me to believe that there is maybe one person doing the publishing. another thing that lends to this theory is that every single chapter, save for the first one and one in the 3-chapter revised section, has the same beginning paragraph TWICE, one with raised caps, one without.

there are also numerous typographical/grammatical errors and omissions. would it really be so hard to proofread thoroughly or to notice something like the same paragraph twice, especially right in the beginning of each chapter??? seriously! the fact that this book was not proofread very well has not influenced my rating of the book, but i do hope that the publisher will see these reviews and take to heart the suggestion to have some pride in your product.

it makes me cringe when i see books on subjects such as UFOs and other phenomena whose followers are ridiculed, and these books have so many errors and omissions, because it's just one more strike against the people who are trying their best to give out this information to those of us who care to think about different possibilities.