DOW-UAP-D092, Department of the Air Force Committee to Review Project Bluebook, 1966-1967
This file documents the 1966-1967 deliberations and recommendations of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Scientific Advisory Board’s Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book was a 1952-1969 USAF program to investigate the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects (UFO). The Committee recommended that the USAF contract a scientific team composed of university-affiliated representatives to investigate selected UFO sightings. The USAF subsequently adopted the Committee’s recommendation.
The summary above is sourced from the released file metadata as published to war.gov. The analysis sections below are original to this tracker.
Text of the document
Machine-extracted from the PDF war.gov published (its text layer or OCR), so expect errors, especially in names, numbers and handwriting; the PDF is the authoritative copy. Lines that did not extract as readable text are left out. Showing about 995 words from pages 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 of 85.
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DEPARTMENT OF THE AlR FORCE AIR FORCE OFFICE OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH (OAR) ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA 22209 Attendees - meeting with Dr. James McDonald, Uni.versity of Arizona at the Pentagon 17 April 1967 Lt. Col. Harold A. Steiner, Ass't. Exec. Secre. USAF Scientific Advisory Board, Col. George Freeman, Chief, Civil Branch, SAFOI-C, Room 4Al20, The Pentagon, Col. Marvin Stanley, Chief, Public Information Division, SAFOIP, Room 4C922, The Pentagon, Washington, D.C. Tele. 695-5554 (Code 11-55554). H. Philip Hovnanian, Program Engineer, NASA Hq. Room F50016, 400 Maryland Ave., S.W. George H. Duncan, Advanced Programs & Technology Manager, NASA Hq. Room 50016, Dt. Dale W. Jenkins, Ass't Director (Science), NASA Hq. Office of Space Science & Hans Dolezalek, Atmospheric Scientist, ONR Branch Office, 495 Summer Street, Mr. James Hughes, Head, Atmospheric Science Program, Office of Naval Research, Phillip V. Mitchell, Technical Staff Member, Institute for Defense Analyses, 400 Army-Navy Drive, Arlington, Va. 22202. Tele. 558-1641. Joseph Coates, Senior Staff Member, Institute for Defense Analyses, 400 Army Navy Drive, Arlington, Va. 22402. Tele. 558-1653. Lynn E. Catoe, Library o~ Congress, Science & Technology Div., UFO Bibliography Project, Washington, D.c. Tele. 967-8088. Dan Taylor, Staff Information Officer, AFOSR (SRGC) ~rlington, Va. 22209. Maj. Joseph P. Martino, Ass't. Exec. Dir® Research Communication, AFOSR (SRGC) Dr. J. Thomas Ratchford, Project Scientist, AFOSR (SRPS) Arlington, Va. 22209. Maj. William Metscher, Physicist, Hq. OAR (RROSP) Arlington, Va. 22209. DAN TAYLOR Staff Information Officer
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USAF SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY roARD AD HOC COMMI'l'rEE TO REVlEW PROJECT BIDE BOOK Roam 5D-1014, the Pentagon MEETING STATISTICS 1400 Purpose of Meeting Lt Colonel Steiner, SAB II. ..............ose and Place: To discuss how best to implement the recommenda tions made by the SAB Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project Blue Book~ The discussion was held in Room 5D-1014, the Pentagon. III. Those Present and ose Thereof: Name Affiliation Dr. Brian O'Brien Chairman Consultant Dr. Jesse Orla.nsky Member IDA Col Robert Burger SAB Secretary AFBSA ol Robert Hippler Participant AFRSTA Mrs. Sara Hunt Participant SAFOI L/Col Harold A. Steiner SAB Secretary Hq USAF (AFRSA) IV. reviewed Reviewed - Report of the SAB Ad Hoc Conmiittee to Review Project Blue Book, March 1966. V. Verbatim Record: (see attached) VI. Certification: These meeting statistics are certified as being true and correct. HAROLD A. STEINER, Lt Colonel, USAF 1 Atch Assistant Secretary Record, dated 20 Apr 66 USAF Scientific Advisory Board
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HEADQUARTERS UNITE. , ATES AIR FORCE USAF SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE & CHIEF OF STAFF MEMO FOR: Record The following distribution waa made on Memo tor Record, 20 Apr 66, regarding UFO Meeting 1400, es made #3 ot 6 - sent to Lt Col Hippler, AFRSTA
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USAF SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY EOARD AD HOC C{Ht{I'ITEE TO REVJEW PROJECT BWE BOOK HQ FTD, WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, OHIO MEETING STATISTICS II. se and Place: To review the resources, methods and findings of Air Force Project Blue Book and to advise the Air Force as to any improvements that should be made in the program to carry out the Air Force 's responsibility. Briefings held in Commanders Conference room at Hq, FI'D. Discussions and review of case files held in Project Blue Book office. III. Those Present and se Thereof: Name Affiliation Dr. Brian O'Brien Chairman Consultant Dr. IB.unor F. Carter Member System Development Corp. Dr. Jesse Orlanaky Member IDA Dr. Richard Porter Member GE Company Dr. Carl Sagan Member Smithsonian Astrophysical. Dr. Willis H. Ware Member Rand Corporation Dr. Anthony Cacioppo Participant Fl'D Col Warren Wheeler Participant FTD Maj Hector Quintanella. Briefer FTD Mr. Francis Arcier Participant Consultant to FTD Col Florian Holm Briefer F'I'D L/Col Harold A. Steiner SAB Sec Hq USAF (AFBSA) IT. Re orts Contributions Pro osala etc. issued received reviewed, a!)Rroved,2 ;12re12 ed or disseminated durins the EroceedinS: Reviewed: Robertson Report, dated 17 January 1953 Selected case histories from Project mue Book Distributed: Compilation of Project Blue Book Methods and Case Histories, V. Verbatim. Record: None VI. Certification: These meeting statistics are certified as being true and correct. Assistant Secretary
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AD HOC COMMITTEE ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS (UFOs) 0800 Welcoming Remarks Commander or Vice Commander, FTD 0805 Introduction Dr. O'Brien, SAB 0810 The Air Force Problem Lt Col Spaulding, 0830 Briefing on Project Major Quintanilla, Blue Book FI'D 1015 Review of Selected FTD Staff Case Histories 1315 Executive and Writing NER, Lt Colonel, USAF Assistant Executive Secretary USAF Scientific Advisory Board
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SUBJECT: Implementing SAB Ad Hoc Coan:lttee on Project Blue Book 1. The following personnel met at 1400 on 19 April in Room 5D-l0l4 to discuss how best to 1.mplement the recommendations made by the SAB Ad Hoc Committee to review ProJect Blue Book. Dr. Brian O'Brien Colcael Robert Burger, AFBSA. •· Dr. Jesse Orlansky Lt Col Harold Steiner, AFB&\ Lt Col Robert Hippler, AFR'l'SA M:ra. Bara Hunt, SAroI 2. On 5 April , Secretary ot the Air Force Harold Brown, 1n a memorandum. to the Chief of Staff, stated that the Committee's recamnendationa should be accepted and arrangements me.de tor a (sic) scientific team to investigate 1n depth· certain selected sightings of UFOs. General Ferguson was given responsibility for implementing the Committee's recommendations and Lt Colonel Hippler is project 3. Although the Committee's recommendation was clear and succinct, initially there was no unanimous agreement on how to put this recommendation into effect. A basic question is: (1) Should the contract be vith a university or should it be the meeting was taken up discussing these facets of the problem end a clear anner did not evolve. Therefore, it is probable that I, and perhaps some selected members of the Canm1.ttee uy be asked to meet with Colonel Hippler again. 4. Gener~, the concept of using uni'VersitteE(or individuals tran universities) is good. Specifically, however, :there needs to be a lead university to coordinate and collate the investigations. After some discussion, it was B\J88e&ted that the University of Da.yton is probably .most appropriate because it is located close to Hq FTD who will retain management ot Project Blue Book. 'Other universities
Where this file fits in the PURSUE archive
This file is one of DoD's 282 files in the Trump PURSUE disclosure. Within the DoD agency block it ranks #149 of 282 by Anomalousness Index. Across the entire 478-file archive it ranks #273 of 478.
That places it in the lower-scoring band of the archive (273 of 478 by score), typical of investigative-record style files where the report is paper-based rather than instrumented.
Anomalousness Index: 56/100
Evidentiary weight that this encounter remains unexplained after conventional analysis. Not a probability of extraterrestrial origin - that number is not honestly computable from the released files and this tracker refuses to publish it.
🤖 AI-ASSISTED SCORING · methodology
The six rubric components break down for this file as follows. Each component has a weighted contribution to the final score; the per-component explanation below describes what this file's particular value on that component means in the rubric's framework.
No sensor, camera, or instrument backs this observation - it is testimony, relayed through the Department of War, and scored on the rubric's lowest sensor-quality tier for that reason. That doesn't bear on the witness's credibility (a separate axis); it reflects only that nothing beyond human perception recorded the event.
Reported by trained U.S. military personnel during an operational mission (4/17/1967) - a high witness-credibility tier, ranked in the rubric below astronaut, trained-aviator, and federal-agent testimony. This profile is shared across the AARO-submitted infrared-capture cluster that anchors the archive's densest scoring band, at 66.
On corroboration, this file from the Department of War - like every single-tier file in the PURSUE archive - is a single-witness or single-instrument capture per the released metadata. The rubric doesn't infer multi-witness confirmation the summaries don't actually establish; this score reflects the honest limit of what was released, not a judgment about the underlying event.
The released file contains no speed, acceleration, or vector data precise enough to score on the kinematic axis - and that's true archive-wide, not specific to this file. The rubric declines to infer kinematic anomaly from a witness's narrative estimate of how fast something moved; that itself says something about what PURSUE actually released: descriptive accounts, not flight-path telemetry.
Every file in the archive, including this one, scores this tier: a conventional explanation was considered in the released record but isn't treated as dispositive. That's a pattern in how war.gov's own summaries are written - they consistently hedge against strong conclusions either way - and the rubric takes that hedging at face value rather than resolving it for them.
This file was released as open by the Department of War after a formal review process concluded - not simply logged and left pending. That's a stronger disposition signal than 'unresolved, no review': a review actually happened, and remaining open is the Department of War's own published conclusion from it, not an absence of one.
Bottom line on the score: the Anomalousness Index of 56/100 reflects evidentiary weight that this specific file's encounter remains structurally unexplained by the rubric's six axes - it is not a claim that the underlying event involved anything non-conventional, and it is not comparable across rubrics that use different weights. For the full per-axis weights and the rubric JSON, see /methodology.
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DOW-UAP-PR106, Unresolved UAP Report, Eastern United States, 2020
DOW-UAP-PR108, Unresolved UAP Report, Western United States, 2020
DOW-UAP-PR109, Unresolved UAP Report, Eastern United States, 2015
DOW-UAP-PR110, Unresolved UAP Report, Eastern United States, 2020
Verification
SHA-256:
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