Project Grudge
Encyclopedia
Project Grudge was a short-lived project by the U.S. Air Force
to investigate unidentified flying object
s (UFOs). Grudge succeeded Project Sign
in February, 1949, and was then followed by Project Blue Book
. The project formally ended in December 1949, but actually continued on in a very minimal capacity until late 1951.
as the best explanation for UFO reports. They prepared the Estimate of the Situation
arguing their case. This theory was ultimately rejected by high-ranking officers, and Project Sign was dissolved and replaced by Project Grudge.
would write, "In doing this, standard intelligence procedures would be used. This normally means an unbiased evaluation of intelligence data. But it doesn't take a great deal of study of the old UFO files to see that standard intelligence procedures were not being followed by Project Grudge. Everything was being evaluated on the premise that UFOs couldn't exist. No matter what you see or hear, don't believe it." (Ruppelt, 59-60, emphasis his)
Ruppelt noted that some of "ATIC's top intelligence specialists who had been so eager to work on Project Sign were no longer working on Project Grudge. Some of them had drastically and hurriedly changed their minds about UFOs when they learned the Pentagon
was no longer sympathetic to the UFO cause." (Ruppelt, 60)
As Dr. Michael D. Swords
writes, "Inside the military, [Maj. Aaron J.] Boggs in the Pentagon and [Col. Harold] Watson at AMC [Air Material Command] were openly giving the impression that the whole flying saucer
business was ridiculous. Project Grudge became an exercise of derision and sloppy filing. Boggs was so enthusiastically antisaucer that General Cabell ordered General Moore to create a more proper atmosphere of skeptical respect for the reports and their observers." (Swords, 98)
Critics charged that, from its formation, Project Grudge was operating under a debunking
directive: all UFO reports were judged to have prosaic explanations, though little research was conducted, and some of Grudge's "explanations" were strained or even logically untenable. In his 1956 book, Edward J. Ruppelt would describe Grudge as the "Dark Ages" of USAF UFO investigation. Grudge’s personnel were in fact conducting little or no investigation, while simultaneously relating that all UFO reports were being thoroughly reviewed. Ruppelt additionally reported that the word "Grudge" was chosen deliberately by the anti-saucer elements in the Air Force.
s, conventional aircraft or the like. However, unlike Sign which thought some UFOs might have an extraordinary answer, Grudge's personnel thought the remaining minority of reports could be explained away as normal phenomena. Grudge began a public relations
campaign to explain their conclusions to the general public.
The first salvo in the PR campaign came via Sidney Shallet of the Saturday Evening Post, one of the more popular magazines of the era. Shallet's article appeared in two consecutive issues of the Post (April 30 and May 7, 1949) and generally echoed the Grudge line: Most UFO reports could be easily explained as mundane phenomena misidentified by an eyewitness, the subject was blown out of proportion by the mass media
. Shallet suggested that hoax
es and crackpots played a prominent role in popularizing UFOs, and the opinions of many high-ranking military personnel were featured.
The article also included a few misrepresentations of the facts. Shallet asserted that the Air Force thought the subject was nonsense, and was more or less forced to investigate flying saucers due to public interest--this was manifestly false, as the Air Force took the UFO subject seriously nearly from the beginning. Shallet, of course, did not have access to some secret information, such as the 1947 memorandum by Gen. Nathan Twining that had declared flying saucers a "real and not visionary" phenomenon and had kickstarted Project Sign, and did not mention Sign's secret Estimate of the Situation
that had argued in favor of an extraterrestrial
origin for UFOs.
Shallett's article was perhaps the first detailed public discussion of UFOs, let alone with the endorsement of such prominent military men. Grudge had hoped the article would reduce public interest in flying saucers, but the effect was just the opposite: Shallet had mentioned in passing that a small minority of UFO reports seemed to defy analysis, and these statements were seized upon by the press and the curious. Ruppelt wrote that rather than squelching interest, Shallet had "planted the seed of doubt" in the general public.
Not long after this report was released, it was reported that Grudge would soon be dissolved. Despite this announcement, Grudge was not quite finished. A few personnel were still assigned to the project, and they aided the authors of a few more debunking mass media articles.
magazine visited Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
Investigating Grudge, he uncovered what Clark describes as "the project's manifest shortcomings". (Clark, 239) In response (at least "for appearances sake" according to Clark (ibid.) some of the more obviously anti-UFO personnel at Wright Patterson were reassigned. By mid-1951, Grudge consisted only of Lt. Gerry Cummings. According to Ruppelt, Cummings took his job seriously, but found little help or success in his efforts to reverse several years of apathy and dubious research.
On September 10, 1951, there was a radar/visual UFO encounter near Fort Monmouth
in New Jersey
. Pilots and radar operators reported encounters with a number of fast-moving, highly maneuverable disc-shaped aircraft. High-ranking personnel ordered an investigation, and Cummings and Lt. Colonel N.R. Rosegarten spent most of 13 September interviewing witnesses and gathering documentation at Ft. Monmouth.
The duo were then ordered to relate the results of their investigation directly to Major General Charles P. Cabell
, then the head of Air Force intelligence at the Pentagon. Cummings and Rosegarten arrived at a meeting already in progress, and found the atmosphere thick with tension. Cabell in particular was distressed by what he saw as the sloppy debunking and lackadaisical attitude Project Grudge brought to bear on a subject he thought deserved serious scrutiny. Cummings and Rosegarten related their conclusions of the Fort Monmouth incident: they agreed with Monmouth personnel who judged the fast moving objects sighted there as being "intelligently controlled." (Clark, 240)
When given permission to speak freely to Cabell and the others, Cummings (as Ruppelt wrote) "cut loose. He told how every UFO report [submitted to Grudge] was taken as a huge joke" and Grudge had become all but moribund. (Clark, 240)
When General Charles P. Cabell
learned that Grudge had essentially ignored UFO reports, he became furious. The Fort Monmouth case had highlighted what critics saw as Air Material Command's sloppy debunking, and at a meeting, a frustrated Cabell was reported to have said, "I want an open mind; in fact, I order an open mind! Anyone who doesn't keep an open mind can get out now! ... Why do I have to stir up the action? Anyone can see that we do not have a satisfactory answer to the saucer question." (Swords, p. 103) At another meeting--this one of high-ranking military Colonels--Cabell said, "I've been lied to, and lied to, and lied to. I want it to stop. I want the answer to the saucers and I want a good answer." (Swords, p. 103) Cabell also characterized the 1949 Grudge report as "tripe".
Lt. Col. N.R. Rosegarten asked Ruppelt to take over as the new project’s leader in late 1951, partly because Ruppelt "had a reputation as a good organizer." (Jacobs, 65) While Cabell wanted Grudge reactivated, he did not want the general public to know that he and some others in the military took UFOs seriously, and ordered the project to keep a low profile. This, he hoped, would protect the military's reputation on both fronts: if the saucer phenomenon was groundless, they could not be accused of sensationalism, but if the phenomenon proved to have some basis in fact, the military could produce serious studies of the subject. Cabell especially did not want the military to be perceived as belittling civilians who had reported UFOs.
Grudge became Project Blue Book
. Its first era--directed by Ruppelt--is generally seen as its most open-minded and productive era.
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
to investigate unidentified flying object
Unidentified flying object
A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
s (UFOs). Grudge succeeded Project Sign
Project Sign
Project Sign was an official U.S. government study of unidentified flying objects undertaken by the United States Air Force and active for most of 1948....
in February, 1949, and was then followed by Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book was one of a series of systematic studies of unidentified flying objects conducted by the United States Air Force. Started in 1952, it was the second revival of such a study...
. The project formally ended in December 1949, but actually continued on in a very minimal capacity until late 1951.
Background
Project Sign had been active from 1947 to 1949. Some of Sign's personnel including director Robert Sneider, favored the extraterrestrial hypothesisExtraterrestrial hypothesis
The extraterrestrial hypothesis is the hypothesis that some unidentified flying objects are best explained as being extraterrestrial life or non-human aliens from other planets occupying physical spacecraft visiting Earth.-Etymology:...
as the best explanation for UFO reports. They prepared the Estimate of the Situation
Estimate of the Situation
The Estimate of the Situation was a document supposedly written in 1948 by the personnel of United States Air Force's Project Sign -including the project’s director, Captain Robert R. Sneider - which explained their reasons for concluding that the extraterrestrial hypothesis was the best...
arguing their case. This theory was ultimately rejected by high-ranking officers, and Project Sign was dissolved and replaced by Project Grudge.
The Grudge era
It was announced that Grudge would take over where Sign had left off, still investigating UFO reports. But as Air Force Captain Edward J. RuppeltEdward J. Ruppelt
Edward J. Ruppelt was a United States Air Force officer probably best-known for his involvement in Project Blue Book, a formal governmental study of unidentified flying objects...
would write, "In doing this, standard intelligence procedures would be used. This normally means an unbiased evaluation of intelligence data. But it doesn't take a great deal of study of the old UFO files to see that standard intelligence procedures were not being followed by Project Grudge. Everything was being evaluated on the premise that UFOs couldn't exist. No matter what you see or hear, don't believe it." (Ruppelt, 59-60, emphasis his)
Ruppelt noted that some of "ATIC's top intelligence specialists who had been so eager to work on Project Sign were no longer working on Project Grudge. Some of them had drastically and hurriedly changed their minds about UFOs when they learned the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
was no longer sympathetic to the UFO cause." (Ruppelt, 60)
As Dr. Michael D. Swords
Michael D. Swords
Michael D. Swords is an American scientist.In 1962 Swords graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.S.. He studied biochemistry at Iowa State University , and at Case Western Reserve University Michael D. Swords is an American scientist.In 1962 Swords graduated from the University of...
writes, "Inside the military, [Maj. Aaron J.] Boggs in the Pentagon and [Col. Harold] Watson at AMC [Air Material Command] were openly giving the impression that the whole flying saucer
Flying saucer
A flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...
business was ridiculous. Project Grudge became an exercise of derision and sloppy filing. Boggs was so enthusiastically antisaucer that General Cabell ordered General Moore to create a more proper atmosphere of skeptical respect for the reports and their observers." (Swords, 98)
Critics charged that, from its formation, Project Grudge was operating under a debunking
Debunker
A debunker is an individual who attempts to discredit and contradict claims as being false, exaggerated or pretentious. The term is closely associated with skeptical investigation of, or in some cases irrational resistance to, controversial topics such as U.F.O.s, claimed paranormal phenomena,...
directive: all UFO reports were judged to have prosaic explanations, though little research was conducted, and some of Grudge's "explanations" were strained or even logically untenable. In his 1956 book, Edward J. Ruppelt would describe Grudge as the "Dark Ages" of USAF UFO investigation. Grudge’s personnel were in fact conducting little or no investigation, while simultaneously relating that all UFO reports were being thoroughly reviewed. Ruppelt additionally reported that the word "Grudge" was chosen deliberately by the anti-saucer elements in the Air Force.
Public relations campaign
Like Project Sign, Grudge thought that the vast bulk of UFO reports could be explained as misidentified clouds, stars, sun dogSun dog
A sun dog or sundog, scientific name parhelion ; , also called a mock sun or a phantom sun, is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun.Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of...
s, conventional aircraft or the like. However, unlike Sign which thought some UFOs might have an extraordinary answer, Grudge's personnel thought the remaining minority of reports could be explained away as normal phenomena. Grudge began a public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
campaign to explain their conclusions to the general public.
The first salvo in the PR campaign came via Sidney Shallet of the Saturday Evening Post, one of the more popular magazines of the era. Shallet's article appeared in two consecutive issues of the Post (April 30 and May 7, 1949) and generally echoed the Grudge line: Most UFO reports could be easily explained as mundane phenomena misidentified by an eyewitness, the subject was blown out of proportion by the mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
. Shallet suggested that hoax
Hoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
es and crackpots played a prominent role in popularizing UFOs, and the opinions of many high-ranking military personnel were featured.
The article also included a few misrepresentations of the facts. Shallet asserted that the Air Force thought the subject was nonsense, and was more or less forced to investigate flying saucers due to public interest--this was manifestly false, as the Air Force took the UFO subject seriously nearly from the beginning. Shallet, of course, did not have access to some secret information, such as the 1947 memorandum by Gen. Nathan Twining that had declared flying saucers a "real and not visionary" phenomenon and had kickstarted Project Sign, and did not mention Sign's secret Estimate of the Situation
Estimate of the Situation
The Estimate of the Situation was a document supposedly written in 1948 by the personnel of United States Air Force's Project Sign -including the project’s director, Captain Robert R. Sneider - which explained their reasons for concluding that the extraterrestrial hypothesis was the best...
that had argued in favor of an extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
origin for UFOs.
Shallett's article was perhaps the first detailed public discussion of UFOs, let alone with the endorsement of such prominent military men. Grudge had hoped the article would reduce public interest in flying saucers, but the effect was just the opposite: Shallet had mentioned in passing that a small minority of UFO reports seemed to defy analysis, and these statements were seized upon by the press and the curious. Ruppelt wrote that rather than squelching interest, Shallet had "planted the seed of doubt" in the general public.
The Grudge report
Project Grudge issued its only formal report in August 1949. Though over 600 pages long, the report's conclusions stated:- A. There is no evidence that objects reported upon are the result of an advanced scientific foreign development; and, therefore they constitute no direct threat to the national security. In view of this, it is recommended that the investigation and study of reports of unidentified flying objects be reduced in scope. Headquarters AMC [Air Materials Command] will continue to investigate reports in which realistic technical applications are clearly indicated.
- NOTE: It is apparent that further study along present lines would only confirm the findings presented herein. It is further recommended that pertinent collection directives be revised to reflect the contemplated change in policy.
- B. All evidence and analyses indicate that reports of unidentified flying objects are the result of:
-
- 1. Misinterpretation of various conventional objects.
- 2. A mild form of mass-hysteria and war nerves.
- 3. Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or to seek publicity.
- 4. Psychopathological persons.
Not long after this report was released, it was reported that Grudge would soon be dissolved. Despite this announcement, Grudge was not quite finished. A few personnel were still assigned to the project, and they aided the authors of a few more debunking mass media articles.
Tension
In April, 1951, Bob Ginna of LifeLife (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine visited Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Greene and Montgomery counties in the state of Ohio. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur Wright Field and Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot. Patterson Field is located approximately...
Investigating Grudge, he uncovered what Clark describes as "the project's manifest shortcomings". (Clark, 239) In response (at least "for appearances sake" according to Clark (ibid.) some of the more obviously anti-UFO personnel at Wright Patterson were reassigned. By mid-1951, Grudge consisted only of Lt. Gerry Cummings. According to Ruppelt, Cummings took his job seriously, but found little help or success in his efforts to reverse several years of apathy and dubious research.
On September 10, 1951, there was a radar/visual UFO encounter near Fort Monmouth
Fort Monmouth
Fort Monmouth was an installation of the Department of the Army in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The post is surrounded by the communities of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, New Jersey, and is located about 5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The post covers nearly of land, from the Shrewsbury...
in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. Pilots and radar operators reported encounters with a number of fast-moving, highly maneuverable disc-shaped aircraft. High-ranking personnel ordered an investigation, and Cummings and Lt. Colonel N.R. Rosegarten spent most of 13 September interviewing witnesses and gathering documentation at Ft. Monmouth.
The duo were then ordered to relate the results of their investigation directly to Major General Charles P. Cabell
Charles P. Cabell
Charles Pearre Cabell was an United States Air Force General and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.-Early life:...
, then the head of Air Force intelligence at the Pentagon. Cummings and Rosegarten arrived at a meeting already in progress, and found the atmosphere thick with tension. Cabell in particular was distressed by what he saw as the sloppy debunking and lackadaisical attitude Project Grudge brought to bear on a subject he thought deserved serious scrutiny. Cummings and Rosegarten related their conclusions of the Fort Monmouth incident: they agreed with Monmouth personnel who judged the fast moving objects sighted there as being "intelligently controlled." (Clark, 240)
When given permission to speak freely to Cabell and the others, Cummings (as Ruppelt wrote) "cut loose. He told how every UFO report [submitted to Grudge] was taken as a huge joke" and Grudge had become all but moribund. (Clark, 240)
When General Charles P. Cabell
Charles P. Cabell
Charles Pearre Cabell was an United States Air Force General and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.-Early life:...
learned that Grudge had essentially ignored UFO reports, he became furious. The Fort Monmouth case had highlighted what critics saw as Air Material Command's sloppy debunking, and at a meeting, a frustrated Cabell was reported to have said, "I want an open mind; in fact, I order an open mind! Anyone who doesn't keep an open mind can get out now! ... Why do I have to stir up the action? Anyone can see that we do not have a satisfactory answer to the saucer question." (Swords, p. 103) At another meeting--this one of high-ranking military Colonels--Cabell said, "I've been lied to, and lied to, and lied to. I want it to stop. I want the answer to the saucers and I want a good answer." (Swords, p. 103) Cabell also characterized the 1949 Grudge report as "tripe".
Lt. Col. N.R. Rosegarten asked Ruppelt to take over as the new project’s leader in late 1951, partly because Ruppelt "had a reputation as a good organizer." (Jacobs, 65) While Cabell wanted Grudge reactivated, he did not want the general public to know that he and some others in the military took UFOs seriously, and ordered the project to keep a low profile. This, he hoped, would protect the military's reputation on both fronts: if the saucer phenomenon was groundless, they could not be accused of sensationalism, but if the phenomenon proved to have some basis in fact, the military could produce serious studies of the subject. Cabell especially did not want the military to be perceived as belittling civilians who had reported UFOs.
Grudge became Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book was one of a series of systematic studies of unidentified flying objects conducted by the United States Air Force. Started in 1952, it was the second revival of such a study...
. Its first era--directed by Ruppelt--is generally seen as its most open-minded and productive era.
Sources
- Jerome Clark; The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial; Visible Ink, 1998; ISBN 1-57859-029-9
- Richard M. Dolan, UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Cover-up 1941–1973, 2002, ISBN 1-57174-317-0 (pp. 19–98, passim)
- David Michael Jacobs; The UFO Controversy In America; Indiana University Press, 1975; ISBN 0-253-19006-1
- Edward J. Ruppelt, The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
- Michael D. Swords, "UFOs, the Military, and the Early Cold War" (pp. 82-122 in UFOs and Abductions: Challenging the Borders of Knowledge, David M. Jacobs, editor; University Press of Kansas, 2000; ISBN)