FOIA: Henderson Briefing June 23, 1958

Henderson_Briefing_Jun1958.pdf
Henderson Briefing June 1958
Letters from Congressman Henderson requesting a briefing on UFO's and the USAF response and memos regarding the briefing.
Document date: 1958-06-23
Department: USAF, Air Technical Intelligence Center
Author: Capt. George T. Gregory
Document type: Report
pages: 19


Archivist's Notes: Majority Readable, Report on the Henderson Briefing including Congressman Henderson's Request which includes specific questions regarding the UFO phenomenon and USAF response to those questions as well notes of the briefing. Additional handwritten notes.




[edit on 2/7/2008 by JacKatMtn]

For anyone wishing to have the quickest read, start at page 13, through to 19...Henderson's letter to the military with all his questions and then the military's reply.

Henderson Briefing June 1958. 19 pages. Some unreadable…some handwritten.
Pdf pg 2-3 Memorandum of the outcome of the Air Force addressing Congress on the topic of UFOs since so many of the Congress had been bombarded with letters etc from the public, detailing their interest and concerns about UFOs. Major Boland and Major Tacker both of SAFLL addressed 8 members of Congress in Rep. Henderson’s chamber in response to Henderson’s personal request. The outcome was that congressmen were impressed with the briefing and felt they now had the knowledge with which to go back to the people.
Pdf pg 5-8 are the handwritten notes. Some words and phrases are readable..most not.
Pdf pg 9 short military document also unreadable and has some blacked out areas including who its from and whose attention it was for.
Pdf pg 10-11 a memo from Col. Gilbert to Major Tacker explaining he was sending information from Project Blue Book over to support the congressional briefing and Maj. Byrne received a copy.
Pdf pg 12 Letter from Major Tacker to Mr Arcier of Air Technical Intelligence Center
Requesting “10 of the best sightings in the last five years which have been classified as ‘unknowns’.” This request was to be used for the Henderson briefing.
Pdf pg 13-14 is a letter from Henderson to Hon.Neil McElroy Secretary of Defence DoD.
The letter asks many questions about UFO’s including what follow-up investigations have been made into the authenticity of the sightings plus what information is available of allies’ sightings. The letter has the request of the 10 best sightings in the last five years.
Pdf pg 15-19 is a joint messageform from Commander, ATIC to Major Tacker, with copies to: Dr Miley, Col. Gilbert, Mr Arcier, Major Byrne.
This message holds the answers to Henderson’s letter of pg 13-14.
Of interest in this jointmessage: pg 17 “For example, Geiger Counter sweeps of some aircraft involved with alleged UFO’s at high altitudes shows a slightly higher radioactivity than normal. Reason: Aircraft receive a greater dosage of cosmic rays at high altitudes. Example: Mantell Case, (which apparently prompted this query).”
Pg 15-16: “Before answering questions or providing info,….a few facts concerning Ruppelt and his book…as it appears to be basis for congressional request….Mr Ruppelt’s theories, opinions and conclusions are his own and not necessarily those of the Air Force.
His book was reviewed and passed on by Hqs USAF from a security viewpoint only. While most of the statements in his book are factual, the inferences and implications that he attempts to leave are definitely questionable.
As project officer of UFO program, Ruppelt had good knowledge and appreciation of various technical and scientific fields…However, he was not an expert in highly specialized fields such as astrophysics, meteorological optics, psychological influences…”

This document contains correspondence about questions that Congressman Henderson had on the investigation of UFOs by the US Government. In his letter on page 13 he mentions that he has read Edward J Ruppelt’s book, “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects”, which was about his involvement before leaving Project Blue Book. Henderson asks if Project Blue Book was still in operation. He also asked how many reports they have received since 1953 and how they were distributed by month and year and how many where classified as unknown. He then asks if any further scientific analysis has been done on sightings like filming radar contacts or using a spectrometer on the light given off by a UFO. He also asked if any sightings had been filmed. He requested information on the ten best sightings of the last five years. The final question was asking if information on the subject was shared with other ally countries.

The Air Force responded to his questions on page 15 first by stating that Ruppelt’s conclusions and opinions in the book where his own and weren’t necessarily that of the Air Force. They stated that Blue Book was an ongoing project and that they had used various scientific analyses on some cases and that other organizations were asked for help. The list of the ten best unknown cases were given at a different time due to the time restriction. The reply stated that sightings of foreign countries were collected, but very few cases from the US were shared with other countries.

Related FOIA Documents:
FOIA: Project Blue Book Presentation
FOIA: Project Blue Book documentation index and project summary

Related ATS Discussion:
A few questions about Project: Blue Book

Related Link:
Wikipedia article on Edward J Ruppelt