A Historic Meeting With Bluebook Investigators

At a meeting of the NUFORC (National UFO Reporting Center) in August of 2000 Ruby and Willard Nelson made a presentation regarding a 1952 meeting of Project Bluebook investigators, civilian scientists, and major news media representatives.  Ruby was present at the April 2, 1952 meeting and was responsible for taking notes at the meeting.  The meeting was held at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, CA.  Present at the meeting from the Air Force were Lt. Edward Ruppelt (Chief Bluebook investigator) and Col. S. H. Kirkland (Chief Analytical Section U.S. Air Technical Command).  Also present were several scientists for North American Aviation.  These scientists had recently organized a civilian UFO investigation group called Civilian Saucer Investigations (CSI).  Among these scientists were Dr. Walter Riedel (designer of German Rockets in World War II) and E.J. Sullivan who was the organizer of CSI.  Also present were several writers for Life magazine and a reporter from the Los Angeles Mirror Newspaper.  Ruby was employed by North American Aviation as a secretary and was asked by her supervisor (Norton Nelson) to take the minutes of the meeting.  The meeting of the CSI and Bluebook investigators was lengthy and generated 202 statements, questions, and answers.  Life writer John Bryson asked 31 questions and accounted for 42% of the items in the minutes.  Much of the discussion was focused on the upcoming Life article (displayed at meeting), the green fireballs seen frequently over New Mexico, and how the two groups could work together to investigate UFO sightings. 
 The Life magazine article April 7, 1952 issue "Have We Visitors From Space" mentions the CSI group and project Grudge investigators. The original Air Force flying disk investigation project began in January of 1948 and was called Project Sign.  Project Sign was replaced by Project Grudge in 1949 and then Project Bluebook replaced Project Grudge in 1952.  Project Bluebook continued until 1969.  Lt. Ruppelt was lead investigator from 1951 until 1953.  Lt. Ruppelt published a book titled "Report on Unidentified Objects" in 1956.  On page 131 of his book he mentions the 1952 meeting with the CSI group.  Lt. Ruppelt has been given credit for coining the term unidentified flying objects (UFOs).  Formerly UFOs were referred to as flying disks (or flying saucers).  The green fireballs were also discussed in the Life article and a picture of the green fireballs painted by Dr. Lincoln La Pax's wife was displayed in the Life article.  Dr. La Paz was the head of the University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics and had been deeply involved in investigating the green fireballs.  Some discussion was generated regarding the high copper content of air samples in the Southwest (in areas where fireballs had been sighted).  Col. Kirkland said that they were not able to attach any significance to the high copper content.  The Life article sought opinions about flying disk sightings from two important scientists of the day.  The first was Dr. Walter Riedel.  Dr. Riedel told Life that "I am completely convinced that they have an out-of-this-world basis".  The other scientist was Dr. Maurice A. Biot, a leading expert on aerodynamics and a prominent mathematical physicist.  Dr. Biot told Life: "My opinion for some time has been that they have an extraterrestrial origin".  Lt. Ruppelt and Col. Kirkland stopped short of saying that unexplained sightings were extraterrestrial vehicles by saying that more information was needed.  The meeting concluded with both groups expressing enthusiasm about working together in the future.

An article regarding the meeting between the Bluebook investigators and CSI was published in the International UFO Reporter in the September/October, 1987 issue.  This article was titled "When Blue Book Met the Ufologists".

Willard Nelson is a retired Engineer-Scientist who worked in the Advanced Structural Design Section of the former McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Long Beach, CA.  He is an active MUFON member and was MUFON section director for Orange County, CA from 1977 to 1984.  Ruby remains interested in UFOs and regularly reads UFO literature.