27242. Civilians, Not Military Investigate UFOs

By Linda D. Kozaryn
American Forces Press Service
	WASHINGTON -- Mass suicide in San Diego has rekindled 
interest in UFOs, but people should not look to the Pentagon 
for answers. The military no longer serves as the nation's 
UFO-busters.
	Thirty-nine Heaven's Gate cult members reportedly 
believed they were leaving their earthly bodies to reawaken 
aboard a UFO traveling in the Hale-Bopp comet's wake. In the 
past, investigating UFOs was up to the U.S. Air Force.
From 1947 to 1969, Project Blue Book at Wright-
Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, investigated 12,618 
sightings. All but 701 were explained. The reminder were 
categorized as "unidentified" because they involved sketchy 
reports that could not be nailed down, said Pentagon 
spokesman Ken Bacon.
	The public was often skeptical of Air Force 
explanations attributing UFO sightings to swamp gas, weather 
balloons or other natural phenomena. Pentagon officials 
repeatedly denied allegations the military had evidence of 
extraterrestrial visits. A 1950s report from Roswell, N.M., 
for example, claimed military officials had recovered alien 
corpses from a UFO crash site.
	These allegations simply are not true, Bacon said at a 
recent Pentagon press briefing. "We cannot substantiate the 
existence of UFOs, and we are not harboring the remains of 
UFOs," he said. "I can't be more clear about it than that."
	After investigating UFO reports for more than two 
decades, Air Force officials reached three conclusions: No 
UFO reported, investigated or evaluated was ever a threat to 
national security; none of the unidentified sightings 
represented technological developments or principles beyond 
the range of modern scientific knowledge; and there was no 
evidence unidentified sightings were extraterrestrial 
vehicles.
	Finding no national security threat and no evidence of 
extraterrestrial visits, Air Force officials terminated 
Project Blue Book. "It just was not a good way to use 
taxpayers' money," Bacon said. UFO reports are now routed to 
private organizations, he said.
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27242. Civilians, Not Military Investigate UFOs
