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The 701 club
Project Blue Book (along with Projects Sign and Grudge) was the Air Force’s attempt to investigate all the UFO reports they received.
Everyone agrees that the manpower that was devoted to the project was too limited for such a large case load. As a result, when Blue Book closed its doors, they had 701 cases they considered unknown. Many UFOlogists dispute this number. Brad Sparks has a list of over 1600 unknowns and states James McDonald felt that there may have been 3600-4800 cases that are actual unknowns. This article will be the beginning of a column, where I will examine one of these Blue Book Unknowns and hope to find a potential explanation for the case I pick.
Case #7741
This event occurred on the evening of November 21, 1961. The location was in the countryside west of Gainesville, Florida near a cross road town called Old Town. I was somewhat familiar with the area because I did a lot of astronomy in the late 1980s and mid-1990s at a place called Chiefland, Florida, which is not far away. In the 1980s, the place was remote. It was probably even more so in 1961.
According to the Blue Book files, two men reported seeing a bright reddish-orange object rise above the trees over the southern
horizon (the document lists approximately 180 azimuth while the record card says due south). It rose up until it looked like a star and then it disappeared after 3-4 minutes. The location of the observers is not precise but it is listed as approximately 7 miles ENE of Old Town. The comments section states that the case was unidentified but if they had more data, they might have resolved the case. The file only includes a message with a Date-Time-Group transmission time of 2215Z on November 22nd. It was transmitted by the Cross City Air Force Station UFO officer, who investigated the case only thirty minutes after the event.
Solution?
Anytime I see the state of Florida involved after 1958, I begin to suspect a rocket launch. The description is exactly what one would expect. A check of the Astronautix Chronology web site revealed the following:
1961 November 22 - . 00:30 GMT - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral LC20. LV Family:
Titan. Launch Vehicle: Titan 1. LV Configuration: Titan I AJ-22. •Mk 4 re-entry vehicle test - . Nation: USA. Agency: USAF. Apogee: 1,000 km (600 mi).
The 0030 GMT time on the 22nd is 1930 (7:30PM EST) on the 21st for Florida. This is the exact same time the witnesses
reported their observation! The only reason I would not call this a “slam dunk” was the direction of the observation. According to the file, it was to the south. From Old Town, Cape Canaveral is to the East-SouthEast about 170 miles away. This is roughly a difference in azimuth of 60 degrees. Could there have been an error of this kind? It is possible for this to be the case. Unless one has good bearings in the dark or is familiar with the night sky, I can see how it might be possible for somebody to think they were looking south, when they were actually looking southeast or East-SouthEast.
How did the USAF miss this?
When I saw the rocket launch entry, I was shocked the USAF did not slap this explanation onto the record. Based on the way some UFOlogists describe it, the USAF would have used it even if the witnesses claimed they were looking in the north! The reason probably lies in complacency on the Cross City AFS UFO officer and Blue Book personnel. The UFO officer probably went to the location, discussed the incident with the witnesses, returned back to the base, and then filled out his report without looking at a possible solution. The message was transmitted less than 24 hours later, which indicated there was little follow-up investigation. The officer probably figured it was up to the upper chain of command to resolve the case. In 1961, the USAF did not normally announce their upcoming rocket tests, which probably contributed to the lack of identification. This launch was so classified that one media account stated that the blockhouse was manned only by AF personnel instead of the Martin specialists, who normally were present (see news clip to the left). It did make it into the news accounts but those reports may have been limited or hidden as footnotes at the bottom of the page depending
on the newspaper. Blue Book, limited in manpower, probably just looked at the report, shrugged, and then filed the case as unexplained. They may not have been aware one could see a night rocket launch from Old Town, Florida or that a rocket launch had occurred at the exact same time. As the record card states, if they had this information, they probably would have identified it. In my opinion, this case can now be considered identified as a Titan ICBM test.
Quelle: SUNlite 5/2012
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