Correspondence Relating to Project Blue Book, 1955

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Page 3, Letter dated Dec. 2, 1954, to the Chief of the Office of Naval Research, attention of Lt. Cdr. Frank Thomas

3. I should like to know whether the July 23d (1954) Photomat River Naval Command directive on UFO reporting has been since revised, and if so I should like to have a copy of the revised directive. I understand, after a study of Air Force Regulation 200-2, August 12, 1954, the fact the FRC directive was based on this Air Force Regulation, and that this Navy operation was at the request of the Defense Department. Is this correct?

Also, I should like to know whether this directive, in the same or similar form, was issued in other Naval Distinctives, and to our Navy forces abroad.

4. An ABC chemist, or a chemist formerly with AEC, named Leon Davidson, has written me his connection that the so-called "flying saucers" are secret Navy devices. He refers to alleged Navy secret annual reports and references to round tables and artificial meteors, some of which he states were at least partly developed in 1942. Several times, I have discussed these suggested operations -- not necessarily as from Davidson -- with Rear Adm. Daniel Cady in Bolster, USN, (now retired), and Rear Adm. Delmar Fahrtney, USN, Ret, both of whom are Naval Academy classmates of mine. Both convicted me that there was absolutely no foundation for the classes such as Davidson has made. In addition, I am sure such devices would have made present jets obsolete; we would have used them in Korea -- perhaps toward the end of World War 2 -- and and certainly would not now be in any serious danger from any other nation's conventional aircraft or conventional missiles. (We would, however, have violated the boundaries of practical every nation on earth, in tests and practice operations, if this were the true answer, since the "flying saucers" have appeared practically everywhere on the globe.) For all these reasons, I am absolutely convicted that the UFOs are not a secret device of this country. But I should like a direct answer on a secret device of this country. (I realize this point, unless it is inconsistent with this national security.) I realize that the armed services may not be experimenting with devices that could be mistaken for the undeniably flying saucers seen in our skies, or for the smaller ones, but I am sure there is no foundation for the belief that this secret American device explains the signals of the past 10 years -- not most of the present ones.)

5. On May 14, 1957, accordance to the Dallas Times and several radio commentators, Major Charles Searborough, USMC, reported the signals of a group of 16 UFOs which he said they could describe only as flying saucers. His quoted statement was reported clearly confirmed by members of the Barbere Corps jet flight which he was leading at the time. I should like to have any Navy material available in register to this signal, including the final conclusion.

6. I have been informed by various sources that the signals were reported on the night of August 6-7, 1953, by one or more Navy pilots at Station Point Naval Air Station, Hawaii. I should like to have any material available on this signal.

NWM 91198

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