Captain Edward Ruppelt
Edward Ruppelt was an engineer with the Northrop Aircraft
Corporation when he released The Report On Unidentified Flying
Objects in 1956. This book was to be one of the most influential
volumes produced in the 1950s and is still quoted today. During
World War II Ruppelt was a bombardier with the very first B-29
wing and served both in China and in the South Pacific.
When the war ended Ruppelt went to college and was still in
attendance there when the Korean War started in 1950. At the end
of that year he was called up to active duty and sent to the Air
Technical Intelligence Corps (ATIC) based at Wright Field near
Dayton, Ohio. He arrived in January of 1951 with the rank of
Captain. His stay in the Air Force was to last 33 months.
In September of 1951 he was put "in charge" of the "flying saucer
group" at ATIC, then called GRUDGE. Also working on UFOs at that
time was the Air Materiel Command (AMC). Ruppelt stayed with
Grudge throughout the rest of 1951 and remained on board when it
became Blue Book in 1952. He was the man in the middle during
the great Washington, DC, flap of July, 1952 and saw what the
Robertson Committee did to the UFO and the Air Force in 1953.
Books:
The Report Of Unidentified Flying Objects - Doubleday - 1956