The Bookworm: 'The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects'

The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, by Edward J. Ruppelt. 318 pages. Ace Books. 1956.

We were working in a field where there were no definite answers to questions. In some instances we were getting into fields far advanced above the then present levels of research. In other instances we were getting into fields where no research had been done at all. It made the problem of UFO analysis one of getting opinions. All we could do was hope the opinions we were getting were the best. (pp. 145–146)

This is a fun and fascinating time capsule—one that took me way too long to read and write about (I picked at it for over a year and probably finished it sometime around Halloween).

The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects is Edward Ruppelt’s first-person account of his time as a UFO investigator for the Air Force, including the time he was the director of the famous Project Blue Book. He candidly provides details about cases he worked on, the military’s interest and uncertainty about unidentified objects (as well as its official flip flopping on the subject), and a contemporary account of the flying saucer scare that took the nation by storm in the middle of the 20th century. Though not explosive or revealing (at least to me reading in 2025), it is an interesting read.

The Report is a gem I found within a gem inside another gem in Mount Vernon: the library of used books at the First Street Community Center. Once the town’s high school and middle school, the “First Street Building” has been repurposed as an incubator and home to small businesses ranging from an antique store to a hair salon. It is where my kids have taken dance lessons, piano lessons, and taekwondo. It is quite the place. Fittingly, the former school library space is now a giant free library of used books that includes a play area for kids. The collection is impressive and is curated and maintained by volunteers. One can find some interesting books there, things that were once a part of someone’s personal collection—which is probably where The Report came from.

This copy, possibly an original from 1956, was in pristine condition when I found it. Unfortunately, it has gotten a little worn from being hauled around in my backpack, which is rough on books for whatever reason. I noticed the book while hanging out in the library with Jam while Sis was at dance class and could not resist the urge to read it.

The Report seems candid and honest. Ruppelt has an easy and engaging writing style. (Did he actually write it or was it dictated? I’m unsure but want to believe they are words he wrote.) He seems genuine, down to earth (pardon the pun), and unbiased, which gives the book and its subject a good dose of seriousness and authenticity. It does not feel manufactured or like the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist. I can’t remember if he reveals his personal belief about UFOs but his accounts make him seem open-minded about explanations, especially for objects that, even after rigorous research, were deemed unknown.

The book covers a lot and Ruppelt outlines numerous cases, both well-known and not. Among those that are famous are the Maury Island mystery, the Lubbock lights (which he wrote “have been positively IDed” but does not reveal what they are), the Mantell incident, and the Washington, DC, UFO incident. He often outlines the minute details, which sometimes becomes tedious. His careful scrutiny and unbiased consideration of everything is evident in the research he mentions.

The Report captures the national sensation UFOs caused in the 1950s, at least from Ruppelt’s view. It seemed to border on hysteria, and Ruppelt was at the national epicenter for UFO reports. They seemingly flooded in, even though he writes that most UFO sightings were not officially reported. Ruppelt mentions using a clipping service to cut out stories of UFO sightings in newspapers and deliver them to Project Blue Book’s headquarters. There were so many stories that they were delivered in boxes. It made me wonder if people still report UFO sightings. I doubt it. In general, I think we’ve grown apathetic to UFOs, though I am sure there are still sightings. (I bet there are a lot of YouTube videos…) Hell, I even saw one once, but that is a story for another post. I don’t think the government or military are interested as much as they were when The Report was written.

The book is riddled with little typos and words are missing here and there. It features odd/dated phrases and terms that made me laugh or scratch my head. “UFO’s” is used throughout the book when referring to UFOs.

The book is not all serious. Ruppelt is lighthearted and humorous at times. He writes that one of the causes of a “flap,” an Air Force term for “an advanced degree of confusion that has not quite yet reached panic proportions” (p. 187), could be “the dramatic entrance of a well-stacked female into an officers’ club bar” (pp. 187–188). Unable to secure transportation on a visit to DC, he bemoans that he could not get higher ranking officers to “pressure a staff car out of the hillbilly who was dispatching vehicles” (p. 214). Toward the end he writes, “When I left Project Blue Book and the Air Force I severed all official associations with the UFO. But the UFO is like hard drink; you always seem to drift back to it” (p. 308).

Do I believe in UFOs? I am open-minded but doubtful, much like I am regarding other myths and legends, like Bigfoot. Reading The Report did not sway me one way or the other, though the cases Ruppelt outlines are very intriguing and, at times, eerie. Though I have not been convinced they are real, I will admit people see interesting and unexplained things in the sky. I can’t explain what I saw; nothing flies like that. Many of the cases featured in The Report are explained after careful scrutiny, but many are not.