Major Hector
Quintanilla took over as Blue Book's leader
in August 1963. He largely continued the
debunking efforts, and it was under his
direction that Blue Book received some of
its sharpest criticism. UFO researcher
Jerome Clark goes so far as to write that,
by this time, Blue Book had "lost all
credibility."
Physicist and UFO researcher Dr. James E.
McDonald once flatly declared that
Quintanilla was "not competent" from either
a scientific or an investigative
perspective. However, McDonald also
stressed that Quintanilla "shouldn't be held
accountable for it", as he was chosen for
his position by a superior officer, and was
following orders in directing Blue Book.
Blue Book’s explanations of UFO reports were
not universally accepted, however, and
critics — including some scientists —
suggested that Project Blue Book was engaged
in questionable research or, worse,
perpetrating cover up. This criticism grew
especially strong and widespread in the
1960s.
Take for example, the many mostly nighttime
UFO reports from the midwestern and
southeastern United States in the summer of
1965: Witnesses in Texas reported
"multicolored lights" and large aerial
objects shaped like eggs or diamonds. The
Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported that Tinker
Air Force Base (near Oklahoma City) had
tracked up to four UFO’s simultaneously, and
that several of them had descended very
rapidly: from about 22000 feet to about 4000
feet in just a few seconds, an action well
beyond the capabilities of conventional
aircraft of the era. John Shockley, a
meteorologist from Wichita, Kansas, reported
that, using the state Weather Bureau radar,
he tracked a number of odd aerial objects
flying at altitudes between about 6000 and
9000 feet. These and other reports received
wide publicity.
Project Blue Book officially determined the
witnesses had mistaken Jupiter or bright
stars (such as Rigel or Betelgeuse) for
something else.
Blue Book’s explanation was widely
criticized as inaccurate. Robert Riser,
director of the Oklahoma Science and Art
Foundation Planetarium offered a
strongly-worded rebuke of Project Blue Book
that was widely circulated: “That is as far
from the truth as you can get. These stars
and planets are on the opposite side of the
earth from Oklahoma City at this time of
year. The Air Force must have had its star
finder upside-down during August."
A newspaper editorial from the Richmond News
Leader opined that "Attempts to dismiss the
reported sightings under the rationale as
exhibited by Project Bluebook (sic) won’t
solve the mystery … and serve only to
heighten the suspicion that there’s
something out there that the air force
doesn't want us to know about", while a
Wichita-based UPI reporter noted that
"Ordinary radar does not pick up planets and
stars."
Another case that Blue Book's critics seized
upon was the so-called Portage County UFO
Chase, which began at about 5.00am, near
Ravenna, Ohio on April 17, 1966. Police
officers Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff spotted
what they described as a disc-shaped,
silvery object with a bright light emanating
from its underside, at about 1000 feet in
altitude. They began following the object
(which they reported sometimes descended as
low as 50 feet), and police from several
other jurisdictions were involved in the
pursuit. The chase ended about 30 minutes
later near Freedom, Pennsylvania, some 85
miles away.
The UFO chase made national news, and the
police submitted detailed reports to Blue
Book. Five days later, following brief
interviews with only one of the police
officers (but none of the other ground
witnesses), Blue Book's director, Major
Hector Quintanilla, announced their
conclusions: The police (one of them an Air
Force gunner during the Korean War) had
first chased a communications satellite,
then the planet Venus.
This conclusion was widely derided, and was
strenuously rejected by the police officers.
In his dissenting conclusion, Hynek
described Blue Book's conclusions as absurd:
in their reports, several of the police had
unknowingly described the moon, Venus and
the UFO, though they unknowingly described
Venus as a bright "star" very near the moon.
Ohio Congressman William Stanton said that
"The Air Force has suffered a great loss of
prestige in this community … Once people
entrusted with the public welfare no longer
think the people can handle the truth, then
the people, in return, will no longer trust
the government."
In September 1968, Hynek received a letter
from Colonel Raymond Sleeper of the Foreign
Technology Division. Sleeper noted that
Hynek had publicly accused Blue Book of
shoddy science, and further asked Hynek to
offer advice on how Blue Book could improve
its scientific methodology. Hynek was to
later declare that Sleeper's letter was "the
first time in my 20 year association with
the air force as scientific consultant that
I had been officially asked for criticism
and advice regarding … the UFO problem."
Hynek wrote a detailed response, dated
October 7, 1968, suggesting several areas
where Blue Book could improve. In part, he
wrote:
- ... neither of the two missions of
Blue Book (determining if UFOs are a
threat to national security and using
scientific data gathered by Blue Book)
are being adequately executed.
- The staff of Blue Book, both in
numbers and in scientific training, is
grossly inadequate...
- Blue Book suffers … in that it is a
closed system ... there is virtually no
scientific dialogue between Blue Book
and the outside scientific world...
- The statistical methods employed by
Blue Book are nothing less than a
travesty.
- There has been a lack of attention
to significant UFO cases ... and too
much time spent on routine cases ... and
on peripheral public relations tasks.
Concentration could be on two or three
potentially scientific significant cases
per month (instead of being) spread thin
over 40 to 70 cases per month.
- The information input to Blue Book
is grossly inadequate. An impossible
load is placed on Blue Book by the
almost consistent failure of UFO
officers at local air bases to transmit
adequate information...
- The basic attitude and approach
within Blue Book is illogical and
unscientific...
- Inadequate use had been made of the
Project scientific consultant (Hynek).
Only cases that the project monitor
deems worthwhile are brought to his
attention. His scope of operation ...
has been consistently thwarted ... He
often learns of interesting cases only a
month or two after the receipt of the
report at Blue Book.
Despite
Sleeper's request for criticism, none of
Hynek's commentary resulted in any
substantial changes in Blue Book.
Quinatnilla's own perspective on the project
is documented in his manuscript, "UFOs,
An Air Force Dilemma.” Lt. Col
Quintanilla wrote the manuscript in 1975,
but it was not published until after his
death. Quintanilla states in the text that
he personally believed it arrogant to think
human beings were the only intelligent life
in the universe. Yet, while he found it
highly likely that intelligent life existed
beyond earth, he had no hard evidence of any
extra terrestrial visitation.
