Program · 1949 – December 1949

Project Grudge

Project Grudge succeeded Project Sign as the U.S. Air Force's UFO project in February 1949. It was intended to reassure the public that UFOs were nothing extraordinary: its only formal report, in August 1949, put sightings down to misidentified conventional objects, mild mass hysteria, hoaxes and psychopathology, and recommended scaling the work back. The Air Force announced the project's end on 27 December 1949; Project Blue Book was set up in 1952. J. Allen Hynek, who consulted for all three projects, later called Grudge less science than public relations.

The PURSUE releases tie Grudge to a cluster of sightings over the nuclear-weapons facilities around Sandia Base in New Mexico: the Sandia file (DOW-UAP-D017), with 209 reports of green orbs, discs and fireballs from 1948–1950 and analyses of copper powder found at some sites, says a few of those investigations became the basis for Grudge, and includes reports Grudge gathered from other military installations.

Sources: DOW-UAP-D017 (PURSUE) · Wikipedia

Facts and claims

documented A 116-page PURSUE file of Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and U.S. Air Force records on 209 sightings of “green orbs”, “discs” and “fireballs” near Sandia Base, New Mexico (1948–1950) says a few of these investigations became the basis for Project Grudge, which collected UFO reports from various other military installations; those reports are also in the file. Source: DOW-UAP-D017 — UAP Reported at Sandia Base, 1948-1950
claimed Project Grudge succeeded Project Sign in February 1949; it issued its only formal report in August 1949, concluding that UFO reports were misidentifications, mass hysteria, hoaxes or the work of psychopathological persons, and the Air Force announced its termination on 27 December 1949. Project Blue Book followed in 1952. Source: en.wikipedia.org (archived)

Connected files

Books

The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (subject of)
UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Cover-up, 1941–1973 (subject of)

Documents

“Unidentified Flying Objects”: report by the Flying Saucer Working Party (UK, June 1951) (source for) — Its review of the evidence relies on the Grudge report and its consultants

Organizations

National Air and Space Intelligence Center (run by) — AARO and the CIA's 1952 records place Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book under ATIC, NASIC's forerunner
Department of War (Department of Defense) (run by)

People

Edward J. Ruppelt (staff)

Places

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (based at) — The base later housed Project Grudge

Programs

Project Blue Book (succeeded by)
Project Sign (succeeded)

Official records (PURSUE)

DOW-UAP-D017 — UAP Reported at Sandia Base, 1948-1950 (documented in) — Some of these investigations became the basis for Project Grudge
DOW-UAP-D180 — Final Personnel Record for McCoy, Howard M., U.S. Air Force, 1954 (documented in) — Covers McCoy's tenure at Air Materiel Command, when the Air Force began Projects Sign and Grudge

Mentioned in this file

J. Allen Hynek (Person)
PURSUE — Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (Program)

Mentioned in videos

Col. Philip J. Corso: The Day After Roswell lecture “at the Ranch” (22 February 1998)