Editing Project Blue Book (section)

===Major Quintanilla era===
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."<ref name=clark592>Jerome Clark, ''The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial'', p. 592</ref>

Physicist and UFO researcher [[James E. McDonald]] once flatly declared that Quintanilla was "not competent" from either a scientific or an investigative perspective,<ref name=Druffel63>Ann Druffel; ''Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science''; 2003, Wild Flower Press; {{ISBN|0926524585}}, p. 63</ref> although he 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.<ref name=Druffel63 />

Blue Book's explanations of UFO reports were not universally accepted, however, and critics&nbsp;— including some scientists&nbsp;— suggested that Project Blue Book performed questionable research or, worse, was perpetrating [[cover-up]].<ref name=clark /> 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 [[egg]]s or diamonds.<ref name=clark /> The Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported that [[Tinker Air Force Base]] (near [[Oklahoma City]]) had tracked up to four UFOs simultaneously, and that several of them had descended very rapidly: from about 22000 feet to about 4000 feet in just a few seconds,<ref name=clark /> 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.<ref name=clark /> These and other reports received wide publicity.

Project Blue Book officially determined<ref name=clark /> the witnesses had mistaken [[Jupiter]] or bright [[star]]s (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 [[planet]]s are on the opposite side of the earth from Oklahoma City at this time of year. The [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] must have had its star finder upside-down during August".<ref name=clark />

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&nbsp;... and serve only to heighten the suspicion that there's something out there that the air force doesn't want us to know about",<ref name=clark /> while a Wichita-based [[United Press International|UPI]] reporter noted that "Ordinary radar does not pick up planets and stars".<ref name=clark />

Another case that Blue Book's critics seized upon was the so-called [[Portage County UFO Chase]], which began at about 5 a.m., 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.<ref name=clark /> 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,<ref name=clark /> and police officers strenuously rejected it. 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 [[J. William Stanton|William Stanton]] said that "The Air Force has suffered a great loss of prestige in this community&nbsp;... 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 [[National Air and Space Intelligence Center#Foreign Technology Division|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 methods. 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]&nbsp;... the UFO problem".<ref name=clark477>Jerome Clark, ''The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial'', p. 477</ref>

Hynek wrote a detailed response, dated October 7, 1968, suggesting several areas where Blue Book could improve. In part, he wrote:

{{Ordered list|list-style-type=upper-latin
|...&nbsp;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&nbsp;...
| Blue Book suffers ... in that it is a closed system&nbsp;... there is virtually no scientific dialogue between Blue Book and the outside scientific world ...
| The [[statistics|statistical]] methods employed by Blue Book are nothing less than a travesty.
| There has been a lack of attention to significant UFO cases&nbsp;... and too much time spent on routine cases&nbsp;... 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&nbsp;...
| 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&nbsp;... has been consistently thwarted&nbsp;... He often learns of interesting cases only a month or two after the receipt of the report at Blue Book.<ref>Jerome Clark, ''The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial'', 1998; Detroit: Visible Ink Press, pp. 478–479; emphasis as in original</ref>
}}

Despite Sleeper's request for criticism, none of Hynek's commentary resulted in any substantial changes in Blue Book.

[[Hector Quintanilla|Quintanilla's]] own perspective on the project is documented in his manuscript, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20160305062106/http://nidsci.org/pdf/quintanilla.pdf UFOs, An Air Force Dilemma]." Lt. Col Quintanilla wrote the manuscript in 1975, but it was not published until after his death in 1998. Quintanilla stated 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 extraterrestrial visitation.<ref>http://www.nidsci.org/pdf/quintanilla.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305062106/http://nidsci.org/pdf/quintanilla.pdf |date=2016-03-05}} | Quintanilla, H. (1974). UFOs, An Air Force Dilemma.</ref>