RARE microfilms of UFO documents now online – APRO, US Air Force etc (PDF archives)

UFO researcher Steven Kaeser has recently made several interesting and important UFO microfilms available to view free of charge on his website as the start of a new digitisation project. The initial microfilms are a reel of APRO files in relation to sightings prior to 1957, a Canadian government UFO microfilm and a microfilm used to exchange information between the USAF Public Relations Office and Project Blue Book.

Steve Kaesar kindly worked with me to create downloadable copies of the files as searchable PDF files, with Russian researcher Mikhail Gershtein providing very useful assistance in relation to enhancement of the images.


Hard copies of APRO's have not been available to researchers for quite a while and VERY few people will have been through all the material on this rare microfilm. I will therefore focus on this particular microfilm below, although I'll give links to the relevant downloadable PDF archives of all three initial microfilms below in Section C and Section F.




Coincidentally, there is further good news relating to APRO. The team at the Open Minds TV website have generously significantly added to the collection of APRO Bulletins freely available to download.

I've split this thread into the following parts:
Section A : Introduction
Section B : Background - What was APRO?
Section C : APRO Microfilm Reel 1
Section D : APRO - further microfilms?
Section E : APRO Bulletins now online
Section F : Other new microfilms now online (US Air Force etc)
Section G : Getting MUFON’s scanned files online?
Section H : Conclusion

I hope these PDF archives will be interesting to some of you.

Some of you may be familiar with my previous related items about:

(1) the desirability of making UFO source documents and publications freely available online in an attempt to improve the quality of UFO research, e.g. my thread FAST searching of major free online collections of UFO journals (or just browse/download them). As I have written elsewhere, the more easily available we make source material (for free), the less excuse there will be for researchers continuing to fail to go back to the source material rather than simply regurgitating/copying accounts in previous UFO books.

(2) other searchable PDF archives I've helped make available for anyone to freely download, such as UFO documents from the FBI (see FBI: “discs recovered”, Air Force “greatly concerned”, “at a complete loss” + more memos"), from Canada with the permission of the Canadian government (see Canadian disclosure: “UFO Found” and other documents/photos and Canadian PDFs – “At no time should it be made available to the public” + more official memos), Australia, with the permission of the Australian government (see, for example, Oz X-Files : “authenticated sighting”, “appear to be inexplicable”, USA “very interested" and New Zealand (see New Zealand X-Files : Official “fib”, superiors “mystified”, + Kaikoura “whitewash”), plus various out-of-print UFO publications (see, for example, Phil Klass: "Skeptics UFO Newsletter" now online (large collection)).


I hope to make another (larger) searchable PDF archive available in the next few days, work and family permitting...

Section B : Background - What was “APRO”?

Aerial Phenomena Research Organization ("APRO") was a UFO group founded by Coral Lorenzen and her husband Jim Lorenzen in the early 1950s which was particularly active in the 1950s-1970s but lasted until into the 1980s. Jacques Vallee has written that APRO "had a sterling international reputation and worked successfully with foreign specialists", commenting in his book "Forbidden Science" that the Lorenzens "had perhaps come closest of all of us, in the sixties and seventies, to assembling a complete documentation about the mystery".



J Allen Hynek wrote in his book "The UFO Experience" they there had been only two "viable civilian UFO investigative organisations" : APRO and NICAP. He said that both organisations "are serious-intentioned collectors of UFO data" and that there was little overlap in reports between the US Air Force's Project Blue Book and either APRO or NICAP. He wrote that the older of these, APRO, was started in 1952 and had "done an excellent job in collecting UFO data, resumes of which have been published in the APRO Bulletin".

In a letter to UFO researcher Robert Barrow in 1966, Coral Lorenzen wrote that "NICAP is a pressure group dedicated to expending time and efforts attempting a Congressional hearing ... while we have concentrated on research, investigation, correlations, and interpretation of the results".

Coral Lorenzen wrote several popular UFO books in the 1960-1970s, some with her husband Jim Lorenzen. Those books included "The Great Flying Saucer Hoax" (1962), "Flying Saucer Occupants" (1967), "UFOs over the Americas" (1968). Coral and Jim Lorenzen appeared in the UFO documentary "The Force Beyond". As CardDown helpfully pointed out to me recently, you can see the relevant segment of that documentary if you fast forward to 55 minutes 54 seconds into the copy of that video online at the link below:



The CIA organised for "a Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects" to meet under the direction of physicist Howard P Robertson in January 1953 to consider issues relating to UFOs. A CIA employee, Frederick C Durant, prepared an internal report on the deliberations of the Robertson Panel (available on the CIA's website as FOIA Document DOC_0000015458) which specifically referred to APRO. That document included a suggestion that groups such as APRO:

"should be watched because of their potentially great influence on mass thinking if widespread sightings should occur. The apparent irresponsibility and the possible use of such groups for subversive purposes should be kept in mind.

Section C : APRO Microfilm Reel 1

One of the (many) irritations for those that research issues relating to UFOs is that APRO's files have been difficult, if not impossible, to access for many years.

As discussed, for example, by Clas Svahn of the under-appreciated Archives For the Unexplained ("AFU") in Sweden in his article Unique UFO Archive Hidden in Warehouse (APRO Archives and Files)", APRO had "one of the best American UFO archives ... containing witness reports and photographs, as well as original correspondence from ufologists around the world". Upon Coral Lorenzen's death the archive ended up with Brian Myers and Tina Choate of Arizona. Unfortunately, since then VERY few people have been allowed access to that archive. As Clas Svahn commented in his article, "It's all very sad". Clas Svahn has written that most of the archive has been kept by Myers and Choate in a garage, although I have heard conflicting rumours about whether that archive still remains in their possession (including an unconfirmed rumour that the Myers defaulted on a rental agreement and the landlord took possession of the archive, with the material ending up either on an auction block or in a trash dumpster).

So, I was pleased to learn that at least some of APRO's records were placed onto microfilm in the 1970s and that at least one of those reels has survived and been scanned.

In this Section, I briefly outline some of the content of APRO Microfilm Reel 1.

This section is split into the following sub-sections:

Section C1 : Overview
Section C2 : Material on classic UFO cases
Section C3 : Pre-1947 reports
Section C4 : UFO crashes – Dr Waterbury’s letter
Section C5 : UFO crashes – Titusville
Section C6 : Yosemite flying saucer metal
Section C7 : Sighting reports by UFO researchers
Section C8 : Sample of reports from other individuals

Section C1 : APRO Reel 1 Overview

With Steve Kaesar's permission, I've uploaded the searchable and (marginally) enhanced PDF versions of the APRO Reel 1 as a 1.9 Gb archive to temporary free file storage at the link below (until 22 December 2014):
we.tl...

Due to the rather large file size, if you are not fanatical about getting and preserving the best possible digitised copies, you may prefer to download instead a version of the archive which is reduced to about one third of that size (i.e. down to 763Mb) using Adobe Acrobat's "reduced file size" option from the temporary link below (until 22 December 2014):
we.tl...

Jan Aldrich wrote an article about the content of APRO Microfilm Reel 1 back in 1999 (long before it became available online a few weeks ago). That article included the following:

The APRO material has very little overlap or duplication with
the UFO files of the old National Investigations Committee on
Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and the Civilian Saucer Intelligence
(CSI-New York), now incorporated with the files of the Center
for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in Chicago.

Jan Aldrich, coordinator of Project 1947, remarked, "The
reports, letters, investigations, and newspaper clippings
contained in the APRO microfilm have few duplications of the
reports in the files of NICAP, CSI, CUFOS, Barry Greenwood, Dr.
Leon Davidson, or Loren Gross. Davidson had a worldwide clipping
service which provided him with large numbers of clippings from
South America. Greenwood and I have also done extensive research
in South American newspapers in the Library of Congress,
Harvard, Yale, and many other libraries. Yet the APRO South
American newspaper clippings are essentially unique compared
with what has already been collected."

The microfilm contains more than 1,000 pages of reports from
ordinary citizens, pilots, the military and others. Many of
these reports were not published in the APRO Bulletin or the
Lorenzens' books. Southwest Microfilms of El Paso, Texas,
produced the APRO file microfilm and exercised great care to
assure legibility of the material. A search for copies of the
other microfilm reels continues. Several former APRO officials
have been contacted in connection with the search.

In a subsequent post on the UFO Updates discussion List, Jan Aldrich gave a further overview - including the following:

there are few reports for the 1920s anywhere, the material in the APRO files about doubles what was in the CUFOS/NICAP/CSI files. There are "new" reports for 1947. Reports start getting more detailed after APRO begins operations in 1952. There are some report forms from other UFO organizations in Norway, Canada, and from some of the representative overseas.

APRO itself provided an overview of the contents of microfilmed records (including some quantitative data) in the May-June 1972 issue of the APRO Bulletin, in an article entitled "Microfilming Project". That article included the following:

Almost 2,500 UFO reports in APRO's files have been microfilmed since the Organization received funds for the microfilming project. During the course of the microfilming it has also been possible to ascertain, for the first time, the amount of reports contained in the files. The following is a breakdown of the microfilming to date (reports are filed in chronological order).


1,600 B.C. - 1
500-400 B.C. - 3
400-300 B.C. - 2
300-200 B.C. - 9
200-100 B.C. - 22
100-0 B.C. - 18
0-100 A.D. - 4
100-200 A.D. - 3
200-300 A.D. - -
300-400 A.D. - 6
400-500 A.D. - 1
500-600 A.D. - 7
600-700 A.D. - 7
700-800 A.D. - 7
800-900 A.D. - 8
900-1000 - 6
1000- 1100 - 12
1100-1200 - 17
1200-1300 - 8
1300-1400 - 9
1400-1500 - 6
1500- 1600 - 23
1600-1700 - 12
1700-1800 - 25
1800-1900 - 19
1900-1910 - 12
1910-1920 - 13
1920-1930 - 14
1930-1940 - 18
1940- 1946 - 49
1947 - 81
1948 - 24
1949 - 47
1950 - 74
1951 - 51
1952 - 349
1953 - 132
1954 - 525
1955 - 226
1956 - 315
1957 - 376

The reports from 2,000 years ago are from Roman and Greek accounts of unusual aerial phenomena, many of which probably could have had mundane explanations, such as meteorological or astronomical phenomena, but they are all included for the record. The late 19th Century "airship" sighting over the United States are not included in the above figures. This is not because APRO does not accept the "airships" as legitimate aerial phenomena but because APRO's files on the subject are not very extensive. It is known that others have very complete files on the "airship" reports so APRO decided not to include them in its catalog at this time.

A marked increase in reports is apparent from 1952 onwards. That was the year APRO was founded and report files were maintained. Reports prior to1952 have filtered through to APRO over the years in lesser numbers. It should be noted that the totals in the above list include UFO Report Forms, letters from citizens describing their observations, reports received from other organizations (including many abroad) and newspaper clippings. Most do not represent, by any means, investigated cases as APRO was in its infancy in the early-mid 50s and the Field Investigators Network did not exist.

Statistics for years 1958 through 1971 will be given as microfilming progressses over the next several months.

Section C2 : Material on classic UFO cases

Apart from case reports submitted by individuals to APRO, APRO Microfilm Reel 1 contains quite a few press reports - many of which relate to classic UFO cases. Those that want to find original source material rather than just read summaries in UFO books may be interested in some of these press reports. While these are certainly interesting (and generally complemented the collections of relevant material I have accumulated from other sources), I was rather disappointed not to find more investigative notes and material in relation to classic cases. Perhaps there would be more case analysis and investigative notes on APRO Microfilm Reel 2 onwards - discussed in Section D below.

For example, there are copies of several of the newspaper articles from July 1952 following the well-known Washington D.C. sightings, which were the subject of a recent thread by Mirageman. Those sightings regular feature in UFO books and documentaries, such as the one embedded below.




The 1952 Washington sightings resulted in Major General John Samford making a statement at a press conference. That statement can be seen in the video below.


For skeptical assessments of the 1952 Washington sightings, you can read the US Air Force's documents on the sightings or watch the video below of a presentation by Bruce Press of the National Capital Area Skeptics (NCAS):

APRO Microfilm Reel 1 also includes copies of newspaper items on various other early classic cases, including:

(1) The 19 August 1952 report by Florida Scoutmaster D S “Sonny” Desvergers and three boy scouts of a UFO near Palm Beach, Florida. This report was the subject of an article by Karl Pflock entitled “The Best Hoax in UFO History”.




(2) Newspaper reports about Oscar Linke's claims to have seen a UFO. Oscar Linke himself can be seen discussing his claims half way through one of the first (?the very first?) UFO documentaries - "The Flying Saucer Mystery" (1952). Fast forward to 5 minutes and 16 seconds into the documentary embedded below:





(3) Newspaper reports about the UFO photograph taken by United States Coast Guard station phototographer Shell Alpert at Salem, Massachusetts on 16 July 1952,. This incident is Case 75 in my "Top 100" article since it was referred to in 38 of the books covered by that article. J Allen Hynek has referred to this photograph as a “widely publicized case”, a “classic” that “has made the rounds in just about every magazine and book on the subject”.


Shell Alpert's well-known "UFO" photograph is also discussed in the video at the link below. Incidentally, one of the recent comments on that video on Youtube is an intriguing comment by a Youtube user using the name "Michael Weinstein ". Mr Weinstein's comment baldly states the following: "Shell Alpert was my stepfather. He revealed it was not authentic to me when I was a teenager in the early 1980's". I'll be sending Michael Weinstein a message seeking clarification/confirmation of his comment...

Section C3 : Pre-1947 reports

APRO Microfilm Reel 1 is in (roughly) chronological order of events discussed, beginning with material relating to pre-1947 reports - such as the page below (at APRO Microfilm Reel 1 Part 1 page 11)

Section C4 : UFO crashes – Dr Waterbury’s letter

A considerable proportion of APRO Microfilm Reel 1 consists of correspondence from members of APRO and members of the public regarding their personal sightings or UFO information they have heard.

Some of the correspondence contain relatively early stories about alleged UFO crashes.

For example, the files include a letter from a Dr D A Waterbury a "osteopathic physician" from Marion, Illinois. His letter sought further information about a "crashed disc". He stated that a friend of his taught a Los Angeles County policeman that reported having seen "the occupant (dead) of this disc" that crashed "around 1929 in Mexico". The policeman reportedly claimed that the Mexican army had confiscated this aerial disc. The policeman is named in the handwritten letter as "A O Ellison". Mmm. It might be interesting to attempt to look up A O Ellison's family...

The letter from Dr D A Waterbury also states that he knew a Paul Frick "who had a desk job in Washington" in 1948 and told Dr Waterbury about seeing "the paper-work go over his desk" regarding an alleged UFO crash.

I have already been in touch with Dr D A Waterbury's son and asked if he knows anything more. While he recalls his father talking about UFOs, he hasn't yet responded to my questions about specifics.

The letter can be found in APRO Microfilm Reel 1 Part 2 pages 40-42:




(From another letter published in Loren Gross's "UFOS: A History : 1957 August-September - Supplemental Notes", it appears that Dr Waterbury was involved in "Civilian Saucer Intelligence of Southern Illinois" - so more details may be found in CSI publications or in the CSI/NICAP files now held by CUFOS).

Section C5 : UFO crashes – Titusville

APRO Microfilm Reel 1 also contains the letter below dated 12 March 1960 containing an account of "some strange object" that had "crashed" into "a farm" at "Titusville, Pa. about 30 miles from Meadville, Pa." in "late summer" in "about 1942 or 1943", claiming that "within a very short time the place was swarming with Government men" and that "They kept it well guarded and no one was allowed near. They finally gathered up every little fragment they could find and took it away".

The relevant letter can be found in APRO Microfilm Reel 1 Part 2 page 6:



From other sources, it appears that a meteor crashed into a field near Titusville, Pa., on or about 21 June 1947. This was the subject of various press articles collated by the late Kenny Young on his UFO website, including an item in The Erie (Pennsylvania) Dispatch on 9 July 1947.



Does the letter just describe the same meteor crash? If so, a fairly significant error was made in relation in the letter in relation to the date - akin to that suggested by the US Air Force in its second report (published in 1997) on the Roswell Incident, in which the Air Force suggested that test dummies dropped in the 1950s explained the witness reports of small bodies supposedly seen in 1947.

Section C6 : Yosemite flying saucer metal

Much of the material on APRO Microfilm Reel 1 is frustratingly brief, with follow-up notes included. For example, a document dated 4 September 1952 includes a brief statement that "3 rangers in Yosemite saw a piece of metal ... fall from a flying saucer and recovered it. This was being sent in to (Roy Maypole of Station KTTV)".

That document, below, can be found on APRO Microfilm Reel 1 Part 6 at page 123:

Section C7 : Sighting reports by UFO researchers

When reading the contents of APRO Microfilm Reel 1, my eye was caught by several sighting reports by famous UFO researchers.

For example, APRO's files contain the most detailed account I have seen by one of the co-founders of MUFON - Walt Andrus - of his sighting in 1948 (in APRO Reel 1 Part 3 at pages):



The APRO files also include a lengthy hand-written letter by astronomer/ufologist Walter Webb regarding his sightings:

Section C8 : Sample of reports from other individuals

The APRO files contain numerous other press cuttings and other material (including sighting report forms) in relation to sightings by scientists and others. Here are a few sample images.



As mentioned above, APRO Microfilm Reel 1 is roughly in chronological order based on the date of relevant alleged UFO sightings. There is no index for the files, but about half way through reading them I started creating a basic finding aid which merely records the folder headings given at various points on that Reel.

(I may go back through the first half of the Reel to complete this list of folder headings, or perhaps some other members will want to contribute to this job... Anyway, I'm happy to share the work I did).

Page 1103 (Part 6 page 103) - "Desvergers Case, Aug 19, '52"
Page 1112 (Part 6 page 112) - "1952 September"
Page 1158 (Part 6 page 158) - "Flatwoods, W.V. Sep 12 '52"
Page 1194 (Part 6 page 194) - "1952 December"
Page 1173 (Part 6 page 173) - "Oct 1952"
Page 1205 (Part 7 page 5) - "No dates 1953"
Page 1225 (Part 7 page 25) - "Jan 1953"
Page 1250 (Part 7 page 50) - "Feb 1953"
Page 1284 (Part 7 page 84) - "April 1953"
Page 1290 (Part 7 page 90) - "May 1953"
Page 1308 (Part 7 page 108) - "June 1953"
Page 1313 (Part 7 page 108) - "July 1953"
Page 1320 (Part 7 page 120) - "Aug 1953"
Page 1347 (Part 7 page 147) - "Sept 1953"
Page 1354 (Part 7 page 154) - "Oct 1953"
Page 1362 (Part 7 page 162) - "Nov 1953"
Page 1378 (Part 7 page 178) - "Dec 1953"
Page 1381 (Part 7 page 181) - "1954 (No Def. Date)"
Page 1438 (Part 8 page 38) - "Jan 1954"
Page 1470 (Part 8 page 70) - "March 1954"
Page 1495 (Part 8 page 95) - "April 1954"
Page 1507 (Part 8 page 107) - "May 1954"
Page 1533 (Part 8 page 133) - "June 1954"
Page 1584 (Part 8 page 184) - "July 1954"
Page 1639 (Part 9 page 39) - "Aug 1954"
Page 1667 (Part 9 page 67) - "Sept 1954"
Page 1702 (Part 9 page 102) - "Oct 1954"
Page 1749 (Part 9 page 149) - "Nov 1954"
Page 1832 (Part 10 page 32) - "Dec 1954"
Page 1952 (Part 10 page 152) - 1955 "No Specific Date"
Page 1979 (Part 10 page 179) - "Jan 1955"
Page 2045 (Part 11 page 45) - "Feb 1955"
Page 2071 (Part 11 page 71) - "March 1955"
Page 2096 (Part 11 page 96) - "April 1955"
Page 2103 (Part 11 page 103) - "May 1955"
Page 2127 (Part 11 page 127) - "June 1955"
Page 2132 (Part 11 page 132) - "July 1955"
Page 2158 (Part 11 page 158) - "August 1955"
Page 2215 (Part 12 page 15) - "Sept 1955"
Page 2257 (Part 12 page 57) - "Dec 1955"
Page 2280 (Part 12 page 80) - "No Definite Date 1956"
Page 2304 (Part 12 page 104) - "Jan 1956"
Page 2320 (Part 12 page 120) - "Feb 1956"
Page 2332 (Part 12 page 132) - "March 1956"
Page 2338 (Part 12 page 138) - "April 1956"
Page 2344 (Part 12 page 144) - "May 1956"
Page 2358 (Part 12 page 158) - June 1956
Page 2374 (Part 12 page 174) - July 1956
Page 2419 (Part 13 page 19) - "Aug 1956"
Page 2479 (Part 13 page 79) - "Sept 1956"
Page 2520 (Part 13 page 120) - "October 1956"
Page 2537 (Part 13 page 137) - "Nov 1956"
Page 2578 (Part 13 page 178) - "Dec 1956"

It is possible to cross-reference the sightings on APRO Microfilm Reel 1 with the US Air Force's files. Using material kindly shared by Xtraeme in his recent significant thread "The 154 GB NARA Blue Book Archive", I've made a quick index to the Project Blue Book files (indicating the number of pages in each file, something I don't think anyone has been able to list before Xtraeme's work...).

docs.google.com...


To assist with cross-referencing with the Project Blue Book, I have also uploaded the index pages for those files for each year from 1947 to 1969 to two links below. Each set of index pages can either be downloaded individually or (by clicking on the download button on the top right of the relevant screen) you can download each entire collection.

(1) The first link contains relatively high resolution redacted versions (sourced from Fold3 website, following a considerable amount of work by "Xtraeme" of ATS to enable that huge collection of Project Blue Book documents to be stored on a local hard-drive).
app.box.com...

For example:


(2) The second link contains lower quality unredacted copies of index pages (showing relevant names) sourced from the bluebookarchive.org website and enhanced/resized following valuable assistance from Russian researcher Mikhail Gershtein.
app.box.com...

For example see the same page as above, but without those annoying black bits in the copies in the National Archives scans on the Fold3 website...:



Due to the quality of microfilm images/scans being used, the images are far from perfect and the searchable nature of the PDFs is limited - but I nonetheless find the results useful.

Section D : APRO - further microfilms?

APRO Micofilm Reel 1 only covers APRO's files up to the end of 1956. Obviously, I would also like to see the content of any further APRO microfilms made freely available online. So, where are any further APRO microfilms that continue to exist?

In the February 1999 issue of the MUFON Journal, UFO researcher Jan Aldrich stated that the APRO microfilms were thought to be:
Reel 1 : "Contains reports from ancient times to December 1956"
Reel 2 : "contains reports from December 1956 to 1962"
Reel 3 : "Evidently covered 1962 to 1966"



Jan Aldrich wrote about the recovery of Reel 1 "through the courtesy of Brad Sparks, a long time UFO researcher and former APRO assistant director of research".

Searching the APRo Bulletin, I found several references in issues from 1972 to Allen Benz of APRO being involved in APRO microfilm project:




Allen Benz is still active in ufology. He current moderates a large UFO discussion group on Facebook entitled "World UFO Group". Allen kindly responded to some questions from me about the APRO microfilms, including letting me know that he had given copies of Reel 1 AND Reel 2 to Bill English years ago.


Bill English is also still around - but has a much lower profile than Allen Benz. Fortunately, another member of ATS, CardDown, happened to have been in Bill English recently when writing an item entitled "The Missing Man: Bill English on Opening the Cash-Landrum Investigation" for his Blue Blurry Lines blog. CardDown kindly relayed a message to Bill English for me in relation to APRO Microfilm Reel 2. Sadly, Bill English's reply was rather disappointing. Bill English let me know that his copy of Reel 2 was stolen from his office several years ago. (Bill English mentioned that the thieves did not touch the several thousand dollars worth of computer equipment in his office).


The APRO Bulletin indicates that the copies of the microfilms sent to Allen Benz were not the only copies. It is not clear how many copies were originally made, or subsequently duplicated. However, it appears that in addition to the copy send to Allen Benz as APRO's "Staff Librarian", at least one further copy was made for "a team of computer specialists who will transfer the information to punch cards". I have asked Allen Benz if he recalls who was dealing with APRO's Project COMCAT ("Computerised Catalog of UFO reports") at that time.


It probably goes without saying that if anyone reading this item knows anything about the whereabouts of Reels 2 onwards then I'd like to hear from them here or by email (my username at gmail.com)!


In fact, don't be shy if you have scanned ANY interesting UFO material or have previously written/edited interesting UFO material (such as UFO newsletters/journals, you would like to have disseminated...). I'd be delighted to hear from you to discuss ways in which you (or I, if you prefer) could make that material freely available online - provided any necessary permissions can be obtained (something I may be able to help achieve). This may help improve the quality of UFO discussions and research...

Section E : APRO Bulletins now online

Other recent good news in relation to APRO is that the team at the OpenMinds.TV website (particularly Richard Heiden and Alejandro Rojas) have made available for free online a large further batch of scans of APRO Bulletins - including most of the issues from 1975 to 1987.


As with the collection of issues up to 1975, there are a number of issues missing from the new collection. I understand that the Archives For the Unexplained ("AFU") in Sweden have scanned some further Bulletins and will be making that material available at some stage. If Clas Svahn and his colleagues read this, I'd like to encourage them (again) to make this material available sooner rather than later so that other teams don't have to duplicate the scanning done by the AFU. The members of the AFU are very familiar with my views about the amount of time wasted within ufology by various groups/researchers reinventing the wheel


Sadly, ATS has banned links to material on the OpenMinds.TV website. As I've previously written in www.abovetopsecret.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow">a relevant thread on the Board Business & Questions forum here on ATS, that website has posted several interesting ufological items in the last few years (including the archive of APRO journals and a few other treats), especially in posts by ufologists Antonio Huneeus and Alejandro Rojas. If discussion on ATS is to be as informed and well-referenced as most of us on ATS would (I think) like to see, it would be helpful if we could include links to articles and resources on that website (including issues of the APRO Bulletin).

Section F : Other new microfilms now online

While I have focused above on APRO Microfilm Reel 1 because that material will not have been seen by many researchers from any other source, as mentioned in the Introduction above the micofilms made available by Steven Kaeser free of charge on his website also include:
(1) a microfilm used to exchange information between the USAF Public Relations Office and Project Blue Book.
(2) a Canadian government UFO file

The US Air Force microfilm is referred to by Steven Kaesar as the "Varied UFO" microfilm. A searchable enhanced PDF copy of the "Varied UFO" reel is now temporarily available to download from THIS LINK until 22 December 2014.

This microfilm has been described as follows by Jan Aldrich of Project 1947:

"Varied UFO" was used to exchange information between the USAF Public Relations Office and Project Blue Book. It has a number of cases from the Project Blue Book files (mostly in much better shaped than the other microfilms. It also contains cases files submitted to the AF by Ray Fowler and the North Hollywood 1960 case submitted by the Los Angeles NICAP Subcommittee (LANS).Most of the PBB cases are from the 1960s."

Most of this material probably available in other collections of Project Blue Book documents (e.g. on the Bluebookarchive.org website and the Fold3 website) but the images on this particular microfilm contains are generally unredacted and I think they are better quality images than in those other collections.

For example, Varied UFO Part 4 includes material relating to the Ravenna, Portage County UFO chase involving Spaur. That incident is outlined in the video below. A sample page from the material in the file on that case is also given below, partly to illustrate the unusually high quality of the copies of Project Blue Book material on this particular microfilm.



Others pages that caught my eye include:
Varied UFO Part 1 pages 66-82 - Material relating to a request by ufologist Ann Druffel.
Varied UFO Part 1 page 92 - One of several letters from ufologist Raymond E Fowler. His letter refers to him "having served as an Intercept Operator in the USAF Security Service in the early 1950s".
Varied UFO Part 1 page 145 - cartoon

(2) A searchable enhanced PDF copy of the Canadian reel is also temporarily available. It can be downloaded from THIS LINK until 22 December 2014.

I have not cross-referenced all the Canadian microfilm, but I think most (if not all) of the contents of the Canadian reel were included in the larger set of searchable PDF files that I've previously made available with the permission of the Canadian government (see Canadian disclosure: “UFO Found” and other documents/photos and Canadian PDFs – “At no time should it be made available to the public” + more official memos),

Section G : Getting MUFON’s scanned files online?

Seeing many pages of files from a long defunct UFO group like APRO being made freely available highlights the absence of much material being made available online by many EXISTING UFO groups.

I find it amusing to hear many UFO researchers complain that scientists do not look at their data, while failing to make that material easily accessible without charge.

Take MUFON for example. MUFON is a large UFO investigation and research group, with lots of volunteers that put a considerable amount of time and effort into addressing UFO issues (not to mention paying fees to MUFON). Those volunteers and fees enabled MUFON to complete a large project several years ago to scan MUFON’s case files and other material. Yet almost none of that scanned material is available online. Indeed, no indication of the CONTENT of those scanned files is available online – making it difficult to tell if various scanning projects are duplicating work ALREADY DONE BY MUFON. I find this, well, a bit frustrating.

A few years ago, I collated various articles published in the MUFON Journal and MUFON Symposium Proceedings about MUFON's scanning project ("Project Pandora") from around 2003 to 2008.


Those articles include indications that, apart from case files, the Pandora Project has involved scanning or digitally photographing a large volume of material from University archives and other historically significant material (e.g. Ruppelt's paper and Bob Pratt's papers). Relevant articles include the following:

(a) In an article in the July 2008 MUFON Journal, Robert Powell stated that he and Professor Mike Swords had digitally photographed 1,200 pages of material from the files of Roy Craig (as you know, a member of the historically significant Condon study) at the Texas A&M University and that "an electronic copy will be made which will be available in thePandora Project files" :


(b) James Carrion wrote in an article in the MUFON Journal in August 2007 that he was "going through the Edward Ruppelt files which MUFON now has in its possession for scanning as part of the Pandora Project" :


(c) Brad Sparks and Barry Greenwood's paper in the MUFON Symposium Proceedings for 2007 states that Bob Pratt's "notes, tapes and transcripts" was digitized "in the new MUFON Project Pandora in early 2007":