Read Online Star Trek The Original Series From History's Shadow by Dayton Ward - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Dayton Ward
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project’s primary mandate for all personnel was to vigorously pursue whatever evidence or other information presented itself, regardless of where it might lead. In short, the directive was simple: Keep an open mind.
And so it was in early 1952 that James Wainwright, with great enthusiasm and renewed hope, found himself once again transferred from Majestic 12 and assigned as an investigating officer for the newly christened Project Blue Book. Liaison officers for the project were assigned to every Air Force installation, acting as a starting point for reports submitted from those regions, with all such accounts sent up the chain of command to the project’s commander, Captain Edward Ruppelt, and the main task group at Wright-Patterson.
Wainwright, by virtue of seniority and his tenure with the previous projects, was a principal case officer, dispatched by Ruppelt himself to investigate any reports or sightings with a high probability of obtaining incontrovertible proof of extraterrestrial activity. The new initiative, grounded as it was by Ruppelt’s directive to carry out every investigation with all due rigor and attention to every detail, demanded even more from the officers in his charge. More research, more time spent traveling, and more long nights spent in this office, filing reports detailing the results of those efforts.
I know your work is important to you, and you’re driven by your duty. It’s one of the many things I’ve always loved and admired about you, but I’m tired of being the second most important thing in your life.
Deborah’s words, as though she stood before him speaking them aloud, rang in Wainwright’s ears. Balancing his work against his home life had been difficult during the eras of Sign and Grudge, but Blue Book had only increased that strain. While the new project was still in its earliest days, he had tried to prepare her for the increased requirements it would place upon him. Of course, many of her questions touched on those aspects of his assignment that he was not allowed to share.
You don’t talk to me, about anything. Is it because you can’t, or you just don’t want to?
Wainwright hoped one day to be able to tell Deborah everything, to show her what had so consumed him these past five years, and what it meant for the very safety of the human race. Since his arrival here and from the beginnings of the Air Force’s investigation, hundreds of UFO sightings had been reported. While the majority of these had proven either to be false or else explained by conventional causes, and many of these were reported as part of Project Grudge’s public relations endeavors, there were still dozens of reports requiring increased scrutiny. Some of these cases remained open because alien activity had not yet been ruled out. Then there was the even smaller number of files that pointed without doubt to vessels of extraterrestrial origin. According to the initial top-secret assessment provided to the Pentagon by Captain Ruppelt, there could be no denying that Earth was under almost constant surveillance.
It was a claim questioned by the highest tiers of governmentand military leadership, despite being supported by thousands of pages of information and photographs as collected by the Air Force during the past five years. Though Wainwright had not seen anything conclusive pointing to the existence of aliens on Earth since that day at Roswell in 1947, he had heard rumors of other case officers stumbling across spacecraft or advanced technology. There even were reports of bodies being recovered from crash sites, with all of the evidence spirited away to high-security storehouses around the country. There was an area of Wright-Patterson with several buildings operating under a tight security cordon, with access by visitors restricted to those authorized by the base commanding general. Even with the security clearance Wainwright held, he had never been granted access to that section.
Maybe one
And so it was in early 1952 that James Wainwright, with great enthusiasm and renewed hope, found himself once again transferred from Majestic 12 and assigned as an investigating officer for the newly christened Project Blue Book. Liaison officers for the project were assigned to every Air Force installation, acting as a starting point for reports submitted from those regions, with all such accounts sent up the chain of command to the project’s commander, Captain Edward Ruppelt, and the main task group at Wright-Patterson.
Wainwright, by virtue of seniority and his tenure with the previous projects, was a principal case officer, dispatched by Ruppelt himself to investigate any reports or sightings with a high probability of obtaining incontrovertible proof of extraterrestrial activity. The new initiative, grounded as it was by Ruppelt’s directive to carry out every investigation with all due rigor and attention to every detail, demanded even more from the officers in his charge. More research, more time spent traveling, and more long nights spent in this office, filing reports detailing the results of those efforts.
I know your work is important to you, and you’re driven by your duty. It’s one of the many things I’ve always loved and admired about you, but I’m tired of being the second most important thing in your life.
Deborah’s words, as though she stood before him speaking them aloud, rang in Wainwright’s ears. Balancing his work against his home life had been difficult during the eras of Sign and Grudge, but Blue Book had only increased that strain. While the new project was still in its earliest days, he had tried to prepare her for the increased requirements it would place upon him. Of course, many of her questions touched on those aspects of his assignment that he was not allowed to share.
You don’t talk to me, about anything. Is it because you can’t, or you just don’t want to?
Wainwright hoped one day to be able to tell Deborah everything, to show her what had so consumed him these past five years, and what it meant for the very safety of the human race. Since his arrival here and from the beginnings of the Air Force’s investigation, hundreds of UFO sightings had been reported. While the majority of these had proven either to be false or else explained by conventional causes, and many of these were reported as part of Project Grudge’s public relations endeavors, there were still dozens of reports requiring increased scrutiny. Some of these cases remained open because alien activity had not yet been ruled out. Then there was the even smaller number of files that pointed without doubt to vessels of extraterrestrial origin. According to the initial top-secret assessment provided to the Pentagon by Captain Ruppelt, there could be no denying that Earth was under almost constant surveillance.
It was a claim questioned by the highest tiers of governmentand military leadership, despite being supported by thousands of pages of information and photographs as collected by the Air Force during the past five years. Though Wainwright had not seen anything conclusive pointing to the existence of aliens on Earth since that day at Roswell in 1947, he had heard rumors of other case officers stumbling across spacecraft or advanced technology. There even were reports of bodies being recovered from crash sites, with all of the evidence spirited away to high-security storehouses around the country. There was an area of Wright-Patterson with several buildings operating under a tight security cordon, with access by visitors restricted to those authorized by the base commanding general. Even with the security clearance Wainwright held, he had never been granted access to that section.
Maybe one
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