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NUMBER 8 JUST CAUSE JUNE 1986
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PROJECT MOON DUST
(In our last issue, we alluded to one of those many project code names
which turn up from time to time in released government documents. Few
of these are ever identified in more than brief detail. However,
Project Moon Dust, as named in recently-released DIA files is an ex-
ception. We have several documents which do seem to link UFOs with
this colorfully named project. Our thanks to Robert Todd for providing
us with the backround information on his several-years-old research
into Moon Dust.)
We have heard of stories, or more accurately -- rumors, of crashed UFOs
and alien bodies recovered. Dozens of them are presently on file. Often in
these accounts, military personnel respond quickly to a developing situation,
enact a carefully-planned set of procedures (like photography, mapping,
interviews, etc.); then, usually, the evidence is carted away to an unknown
location for further study. That's what the rumors tell us.
You must have thought at times, while digesting these rumors, that such
step-by-step action must have been scripted; that there muct have been guide-
lines to follow for everuthing to have been done so thoroughly and properly
that not a stick of residue was left. You know how the military does everything
by the book, as they tell us! If all this is so, then these procedures must be
available for consultation when needed.
It's possible that we now have been pointed in the right direction to
verify whether or not these procedures are on the record.
Salted through out some recent document releases, mainly from the Defense
Intelligence Agency (DIA) and State Department, are references to "Project Moon
Dust." The context of this codename to the rest of the published data was
unclear, but the fact that it repeatedly turned up in documents dealing with
UFOs told us that is was worth checking. A feeler was put into the March 1986
issue of Just Cause, requesting that anyone who had knowledge of Project Moon
Dust to please contact us.
Not long afterwards, Robert Todd, a well-known CAUS researcher, informed
us that he had researched Moon Dust in the late l970's. What he had found was
quite revealing.
As a result of inquiries by Todd about Moon Dust, and other matters, the
Air Force released a letter on August 20, 1979. It was identified as "AFCIN-1E-
O", dated 3 November 1961. The letter was partly deleted, but enough was left
to open the door on Moon Dust: (emphasis added where necessary--ed.)
Extract, page 1: "c. In addition to their staff duty assignments,
intelligence team personnel have peacetime duty functions in support of such
Air Force projects as Moondust, Bluefly, and UFO, and other AFCIN directed
quick reaction projects which require intelligence team operational
capabilitied (see Definitions)."
Extract, page 2: "f. Blue Fly: Operation Blue Fly has been established
to facilitate expeditious delivery to FTD of Moon Dust or other items of great
technical intelligence interest. ACIN SOP for Blue Fly operations, February
1960 provides for 1127th participation."
"g. Moon Dust: As a specialized aspect of it's
over-all material exploitation program, Headquarters USAF has established
Project Moon Dust to locate, recover and deliver descended foreign space
vehicles. ICGL #4, 25 April, l961, delineates collection responsibilities."
Extract, page 3: "c. Peacetime employment of AFCIN intelligence team
capability is provided for in UFO investigation (AFR 200-2) and in support of
Air Force Systems Command (AFCS) Foreign Technology Division (FTD) Projects
Moon Dust and Blue Fly. These three peacetime ptojects all involve a poten-
tial for employment of qualified field intelligence personnel on a quick
reaction basis to recover or perform field exploitation of unidentified flying
objects, or known Soviet/Bloc aerospace vehicles, weapons sustems, and/or
residual components of such equipment. The intelligence team capability to
gain rapid access, regardless of location, to recover or perform field
exploita- tion, to communicate and provide intelligence reports is the only
such collec- tion capability available to AFCIN, and it is vitally necessary
in view of current intelligence gaps concerning Soviet/Bloc technological
capabilities."
Let's pause a moment to absorb this.
The letter immediately indicates that Moon Dust, "Blue Fly", and "UFO"
are among A.F. Intelligence's quick reaction projects. It is probable here that
"UFO" refers to Blue Book.
We have pointed out in CLEAR INTENT (pg. 9) that often the prefix word
"Blue" has been used in connection with high-altitude vehicles, and it appears
in several fact, and rumor, UFO projects. Here we see it again in "Blue Fly,"
which provided for transportation of Moon Dust material. And what did Moon
Dust material include? Among other things, it included things acquired from
the recovery and/or field exploitation of UFOs! Note how UFOs are set apart
from Soviet/Bloc aerospace vehicles. Since the Soviets were the only other
real space power in the world at the time, besides the U.S., what could have
been meant by setting off UFOs as a separate subject of investigation? If they
were British, or another nation's space vehicle, why not say this, as it was
said for the Soviets?
Note that Moon Dust and "other items of great technical intelligence
interest" were sent to the Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson
AFB in Ohio, under Project Blue Fly. FTD was the parent group for Project
Blue Book. Coincidence?
Originally, Blue Book's investigative functions were partly aided by
personnel of the 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron (AISS). Part of it's
mission during WW2, and later in peacetime, was to "exploit downed people,
paper and hardware" for intelligence information. The 4602nd's operations were
trans- ferred to AFCIN in July 1957, which then assigned the 1006th AISS most
of the 4602nd's operations. The 1006th was re-designated the 1127th Field
Activities Group in 1960. These units all performed UFO investigations for
Blue Book, but were trained for and capable of additional activities in the
event that one of these UFOs had crashed somewhere.
We discuss the operations of a possible "quick response unit" in CLEAR
INTENT, pg 111. Our point in that discussion was that such a unit would come
under the highest security classification. Any admission that a UFO phenomenon
was real and unexplainable would not be in the government's best interest to
state, considering the still-existent debunking policy. Certainly here we see
UFO investigation linked to the highest levels of the U.S. Air Force.
When did Moon Dust begin? We aren't sure but it likely dates from the
beginnings of Blue Book at least, i.e. the early 1950s. It's entirely possible
that the 1952 crashed disc incident reported in letters by Rear Admiral
Herbert Knowles (see Just Cause, March 1986) could have been investigated
under Moon Dust, if it were called that then. It certainly fits the criteria
for attention, as described in the Air Force's 1961 letter.
Compelling evidence for the Moon Dust/ crash retrieval link and its
early origins appears in Donald Keyhoe's 1955 book, THE FLYING SAUCER CONSPIR-
ACY. Note these extracts:
[Pages 214-15]
Two days after this Lou Corbin called me to report another develop-
ment.
"Do you know anything about a `crashed-object' program?" he asked me.
"No. Whose project is it?"
"It's an Air Force deal, unless somebody's trying to trick me. You've
heard of the 4602nd Air Intelligence Service Squadron, of course?"
"Yes. It's a hush-hush unit. They have investigators in all Air
Defense Squadrons."
"Well, I've been contacted by one of them. First I thought it might
be some kind of hoax. But I've double-checked, He actually is with the
4602nd."
"Sounds queer, Lou. They're not supposed to talk to anyone outside of
intelligence."
"I know. But he may be under special orders. Anyway, he's against the
secrecy policy. He told me the 4602nd has a special program called the
`investigation of unidentified crashed objects.'"
"If it's true, that IS big." I said. "It could mean theyve actually
got their hands on some flying saucers."
"He wouldn't admit that," said Corbin. "But I got the impression they'
they'd recovered some kind of `objects'--probably something dropped from
a saucer."
At 2:00 P.M. on November 30 [1954?] a mysterious bright flash in the
sky was reported simultaneously in Atlanta, Newman, and Columbus,
Georgia; in Sylacauga and Birmingham, Alabama; and as far away as
Greenville, Mississippi. This brilliant light was immediately followed
by a series of strange explosions, apparently centered high in the sky
above Sylacauga.
Moments later a black object, six inches in diameter, crashed into
the home of Mrs. Hewlett Hodges.
Smashing a three-foot-wide hole in the roof, the shining black object
tore through the living-room ceiling. Striking the radio, it bounced
off and gashed Mrs. Hodges' arm.
Meanwhile, the mysterious explosions had caused a hurried Air Defense
alert. A three-state search for fallen objects was immediately begun by
squadrons of Air Force planes.
When word of the "Sylacauga object" reached the Air Force, Intelli-
gence officers flew to the scene from Maxwell Air Force Base at Mont-
gomery . Explaining that "the Air Force is required to examine such
strange objects," they whisked it away to Maxwell Field, from which it
was flown immediately to ATIC.
An hour or two later the object was labeled a meteorite.
As soon as this appeared in the papers, I received a call from Lou
Corbin. "It's plain that this is part of the Air Force `unidentified
crashed-objects' investigation. They must believe the thing is linked
with the saucers."
"It doesn't look like a coincidence," I said, "that this object fell
fell just after those explosions. If it had been a meteor exploding, it
wouldn't have made such a bright flash in the daytime."
"In the first news story," Corbin told me, "it was called an uniden-
tified flying ovject. At least that's the way the Maxwell Field
officers explained why they had started the search."
"This reminds me of that East New Haven signboard case," I commented.
"On that occasion the object wasn't recovered. Judging from the size of
the hole it made, however, it was probably about the same size."
Later FOIA requests have indicated that the DIA is currently the res-
ponsible agency for Moon Dust documentation. However, access is not being
allowed because such access would reveal intelligence methods and are thus
exempt from FOIA.
NASA has been involved as wall, as this extract from a Jan. 13, 1969,
memo indicates:
"The undersigned {Richard M. Schulherr} visited the Foreign Technology
Division of the Air Force Systems Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio,
9 Jan. 1969. The purpose of this trip was to identify specific items of
space debris which had been forwarded to NASA and to re-establish per-
sonal liason with newly-assigned FTD Moondust personnel."
The Air Force's Moon Dust activity, as well as Blue Fly, is, in their
words "no longer active." Perhaps the projects no longer go by these names but
surely the procedures have not become obsolete. There is still a need to react
to unknown vehicles landing on our soil. At the very least, national defense is
served by such reaction.
One last thought. Could an MJ12-type committee have begun Moon Dust as
a reaction to early UFO events like Roswell? It would be of interest to see
exactly when Moon Dust began its operations.
The Editor