From Blue Book to Record Group 615: A Declassified History of U.S. UFO Investigations (1947–2024)

To the point

Kenneth Arnold’s 1947 sighting marked the start of the modern UFO era, and between 1947 and 1969 the US Air Force recorded 12,618 sightings, explained 11,917 as balloons, aircraft, satellites, weather phenomena, or hoaxes, left 701 unresolved (about 5.6%), conducted three inquiry phases led by Edward J. Ruppelt, J. Allen Hynek, and Hector Quintanilla, faced debunking pressure from the Robertson Panel and AF Regulation 200‑2, saw the 1968 Condon Report conclude there was no scientific value in UFOs, and, decades later, a 1992 CIA confession tied many late‑1950s and 1960s reports to U‑2 reconnaissance flights with misattributions to protect classified programs, fueling renewed scrutiny and culminating in the 2024 creation of Record Group 615 to house declassified 129,658 pages for transparent analysis of unidentified anomalous phenomena.