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28 The Air Force said that all evidence and analyses indicate that the reports of unidentified flying objects are the result of: (1) Misinterpretation of various conventional objects. (2) A mild form of mass hysteria. (3) Or hoaxes. The Air Force said that continuance of the project is unwar- ranted since additional incidents now are simply confirming findings already reached. Available with the press release was the 600-page Project Grudge report, which included information on 237 UFO cases—55 of which remained unexplained. Moreover, many of the explanations for reports were scientifically weak, if not faulty. The first doubts about the sincerity of the government's efforts to understand flying saucers had arisen. But since al- most none of the original case files were available for indepen- dent evaluation, little could be done to support the slowly growing suspicions. Any developments within the official in- vestigation were effectively concealed as the reports continued to stream into the office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. They were categorized as "explained", "insufficient informa- tion," or "unknown", then quietly filed away for purposes yet to be understood. The evidence strongly suggests that Projects Sign, Grudge, and Blue Book almost certainly constituted a public relations front intended to pacify a concerned public rather than a scientific study to determine if UFOs were a threat to the national security, as its proponents insisted in countless news releases and press conferences. In 1952 the name of the investigation was changed from Grudge to Blue Book, and as such it would achieve fame and infamy far beyond what the government could have intended or expected. Its conscientious new director, Capt. Edward Rup- pelt, would be at the center of more controversy than the Air Force was prepared to handle. It began with an upswing in CRASH AT CORONA