Air Force

The U.S. Air Force is the American air service. It ran official UFO investigations from 1948 to 1969.

Project Sign (1948–49) was its first official UFO inquiry. Its "Estimate of the Situation" reportedly concluded that some UFOs were of "interplanetary origin"; General Hoyt Vandenberg allegedly ordered it destroyed. Project Grudge (1949–51) followed, then Project Blue Book (1952–69). Captain Edward J. Ruppelt was a key figure in the early investigations. Sign and Blue Book ran through the intelligence line that became the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson.

Air Force Materiel Command runs Air Force research, development, test, acquisition and sustainment. The Air Force Research Laboratory and the Life Cycle Management Center are two of its centers. The Special Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB worked on fitting nuclear weapons to aircraft and missiles in the 1950s.

The Air Force's special access program office, SAF/AAZ, told the service's 1994–95 Roswell inquiry that no special access program pertains to extraterrestrial spacecraft or aliens; UAP researchers contest that. In 1988 the Air Force Office of Special Investigations advised the FBI that no MJ-12 committee had ever been authorized or formed.

John Burroughs was an airman at RAF Bentwaters during the Rendlesham Forest incident of December 1980. UFO researcher Bob Oechsler served four years in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, according to his obituary. David Grusch is a former Air Force intelligence officer. Richard E. Carver was nominated in 1984 as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for financial management.