Grudge. There was a note below these
recommendations. It said, "It is readily apparent that further study
along present lines would only confirm the findings presented herein."

Somebody read the note and concurred because with the completion and
approval of the Grudge Report, Project Grudge folded. People could
rant and rave, see flying saucers, pink elephants, sea serpents, or
Harvey, but it was no concern of ATIC's.

CHAPTER SIX

The Presses Roll--The Air Force Shrugs

The Grudge Report was supposedly not for general distribution. A few
copies were sent to the Air Force Press Desk in the Pentagon and
reporters and writers could come in and read it. But a good many
copies did get into circulation. The Air Force Press Room wasn't the
best place to sit and study a 600-page report, and a quick glance at
the report showed that it required some study--if no more than to
find out what the authors were trying to prove--so several dozen
copies got into circulation. I know that these "liberated" copies of
the Grudge Report had been thoroughly studied because nearly every
writer who came to ATIC during the time that I was in charge of
Project Blue Book carried a copy.

Since the press had some questions about the motives behind
releasing the Grudge Report, it received very little publicity while
the writers put out feelers. Consequently in early 1950 you didn't
read much about flying saucers.

Evidently certain people in the Air Force thought this lull in
publicity meant that the UFO's had finally died because Project
Grudge was junked. All the project files, hundreds of pounds of
reports, memos, photos, sketches, and other assorted bits of paper
were unceremoniously yanked out of their filing cabinets, tied up
with string, and chucked into an old storage case. I would guess that
many reports ended up as "souvenirs" because a year later, when I
exhumed these files, there were a lot of reports missing.

About this time the official Air Force UFO project had one last post-
death muscular spasm. The last bundle of reports had just landed on
top of the pile in the storage case when ATIC received a letter from
the Director of Intelligence of the Air Force. In official language
it said, "What gives?" There had been no order to end Project Grudge.
The answer went back that Project Grudge had not been disbanded; the
project functions had been transferred and it was no longer a
"special" project. From now on UFO reports wou