study of UFO reports. The end product of the study of the
powers of observation of a UFO observer would be an interrogation form.

Ever since the Air Force had been in the UFO business, attempts had
been made to construct a form that a person who had seen a UFO could
fill out. Many types had been tried but all of them had major
disadvantages. Project Bear, working with the psychology department
of a university, would study all of the previous questionnaires,
along with actual UFO reports, and try to come up with as near a
perfect interrogation form as possible. The idea was to make the form
simple and yet extract as much and as accurate data as possible from
the observer.

The second study that Project Bear would undertake would be a
statistical study of all UFO reports. Since 1947 the Air Force had
collected about 650 reports, but if our plan to encourage UFO reports
worked out the way we expected this number could increase tenfold. To
handle this volume of reports, Project Bear said that they would set
up a complete UFO file on IBM punch cards. Then if we wanted any bit
of information from the files, it would be a matter of punching a few
buttons on an IBM card-sorting machine, and the files would be sorted
electronically in a few seconds. Approximately a hundred items
pertaining to a UFO report would be put on each card. These items
included everything from the time the UFO was seen to its position in
the sky and the observer's personality. The items punched on the
cards would correspond to the items on the questionnaires that
Project Bear was going to develop.

Besides giving us a rapid method of sorting data, this IBM file
would give us a modus operandi file. Our MO file would be similar to
the MO files used by police departments to file the methods of
operations of a criminal. Thus when we received a report we could put
the characteristics of the reported UFO on an IBM punch card, put it
into the IBM machine, and compare it with the characteristics of
other sightings that had known solutions. The answer might be that
out of the one hundred items on the card, ninety-five were identical
to previous UFO reports that ducks were flying over a city at night
reflecting the city's lights.

On the way home from the meeting Colonel Kirkland and I were both
well satisfied with the assistance we believed Project Bear could
give to Project Grudge.

In a few days I again left ATIC, this time for Air Defense Command
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