From: aj689@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Brian E. Pinette)
Subject: UFO chapter not censored
Date: 1 Mar 94 03:41:23 GMT
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet


In the past month, there has been some discussion of a chapter about UFO's from
a US Air Force Academy Training manual.  According to a file 
"usaf.textbook.chapter" in the Rutgers ftp site, the name of the book is

>    INTRODUCTORY SPACE SCIENCE - VOLUME II - DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS - USAF
>                                  Edited by:
>                          Major Donald G. Carpenter
>                                  Co-Editor:
>                      Lt. Colonel Edward R. Therkelson
>                                 CHAPTER XIII
>                          UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS

Robert K. Rouse (rouse@netcom.com) confirmed this in a posting to paranet 
on 1 Feb 1994.  The title he had for the work was

> AIR FORCE CADET MANUAL
> PHYSICS 370
> UNITED STATES AIR FORCE ACADEMY
> INTRODUCTORY SPACE SCIENCE

One fly in ointment was that the Rutgers file contained such comments as

> Subject: INFO:CHAPTER XIII - UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS
> Keywords: USAF Chapter in Training Textbook, long since censored.
> This is considered a *classic* among various UFO text files. 
> Read and make up your own mind :-)

and also
                            ...
> NOTE: Although  obviously well written and comphrensive in its treatment
>      of the UFO phenomenon, it is the opinion of ParaNet Pi that this reputed
>      U.S.A.F. Chapter is in fact a cleverly planted hoax, and did not appear  
>      in any Air Force Training Manual as claimed. However, we do not have
>      any hard proof to support this assessment of its authenticity.
> 
>      -Tom Mickus  04/24/88

In addition, you have John Lear making comments like this (from a Feb 14, 
1988 8:00 PM EST three hour conference on CompuServe with John Lear and
several others; I think the file is in the Rutgers ftp site):

> (DB) John, have you actually seen the chapter in the USAF acad. text
> book that dealt with alien beings, etc. (now removed from the text).
> Do you know how long the book was used in that form?
>
> (John Lear) I have not seen the book, but Phil Klass admitted to me
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> that it was there.  No I do not know how long it was there but since
> it talked about Betty and Barney Hill it had to be since 1971 or 72.

These, plus an inability to turn up the book _Introductory Space Science_
in any library catalog made it seem as though the chapter belonged to
same category of such disputed works as Blue Book Special Report #13.

However, a search on the Library of Congress system (LOCIS) on the
name Donald G. Carpenter revealed the following entry.

> LC Call Number: QB505 .E55
> Title: Environmental Space Sciences.
> Authors: Donald G. Carpenter[and others]
> Publication Info: Northbrook, Ill., Whitehall Co. [c1972]
> Phys. Description: 719 p. illus. 26 cm.

As luck would have it, our university library had this very book; I have
it by my side right now.  It in fact DOES contain a chapter on UFO's.  The
chapter in the book has the same organization as the chapter in the 
usaf.textbook.chapter file, with extra commentary at the end critiquing
the Condon report.  Some other differences that popped out: in the book, 
Carpenter declares the Book of Dzyan story to be a hoax and also suggests
that economists should analyze the flight patterns of UFO's.  The tone of
the chapter in the book, however, is the same as as the tone of the chapter in
the file: he advocates the the spirit of scientific inquiry, with a strong
skepticism towards UFO buffs and UFO detractors alike.

My guess is that the book _Introductory Space Science_ may have been a 
preliminary version of the book _Environmental Space Sciences_. Perhaps it
was only as set of informally published class notes at the USAF Academy, which
would explain why _ISS_ is apparently so hard to track down.  Some reasons
to believe that _ESS_ followed _ISS_ are

1. Carpenter is listed as a major in _ISS_ (i.e., the file); in _ESS_  (the
   book) he is a Lt. Colonel (the next higher rank)
2. _ISS_ contains bibliographic references up to 1968; _ESS_ has them up to
   1971.
3. Carpenter is listed as a FORMER associate professor of physics at the
   USAF Academy in _ESS_.
4. The partial table of contents for _ISS_ (provided by Rouse in his posting)
   indicates a smaller page count than for _ESS_ (although the chapter
   structure remains the same).
5. The _ESS_ chapter contains material beyond the _ISS_ chapter.

In summary: the chapter exists and is freely available.

As a final note, here are a couple of blurbs from the book from _ESS_ that
I found amusing.  Although Carpenter made a point of defending the USAF's
policy towards UFO's, we have the following disclaimer on the copyright page:

> This book is not a United States Government publication. The views 
> expressed within this book are those of the Editor and Authors alone, and
> do not necessarily agree or disagree with the Official views of the 
> United States Government.

On the back of the book, the sum total description of the contents of
the book is as follows.  (I was impressed that they saw fit to mention UFO's to the exclusion
of any of the other 32 chapters.)

> Environmental Space Sciences
> We are now in the space age and must understand how to move and survive in
> it.
> This book provides some of the essential information needed on space
> environment and orients us to the whole new and fascinating field of Space
> Science, including the problem of the UFO. (See Chapter XXXIII.)
> The authors are highly qualified and professional scientists who have 
> devoted their careers to this fantastic frontier.  They have participated 
> in virtually every phase of Space Science from the beginning.

Brian Pinette