A second McDonnell-Douglas UAP study in the 1970's? - A preliminary article

Introduction

I am continuing my steady re-reading of Jacques Vallee's "Forbidden Science: Volume 5." There are a wealth of interesting little pieces of information to be digested slowly; just like the French food which Vallee frequently refers to in his diary entries.  

It is now common knowledge that the McDonnell-Douglas company conducted an in-house study of UAP between 1967-1969. The leader of this internal company study was Robert M. Wood. Wood published a few details of the project in the July/August 1993 issue of the "International UFO Reporter" in an article "A Little Physics....A Little Friction: A Close Encounter with the Condon Committee" and in much more detail in the October 2008 "MUFON Journal" in an article titled "McDonnell Douglas Studied UFOs in 1960's." There are a number of websites where you can read around 275 pages of documentation of this 1967-1969 study. I posted an article about the project and the contents of some of this documentation on 22 September 2020. 

A second McDonnell Douglas study in the 70's?

Now, when reading "Forbidden Science: Volume 5" I came across references to what appears to have been a separate, and second McDonnell-Douglas UAP study. Below, I extract a number of sections of Vallee's diary entries, from "Forbidden Science: Volume 2,3 and 5" concerning McDonnell-Douglas.

FS2 10 December 1974

Dr. Kit Green Shares Paranormal Stories from the CIA Weird Desk | LoveToKnow

Vallee lunches with Kit Green. 

"Kit reluctantly confirmed there was a group of 15 engineers in the Midwest (I assume it was McDonnell in St Louis) secretly doing UFO research for the CIA under cover of 'aeronautical research.' They're getting data though leaks from Cufos and other amateurs."

Comments:

1. Vallee only assumes it was McDonnell.

2. It says they were doing research for the CIA. In the released papers for the 1967-1969 study there is no reference to the CIA, which suggests this is a separate study. There is mention by Wood in the October 2008 MUFON Journal, of an approach in the spring of 1970 by an unnamed US intelligence agency which wished McDonnell Douglas to provide technical information for what Wood called "Project Skylite." The relevant section of the MUFON article is:

"The only contact with the government about the Project came towards the end of the spring of 1970 when there was interest expressed by one of the intelligence agencies. This resulted in a draft proposal to 'mimic, imitate or duplicate the observables associated with UFOs.' We called this potential opportunity Project Skylite and prepared a good deal of technical information in anticipation of contract work. It never materialized with McDonnell Douglas to my knowledge."

FS2 5 January 1978

"Yesterday I received a telephone call from a fellow, who works with McDonnell-Douglas Astronautics. He told me that 'on a private basis,' he was compiling a new close encounters database. I am not stupid enough to believe that his company has no corporate interest in the matter. They have an on-going secret project, well-funded, with the blessing and official monitoring of the CIA and they're directly connected with major UFO groups."

Comment: So, in 1978 Vallee is again saying that a McDonnell UFO study was still going.  

FS2 15 October 1978

MUFON Founder and Legend John Schuessler Retires! – MUFON

"McDonnell Douglas is continuing their quiet but well-funded study with John Schuessler also monitored by the Agency. They seem to be looking for exotic alloys."

FS3 24 August 1988

Richard Niemtzow

Time with Richard Niemtzow, who says:

"Make no mistake about it, Kit has been studying the subject deeply, in an official capacity. In the seventies, when McDonnell Douglas had a secret study of UFOs under way, who do you think was showing up regularly from Washington to monitor their progress? It was Kit, sent by CIA on official business. He came over whenever one of their aircraft had a sighting. John Schuessler told me that. I found that communication with him was always a one-way street. Those guys are trained that way.

'Whatever happened to the McDonnell study?'

"All they got were some pieces of metal, and they couldn't learn anything from the analysis, it was futile. Of course, being an aircraft company, they thought they would quickly crack the design, the propulsion system.' "

Comment: Here is a clear reference to CIA involvement via Kit Green.  

FS5 10 January 2002

Talking again to Richard Niemtzow.

"The most troubling story Richard tells concerns the UFO Project at McDonnell in the 1970's. He repeated what he'd told me in July 1989. Along with John Schuessler he met in Houston with the head of R&D for McDonnell. A reservation made at a local hotel got cancelled at the last minute.

The man smiled: 'They keep doing this, perhaps to protect me. Let's not talk in here.'

So they spoke in the parking lot. Niemtzow was offered a position with the UFO project. 'What you've been imagining, Richard, wasn't your imagination. There's nothing wrong with your imagination! But if you join us you'll never practice medicine again." Richard said he wanted to remain a doctor, but he's always wondered about that day."

Comment: The troubling story. Could all this after all be the 1967-1969 Study? I don't think so because Niemtzow's name is never mentioned in the documentation we have on the 1967-1969 study. Secondly, Niemtzow was in France undergoing medical training until 1976. In 1975 he joined APRO, while still residing in France. So, this story by Niemtzow does indeed suggest that a second McDonnell study occurred.

FS5 20 Aug 2003

Day with Kit Green.

" ...our discussions...and finally old topics like the McDonnell-CIA study in the seventies. Kit professed not to know anything about its potential records, referring me instead to John Schuessler.

Interestingly, this old McDonnell study is mentioned in the latest issue of Inforespace, the Bulletin of SOBEPS (Belgian Society for the Study of Space Phenomena) (21). Investigator Franck Boittee recalls an observation made by a witness in Assas near Montpellier, on 18 April 1955. Perry Patrakis has also researched the case. About 20 years after the event, five or six investigators, without prior warning visited the witness, Mr. D. in Montpellier.

'Of various nationalities, most of them physicians, they reported to defence departments of their own countries. There was a Moroccan who was a consultant to this commission, he introduced himself as King Hussan II's personal physician.' Mr. D. reported this to J P Troadec in 1988, adding he'd met Richard Niemtzow, but had missed a visit by John Schuessler. This 'commission' was clearly monitored by Kit, who refuses to talk about it-even now."

Comment: A reading of the article, in French, reveals the visit occurred in either 1975,76 or 77. 

FS5 3 October 2003

Vallee was listing those individuals whom he thought knew "the truth."

"John Schuessler's access is probable but dated, given his participation in the McDonnell study of the late seventies."

Comment: Note that Vallee says 'late seventies" and not the "late sixties."

Conclusion:

There seems sufficient anecdotal evidence to suggest that there was indeed a second McDonnell-Doulas/CIA UAP study project in the 1970's. However, I have not been able to locate any documentation at all. I hope that some blog readers may be inspired to conduct their own research into this matter, and report their findings, back to us all.