Editing The Alien Hunters (Se12 Ep1) (section)

=== Act 1 ===
1:25

London, 7/20/2015 - consortium of scientists, [[Stephen Hawking]], [[Frank Drake]].  [[Yuri Milner]] announces "[[Breakthrough Listen]]", a 10-year, $100 Million search for ET life.  Using radio telescopes and data processing to look for astronomical signals.  Will survey ten times more area than previous surveys.

Starting in 1947, a series of events forced U.S. government members to become alien hunters.  There were 800 UFO reports in 1947. 

The one near [[Mt. Rainier]] WA made worldwide headlines.  June 24, 1947 businessman & pilot [[Kenneth Arnold]] saw a squadron of UFOs while flying near [[Mt. Rainier]].  Estimated speed was 1200 MPH to 1700 MPH.  Fastest aircraft of the day was 600 MPH.  Arnold described them as delta shaped, and flying as if skipping a saucer across water.  Thus, the term "flying saucer" originated.  Twenty other reports came from the northwest U.S. within days.  The [[Roswell UFO Incident|Roswell incident]] occurred two weeks later.

A day earlier, event brought military into the hunt.  July 7, 1947, at [[Edwards AFB|Muroc AFB (now Edwards AFB)]], [[Maj. J.C. Wise]] saw a bright, spinning, yellow object about 10,000 feet in the air.  Afterwards, all [[U.S. Air Force|Air Force]] officers were required to report any UFO sightings, and were told not to discuss their report.  

This led to "[[Project Sign]]", an order to direct all UFO reports to the military, by order of [[Lieutenant General Nathan Twining]] at [[Wright Field]] on January 22, 1948.  Higher-ups redacted extraterrestrial implications, and initiated "[[Project Grudge]]", which became "[[Project Blue Book]]".  The Air Force closed [[Project Blue Book|Blue Book]] due to lack of evidence and lack of national security threat. 

the [[U.S. Air Force]] collected 12,618 UFO reports, of which 701 remained unexplained.  In disagreement with the military debunkers was [[Dr. J.Allen Hynek]], a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at [[Ohio State University]].  Initially a skeptic, Hynek became more convinced during the course of his investigation of the authenticity of UFO reports.  His reasons were: 1) the Air Forced was forcing answers on every report, and 2) he talked with very credible witnesses.  UFO cases obtained through [[Freedom of Information Act|FOIA]] have had names and details redacted.

Theorists speculate on extraterrestrial involvement for decades, even since early civilizations.