Los Angeles, California: Ruppelt and Col. Kirkland brief Civilian Saucer Investigation
On April 2, 1952, Edward Ruppelt and ATIC Technical Analysis Division Chief Col. Sanford H. Kirkland Jr. briefed the Civilian Saucer Investigation of Los Angeles at the Mayfair Hotel, with national and Life magazine reporters present.
Background
On the eve of the release of the Life magazine article by Darrach and Ginna, Ruppelt and his superior, ATIC Technical Analysis Division Chief Col. Sanford H. Kirkland Jr., gave a briefing to the Civilian Saucer Investigation of Los Angeles, a group of aerospace engineers and saucer enthusiasts. Eberhart describes it as technically unclassified but in fact quasi-classified. Participants included aeronautical consultant Felix W. A. Knoll, technical writer Ed J. Sullivan and North American Aviation project engineer Walther Riedel. The briefing took place at the Mayfair Hotel in Los Angeles, California, with national media reporters and Life reporters present, who gave the group advance copies of the article in exchange. Minutes of the meeting were transcribed by the Sign Historical Group. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.