The Ruppelt Files Collection is perhaps the highpoint of Project Aquarius so far. While working as Project Blue Book’s first head, Captain Edward Ruppelt amassed over 120 folders and two boxes of 3×5 index cards that have been scanned and minimally redacted. We have all of the 3×5 index cards and 96 of 120 known folders. There are many additional files in groups beyond the 96 folders and we believe they consist of the remaining 24 folders but used non-numerical names. Essentially, we believe we have everything.
The collection consists of blue book reports, personal commentary on many cases, his correspondences back and forth with many researchers of the day, his personal feeling on certain individuals, drafts of his famous book and newspaper clippings he collected. His newspaper clippings collection veers at some points away from Ufology. He was deeply interested in a forest fire in the 1950s, for example.
His personal observations reveal he was very much on the fence concerning UFOs at time in the 1950s during his tenure but did indeed keep an open mind. He also seemed to favor researchers and military officials that leaned towards the UFO phenomenon being real and had dim respect for liars and disinformation specialists. Overall, he seemed like a decent man who also sought to enrich himself after leaving the military by turning his experiences into books and screenplays.
One very interesting letter he typed seems to suggest he was deeply intrigued with the possibility President Eisenhower met an alien and went aboard a spacecraft landed at Edwards Air Force Base in 1954.