UFOs Are Real, Should Be Studied, Says Ex-Project Blue Book Director Col. Robert Friend

Retired Col. Robert Friend, a former director of the Air Force's nearly 20-year UFO study, Project Blue Book , says that science should continue looking into the mystery of flying saucers.

Friend, assigned in 1958 to direct Blue Book, was charged with trying to determine if UFOs were a threat to national security and whether they could be of scientific interest.

"When I first took over the program, I wrote two staff studies, and in both instances, I recommended that [UFOs] be put into another agency which would give them full scientific investigations and analyses," Friend told The Huffington Post over the weekend at a special lecture titled "Military UFOs: Secrets Revealed."

The event, held at the Smithsonian-affiliated National Atomic Testing Museum  in Las Vegas, featured Friend, seen below, three other retired military colonels and a former United Kingdom Ministry of Defense UFO investigator.

These days, the retired 92-year-old colonel acknowledges that he's spoken to more Air Force pilots than most people will ever meet, and he's heard their stories about strange things they've encountered in the sky -- objects that have come very close to their aircraft.

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