Earliest located means the earliest source UAPverse has found and can point to at an exact place. It is not proof of where the claim began.
A relationship we cannot evidence is marked unknown. Unknown is not independent confirmation, and it is not derivation either.
Confidence here is confidence in the evidence for a relationship between two statements. It says nothing about whether the claim is true or whom to believe.
The claim, as made
Stated neutrally, in the terms the speaker used. Not evaluated for truth.
In the 1952 presentation included in PURSUE Release 06, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt is quoted as saying that about 20% are very good reports offered by very reliable people and that no conclusions can be drawn. Located here through CBS's quotation of the Release 06 audio/transcript. Not treated as a 2026 finding.
Lineage2
Ordered by source date. Each statement shows who said it, where, the exact place in the source, the recorded wording, and how it relates to earlier statements. Corrections, clarifications, disputes and withdrawals sit under the statement they act on.
Air Force officer; later Project Blue Book director, as identified by CBS
March 1952 presentation, via PURSUE Release 06 audio/transcript as quoted by CBS News
Source published
Added to UAPverse
We've gone through these reports and come up with the fact that about 20% are very good reports offered by very reliable people and … just absolutely no conclusions can be drawn
In context CBS presents this as Ruppelt's wording from the Release 06 hour-long audio and transcript. Ellipsis is CBS's.
Basis The same CBS article quotes Ruppelt and then restates the 20% figure with an 800-report count that does not appear in the quoted sentence.
Wording change from the earlier statement4 of 32 earlier words kept · 18 added · 28 removed
removed: We've gone through these reports and come up withadded: In theremoved: factadded: presentation, Ruppelt revealed thatremoved: aboutadded: roughly 20%removed: are very goodadded: of the 800 UFO reportsremoved: offered by very reliable people and … just absolutely no conclusions can be drawnadded: the Air Force had investigated were still a mystery.
Relationship view
The same statements and relationships as the lineage, drawn as a graph: time runs down the page, every statement is drawn the same size, and each line is labelled with its relationship type. Nothing about position, size or colour ranks a statement or a speaker.
Legend
names as the origin
The later source itself says the earlier statement is where the claim began. Recorded as that source's attribution, never as a finding.
repeated
Says it again in the same or nearly the same words.
quoted
Uses the earlier words in quotation marks.
cited
Points to the earlier statement as its source.
paraphrased
Restates it in different words.
summarized
Shortens it.
amplified
Carries it further or adds emphasis.
asserted independently of
Makes the same claim, with stated evidence that it did not come from the earlier statement. Never assumed.
clarified
Narrows or explains the earlier statement without taking it back.
corrected
Changes a stated fact in the earlier statement.
disputed
Contradicts the earlier statement.
withdrew
Takes the earlier statement back.
relationship unknown to
No evidence either way. Not independent, not derived: unknown. This is the default when nothing is recorded.
A relationship we cannot evidence is marked unknown. Unknown is not independent confirmation, and it is not derivation either.
Sources2
Every statement cites exactly one of these at an exact place in the source.
What was and was not located. Read these before treating the earliest located source as anything more than that.
Official file DOW-UAP-D154 is indexed as the transcript. CBS supplies the quoted sentence used here. The official PDF/audio were not fetched from war.gov.
CBS also restates 'roughly 20% of the 800 UFO reports' — that count is CBS's restatement, not added as a second verbatim claim.