Dans une réorganisation , Ackerman devient Directeur Adjoint de la Collection & Dissemination of
AF Intelligence, AFOIN-1. Il n'a pas de lien direct avec le projet
Blue Book mais est particulièrement intéressé, d'après Edward J. Ruppelt
, et a pour
habitude de passer faire des visites. Selon Ruppelt, il a des idées definite as to what
Blue Book had and what they should be doing. "He would tend to get all excited about individual sightings. He got
copies of the UFO reports and several times he was on the phone wanting to know what we planned to do even before he
had time to digest what was in the report." Ackerman had a "direct channel" to the top, to the Secretary of the Air
Force and people in the Department of Defense.