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This 1965 record, released by the JFK Library via The Black Vault, holds an August 17, 1965 letter from Charles J. Quagliana of Lockport, New York to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the U.S. Air Force reply. The letter accuses the Air Force of censoring UFO information. In the reply, Colonel L. Conquest denies any censorship and says that 18 years of investigating over 9,000 reports point to man-made, atmospheric or celestial explanations. It also says Captain Mantell died of oxygen starvation while pursuing a UFO over Godman Field, Kentucky.
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# DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE WASHINGTON Dear Senator Kennedy: In your recent referral to the Department of Defense you requested a report in behalf of Mr. Charles J. Quagliana relative to unidentified flying objects (UFO's). The Air Force does not withhold or censor any information on UFO's. The investigations have always been made available to bona fide news representatives and scientific researchers. Press releases are issued as warranted, and an annual report on the project is available to the public. A copy of this report is attached for your information. In 18 years of investigating over 9,000 reports of UFO's, the evidence has proved almost conclusively that reported aerial phenomena have been objects either created and sent aloft by man, generated by atmospheric conditions, or caused by celestial bodies or the residue of meteoric activity. The Air Force has lost one aircraft and pilot in connection with a UFO incident. Captain Mantell was asked to identify a UFO while on an aircraft ferrying mission in 1952 over Godman Field in Kentucky. Because his aircraft was not outfitted with the necessary oxygen equipment for a high altitude flight, Captain Mantell died of oxygen starvation while attempting to identify the object, and his aircraft consequently crashed. A copy of the Air Force evaluation of this case is also attached for your further information.
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 4 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.