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Baker report, 1968 congressional hearings

NICAP · 1968 · 68 pages · text from the file's own layer

This NICAP extract reproduces the statement of Dr. Robert M. L. Baker, Jr., a Computer Sciences Corporation scientist and UCLA engineering faculty member, to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics symposium on unidentified flying objects on July 29, 1968. Baker reviews his analyses of the Utah, Montana, Venezuela and Vandenberg films. He argues that current radar and optical sensors are poorly suited to detecting anomalistic phenomena and urges a well-funded, long-term interdisciplinary research program. The extract ends with panel discussion including Hynek and Hall.

  • p. 2 …Baker's professional society memberships include the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Phi Beta…
  • p. 8 …space) are the results of an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, then the study of the phenomena would…
  • p. 9 …There have been many debates on the technical capabilities or limits on the capabilities of advanced…
  • p. 10 …in the environs of the earth, or to make dubious speculations either concerning "their" advanced scientific…
  • p. 11 …the gross characteristics of an advanced civilization. These studies (probably not Government funded) should include the…
  • p. 19 Microphotograph of One of the Frames of the Argentina Film that Exhibits the Luminosity of the…
  • p. 21 …and Journal of the American Astronautical Society, 6, No. 1, 1959. 146 00015 "Recent Advances in…
  • p. 22 …the Seventh Annual ARDC Science and Engineering Symposium, Boston, Massachusetts, November 30, 1960. 00042 "1960 Advances…
  • p. 23 …Makemson) 00071 Aerodynamics - Applications and Advanced Topics, Academic Press, New York, 1967. 00072 "Recent Advances in…
  • p. 37 …In the past five years, he has advanced from assistant bookkeeper to teller to head teller…
  • p. 39 …He has no desire to advance any further up the bank totem pole, says he never…
  • p. 55 …sure, advanced radar systems are being developed for our missile defense systems, such as the ALTAR…
  • p. 56 …of the Earth or to make very dubious speculations 9, 10 either concerning "their" advanced scientific…
  • p. 57 …Coroniti (Elsevier Publishing Company, New York, 1963), page 463. 184 The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences…
Department of Engineering, UCLA
November 21, 1967
References
1. Baker, Robert M. L., JR., Astrodynamics -- Applications and Advanced Topics (Academic Press, New York,
1967), pp. 4 to 10 and 91 to 95.
2. Cheetam, R. P., J. Astronaut. Sci., XIV, No. 5, (1967).
3. Mohr, F. B., Science, 151, pp. 634-636, (1966).
4. Fessenkov, V. U., Physics and Astronomy of the Moon (Academic Press, New York, 1962), page 108.
5. Lamar, U. L., and Baker, Robert M. L., Jr., "Possible Residual Effects of Tunguska-type Explosions on Desert
Pavements." Presented at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Odessa, Texas, October 21-24,
1965.
6. Baker, Robert M. L., Jr., Science, 128, 1211 (1958).
7. Baker, Robert M.L., Jr., "Observational Evidence of Anomalistic Phenomena," J. Astronaut. Sci., XV, No. 1,
January-February, 1968.
8. Baker, Robert M. L., Jr. and Makemson, M. W., An introduction to Astrodynamics, Second Edition, (Academic
Press, New York, 1967), pp. 325-333.
9. Markowitz, William, Science, 157. pp. 1274-1279 (1967).
10. Rosa, R. J., Powers, W. T., Vallee, J. F., Gross, T. R. P., Steffey, P. C., Garcia, R. A., and Cohen, G., Science,
Vol. 158, No. 3806 pp. 1265-1266 (1967).
11. Nathan, Robert, "Digital Video-Data Handling," JPL Technical Report No. 32-877, 1966.
12. Hartmann, W. K., Nininger Meteorite Award Paper, Publication No. 3, by the Center for Meteorite Studies,
Arizona State University, May, 1966.
13. Shoemaker, E. N. and Lowery, C. J., "Airwaves associated with large fireballs and the frequency distribution of
energy at large meteoroids." Presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Washington D.
C., November 3-5, 1966.
14. McCrosky, R. E., "Orbits of Photographic Meteors," Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Special Report No.
252, October, 1967, page iv.
15. Hartmann, W. K., (letter dated September 23, 1967).
16. Neal, J. T., Office of Aerospace Research Report, AF CRL-65-266, April, 1965.
17. Lamar, D., (in conversation on October 6, 1967).
18. Walker, Dr. Sydney, III (in conversation on October 15, 1967) and Psychiatric Signs and Symptoms Due to
Medical Problems (Charles C Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Illinois, 1967).
19. Jung, C. G., Flying Saucers, translated by R. F. C. Hull (Routledge and Kegan Paul, Long, 1959), page x.
20. Singer, S., in Problems of Atmospheric and Space Electricity, edited by S. C. Coroniti (Elsevier Publishing
Company, New York, 1963), page 463.
[[184]]
The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences Vol. XV, No. II, pp. 92-96 March-April, 1968
Establishing Observer Creditability:
A Proposed Method1
Sydney Walker III, M.D.1
Abstract
This article is a brief review of the critical chain of linked processes -- anatomic, physiologic, and psychological -- which
operate to determine the nature of the observations made by an individual, whether of an accident, a planned experiment, or
an extraterrestrial phenomenon such as a "UFO," One purpose of such a review is to demonstrate how, through the use of
proper medical examination, the integrity of the observer system can be established in such a way that eye witness
creditability does not have to be left to the kind of speculation in which it so frequently finds itself today. Without some
such investigation, it is not known whether the reporting observer has, for example, serious visual abnormalities, a brain
tumor that causes visual hallucinations, or character pathology such that he is prone to attract attention to himself by
fabricating or frankly lying about what he has seen.

Cases discussed

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Hearing transcript, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 68 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.