Unidentified flying objects: hearing before the Committee on Armed Forces of the House of Representatives, Eighty-ninth Congress, second session, April 5, 1966 ...

6053
an
illuminating
example
of
how
the
Air
Force
deals
with
the
public in
such
a
situation.
By
good
fortune,
one
does not
have
to
rely
mainly
on
newspaper
reports,
some-
times
meager,
or
upon
the
Air
Force
statements.
The
Department
of
Public
Safety of
the
State
of
Oklahoma
has
sent
to the
office
of
Congressman John
Jar-
man,
Democrat,
of the
Oklahoma
City
congressional
district,
and
to
the National
Investigations
Committee on
Aerial
Phenomena
(NICAP)
in
Washington
a
sum-
mary
of
the
teletype
reports
sent
into
the
Oklahoma
Highway
Patrol
Communi-
cations
Network
Center,
July
31—August
5,
from
the
various
highway
patrol
headquarters over the
State.
This
valuable
document,
which
was
not observed
in
the
files
of
Project
Blue
Book,
will
be
utilized
in
one
or
more
following
articles
dealing
with
the curious
behavior
of
the
Air
Force
touching the
UFO's
and
the
public.
[From
the
Portland
(Maine)
Evening
Express,
Jan.
18,
1966]
THOSE
FLYING
SAUCERS—HIGHWAY
PATROL
REPORT
FIRES
CONTROVERSY
OVER
UFO's
(Editor's
note:
This
is
the second of
a
series
about
UFO's
(unidentified
flying
objects)
by
Bulkley
S.
Griffin,
executive
editor
of
the
Evening
Express
Washing-
ton
Bureau.
He
wrote
the
stories
after
visiting
the
UFO
office
of the U.S.
Air
Force.)
(By
Bulkley
Griffin)
WASHINGTON,
D.C.—Research
into
the
matter
of
the
unidentified
flying
ob-
jects
(UFO's),
the U.S.
Air
Force,
and
the
public,
receives substantial
help
from
a
report
furnished
by
the
Oklahoma
Department
of Public
Safety.
This
sum-
marizes
the
messages
dealing
with
UFO
sightings
that passed over the Okla-
homa
Highway
Patrol
network
in
the
period
July
31—August
5.
A
survey
of
this
information
reveals
the
large
number
of
sightings
and
the
much
larger
number
of
witnesses
of those
sightings,
and
lists
some
radar
sight-
ings
by
the Air
Force. It
compares
with
a
generalized attention
to those
sight-
ings
by
the Air
Force
and
Project
Blue
Book,
the
latter
the
name
for the
Air
Force
investigation
of
UFO's.
At
3:30
p.m.
August
2,
Project
Blue
Book
issued
a
statement
assuming
to
ex-
plain
the
avalanche
of
UFO
sightings
that
had
hit
the
Southwest—but
probably
had
hit
Oklahoma
the
heaviest—starting July
31.
Therefore,
this
article will
seek
to
hit
the high
points
of the
sightings
reported
on
the
Oklahoma Highway
Patrol
network
beginning with July
31,
up
to
the
issuance
of the Project
Blue
Book
explanation.
The
first
report
on
the
teletype
came
the
early
morning
of July
31.
A
Wynne-
wood,
Okla.,
police
officer,
Louis
Sikes, reported
a
UFO.
The
radar at TinkerAir
Force
Base
located
the
object.
A
little
later,
continued
the
highway
patrol
report,
"Caswell Air
Force
Base (Fort Worth,
Tex.)
aimed
their
radar at
the
same
location
and
came up
with the
same
fix
as
Tinker."
Both
Tinker
and
Caswell followed the
object,
which once
disappeared
and
then reappeared, for
some
time.
Later
that
day an
Associated
Press
dispatch
from Oklahoma
City
stated
flatly
that
Tinker
and
Caswell both
had
the
UFO
on
radar.
The
next
night
saw
the
UFO
reports
crowding
the
highway
patrol
teletype.
Some
quotations of
messages
will
be
given.
At
9
:19 p.m. the
highway
patrol
tower
sent
out
this
message:
"Since
8
p.m.
the
tower has
received in
the neighborhood of
25
to
30
visual sightings,
many
by
police
officers
and highway
patrol troopers
of various
unidentified flying
objects
from
the Purcell area north
through the
Norman
area
to
Chandler
and
back
through
Meeker and Shawnee.
"Three Shawnee
officers
and
their
captain
have four of the
objects in sight
at
this
time, also
another
has
cropped
up from
the south of
Tecumseh and
is
apparently going
to
fly
directly
over
Shawnee.
"The
sightings
vary
from one
to
four of the
objects
at various times
starting
in
a
reddish color
and
varying to
a
white
and
blue
luster.
"Shawnee
reports
the
objects
seem
to
be
flying
four
to
a
formation
in
a
diamond
-type formation. Cushing has
reported four of the
objects.
Oklahoma
Highway
Patrol Units
30 and 40 have
also
made
visual sightings.
Reports have