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

5995
of the
UFO
problem.
Unavoidably
these
are
also
related
to
Air
Force
public
relations,
a
subject
on
which
the
committee
is
not
expert.
Thus
the recom-
mendations
which
follow
are
made
simply
from
the
scientific
point
of view.
III.
CONCLUSIONS
AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
It
is
the
opinion
of
the
committee
that the
present
Air
Force
program
dealing
with
UFO
sightings
has
been
well organized,
although the
resources assignedto
it
(only
one
officer,
a
sergeant,
and
secretary)
have
been
quite
limited.
In
19
years
and more
than
10,000
sightings
recorded
and
classified,
there
appears
to
be
no
verified
and
fully
satisfactory
evidence
of
any
case that
is
clearly
outside
the
framework
of
presently
known
science
and
technology. Nevertheless,
there
is
always
the
possibility
that
analysis
of
new
sightings
may
provide
some
additions to
scientific
knowledge
of value
to
the
Air
Force.
Moreover,
some
of
the
case
records
which
the
committee
looked that
were
listed
as
"identified"
were
sightings
where
the
evidence
collected
was
too
meager
or
too
indefinite
to
permit
positive
listing
in
the
identified
category.
Because
of
this
the
committee
recom-
mends
that the
present
program
be
strengthened
to
provide
opportunity
for
scien-
tific
investigation
of
selected
sightings
in
more
detail
and
depth than
has
been
possible
to date.
To
accomplish
this
it
is
recommended
that—
(a)
Contracts
be
negotiated
with
a
few
selected universities
to
provide
scientific
teams
to
investigate
promptly
and
in
depth
certain
selected
sight-
ings
of
UFO's.
Each
team
should
include
at
least
one
psychologist,
pref-
erably
one
interested
in
clinical
psychology,
and
at
least
one
physical
scien-
tist,
preferably
an
astronomer
or
geophysicist
familiar
with atmospheric
physics.
The
universities
should
be chosen
to
provide
good
geographical
distribution,
and
should
be
within convenient
distance
of
a
base of the Air
Force Systems
Command (AFSC).
(b)
At
each
AFSC
base
an
officer
skilled
in investigation
(but
not
neces-
sarily
with
scientific
training)
should
be
designated
to
work
with
the
cor-
responding
university
team
for that
geographical
section.
The
local
repre-
sentative
of the
Air
Force
Office
of
Special
Investigations
(OSI)
might
be
a
logical
choice
for
this.
(c)
One
university
or
one
not
-for-profit
organization
should
be
selected
to coordinate
the
work
of the
teams
mentioned under
(a)
above,
and
also to
make
certain
of
very
close
communication
and
coordination
with the
Office
of Project
Blue Book.
It
is
thought
that
perhaps
100
sightings
a
year
might be
subjected
to
this
close
study,
and
that
possibly
an
average of
10
man
-days
might be
required
per
sighting
so
studied.
The
information provided
by
such
a
program might
bring
to
light
new
facts
of
scientific
value,
and
would
almost
certainly
provide
a
far
better
basis
than
we
have
today
for
decision
on a
long-term
UFO
program.
The
scientific
reports
on
these
selected sightings,
supplementing the
present
program
of
the Project
Blue
Book
office,
should
strengthen the
public
position
of the Air Force
on
UFO's.
It
is,
therefore,
recommended
that—
(a)
These
reports
be
printed in
full
and
be
available
on
request.
(b)
Suitable abstracts
or condensed
versions
be
printed
and
included
in,
or
as
supplements
to,
the
published reports
of Project
Blue Book.
(c) The
form
of
report
(as
typified
by
Project
Blue
Book
dated Feb-
ruary
1,
1966) be expanded,
and
anything
which might
suggest that informa-
tion
is
being withheld
(such as
the
wording
on
page
5
of the
above
cited
reference)
be
deleted.
The
form
of
this
report
can be
of great importance
in
securing public
understanding
and
should be given
detailed
study
by
an
appropriate Air Force
office.
(d) The
reports Project
Blue
Book
should
be
given
wide
unsolicited
circulation
among
prominent
Members
of the Congress
and
other
public
persons
as a
further aid to public
understanding of the
scientific
approachbeing taken by the Air Force
in attacking the
UFO
problem.
DEPARTMENT
OF
THE
AIR FORCE,
OFFICE OF
THE
SECRETARY,
Washington,
D.C.,
September 28, 1965.
Memorandum
for military director,
scientific
advisory board
Subject: Unidentified flying objects
(UFO's)
In keeping with
its air defense
role,
the Air Force has the
responsibility for
the investigation of unidentified flying objects reported over the United States.