Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed transcript of an April 5, 1966 hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Armed Services on unidentified flying objects. Air Force Secretary Harold Brown testified that 9,501 of 10,147 sightings from 1947 through 1965 had been identified and that no threat or extraterrestrial evidence had been found. The record includes the Scientific Advisory Board ad hoc committee report recommending university studies and the Air Force's marsh gas explanation for the Dexter and Hillsdale, Michigan sightings. Members also questioned J. Allen Hynek and Maj. Hector Quintanilla about the Exeter, New Hampshire case.
“Red River”1 page
6062 2. On close proximity to conventional aircrafts cause their gyro com- passes and direction finders to momentarily malfunction? 3. On close proximity to conventional aircrafts or ground vehicles cause intense heat sensation experienced by their occupants? 4. Hover at any one point at any given time and suddenly accelerate hori, zontally or vertically out of sight in a matter of 5 to 10 seconds? 5. Execute an abrupt 90° or 1800 change of direction while in flight? 6. Make no discernible sound while in flight? 7. Glow brilliantly and change colors? Such behavior and characteristics have been witnessed by reliable persons and documented enumerable times and are very familiar to the Air Force; in addition to being definitely beyond the scope of our present technology. If con- clusion (3) had included the word "proof" instead of "evidence," the probability of truth could also be conceded here. As it stands, the statement is likewise false for the same reasons as the arguments listed against conclusion (2). Since our present state of technology does not permit satisfactory explanations to such behaviors of these objects, what other assumption can a scientific mind make than that their origin is extra terrestrial? It may be recalled that the Air Tech- nical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, in July-August of 1948 concluded in their top secret document estimate of the situation that UFO's were interplanetary. While top Air Force officials will vehemently deny that such a document ever existed, proof that it does exist and is accessible for examination by interested Members of Congress—but not from the Air Force. While the Air Force does not publicly admit to the existence of the wealth of documented evidence that has been accumulated since before the appearance of the first airplane, it does admit to possessing at least 663 "unknowns" on the books. Sightings classified as "unknowns" are those well decumented by official and unofficial sources but remain unsolved and "unexplainable." Private citizens inquiring into the nature of these unknowns will be told that such is classified information (AFR 200-2 paragraphs 9 and 19). It should be noted, in this respect, that Vice President Humphrey and Senator Birch Bayh were misinformed by the Air Force through the Congressional Inquiry Division to the effect that all of the 663 "unknown" cases were solved. The letter to Sena- tor Bayh was signed by Col. Frederick H. Fahringer. Dealings with the Air Force concerning information of UFO's have proven to be a one-way proposition—all in and none out. Is it little wonder that only about 10 percent of the citizenry dare risk disparagement for submitting reports that are truly unexplainable? The "lending" of photographic evidence of a sighting by a witness to the Air Force is tantamount to forfeiture. Infre- quently, an Air Force "slip-up" occurs in his favor. The Air Force maintains that there is no censorship of UFO's. Anyone fol- lowing this subject knows differently. Strong feelings were expressed by three of my acquaintances, all departed in recent years from service in that branch, in verifying that censorship does indeed exist. Two were radar technicians, one of whom was stationed at White Sands in 1949 while the other was assigned to the 776th Radar Squadron at Point Arena, Calif. in 1961-62. The third was a member of Project Blue Book in Alaska during 1961-62. The Joint Chiefs of Staff regulation JANAP 146, section III, title 18, United States Code 793, threatens imposition of penalties of 1 to 10 years imprisonment and/or up to $10,000 fine upon any Air Force pilot who reveals an official UFO report. Such harsh punishment would certainly be indicative of the seriousness with which the Air Force regards the UFO's; and all the while the publicized line is "they don't exist." The official position was subsequently revealed when on December 24, 1959, an Air Force Inspector General brief was issued stating that "UFO's are Serious Business" and instructing all investigating officers to be equipped with geiger counters. The degree of seriousness can also be realized when one considers the lengths to which six agencies of the Federal Government are extending themselves in research to uncover the suspected secret of these ob- jects—that of gravity control, or antigravity power. Forty-six such projects of research of varying degrees are currently being subsidized including 33 under Air Force supervision. While it is understandable that information pertaining to these projects does not necessarily fall into the sphere of the public's "right to know," there is no apparent reason or justification for the continuation of this "blackout" policy regarding UFO's. It matters not whether this policy was instigated by the Air Force or its superior, but it does matter when individual research in this field is
Hearing transcript, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 88 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.