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.
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6070 pose on the Secretary the requirement to track down Life magazine and say give me your negatives, give me your reasons. Is this what you want? Mr. STRATTON. Mr. Chairman, it was my understanding we were asking this question because many people had been somewhat con- cerned by these reports in recent days, including the distinguished minority leader in the House. The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Mr. STRAITON. And it does seem to me when a national magazine that has as much influence as Life has, prints some photographic— what purports to be photographic—pieces of evidence of these objects, we ought to if we are going to allay the concern of these people who have started this investigation by our committee in the first place, that we ought to have an answer to it. The CHAIRMAN. I think so, too, but I don't think we should criti- cize the Secretary for not having done it. Mr. Secretary, here is what I am going to request you do. You get in touch with Life magazine and request them to furnish you with this information that Mr. Stratton has brought to your attention, or any other magazine,and report back to this committee. Secretary BROWN. We will be glad to do so. . The CHAIRMAN. I am sure Life magazine would be eager to do this. Mr. Stratton, I think you are wise in suggesting it, but what I didn't want to do is to unwittingly criticize the Secretary for not having done it.Now,Mr.Secretary, will you do it? Secretary BROWN. We will do it, Mr. Chairman,and we will I think continue to follow our ground rules— The CHAIRMAN. You get those negatives if you can and turn them over to the doctor,and I want a report on it. Mr. STRATTON. Mr. Chairman, I have one more question. May I say I wouldn't dream of criticizing the Secretary, he and I are good friends,and he knowsI am only trying to be helpful. The CHAIRMAN. Of course, and I know he cherishes your friend- ship, and so do I. Mr. STRATTON. The other item that has really led to all this concern today are these sightings in Michigan. The Secretary has given us a report, but I have only had a chance to skim over it. The doctor here a moment ago commented with respect to these people in Wiscon- sin that only two or three people in the area had seen the phenomenon, and wasn't it surprising that a lot of people who must have been around didn't see it. If I understand the newspaper accounts correctly, the thing that is unique about the Michigan sightings is that.a lot of people in the area saw it, and the girls in the dormitory apparently sat around for hours watching it, and people came and went, and all saw whatever it was. Now,I wonder if you could give us in a nutshell what the explana- tion of this is? Marsh gas is what I understand is the explanation. Could you tell us, doctor, in a few words the gist of what you dis- covered out there that you have reported here? Dr. HYNEK. I will be happy to. I conducted a detailed inquiry into the two reported sightings at Dexter and Hillsdale, Mich. Of the 50 to 60 people who reported having seen one or the other of these I talked with about 32 persons.
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.