Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum to the Chief, Contact Division, dated 25 January 1965, confirms a 19 January 1965 meeting with Richard Harris Hall, Acting Director of NICAP. At that meeting NICAP lent UFO sighting samples and reports, which were passed to OSI to help it prepare a paper on UFOs. The memo describes how NICAP investigates sightings and records NICAP's view that the Air Force downplays UFOs. It also recounts Hall's report of three separate radar sightings at Patuxent Naval Air Station on 19 December 1964.
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TO : Ch. Contact Division DATE: 25 January 1965 FROM : Chief, SUBJECT: National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) 1. This confirms conversation 19 January 1965, at which time various samples and reports on UFO sightings procured from NICAP were given to for transmittal to OSI. The information was desired by OSI to assist them in the preparation of a paper for on UFO's. 2. In accordance with request, we met on 19 January 1965 with Mr. Richard Harris Hall, Acting Director of NICAP. Though Major William Kehoe, founder of NICAP, is still listed as Director of the organization, we gather that he is present on the premises at 1536 Connecticut Avenue, N. W., only infrequently. 3. The material which was given to us on loan by Mr. Hall is representative of the type of information available at NICAP. Their past and present correspondence from all over the US relative to UFO sightings is voluminous. They have slack periods, as was the case in December 1964, thus there were no "Investigators" reports immediately available for the month of December. NICAP has active Committees scattered throughout the US. Investigators active with these committees call upon the sources of reported UFO sightings to obtain first hand, eye witness accounts of the sightings. A printed form, prepared by the Air Force for NICAP's use, is utilized during the interview, and submitted to NICAP headquarters along with the source's eye witness account as told to the investigator. It was our understanding that copies of these reports go directly to various Air Force bases. There apparently is a strong feeling on the part of NICAP officials, i.e., Kehoe and Hall, that the Air Force tends to downgrade the importance of UFO sightings because they (the Air Force) does not care to have too much made of the sightings by the US press. We were told by Mr. Hall that there have been instances where the Air Force has attempted to intimidate witnesses and get them to sign false statements relative to UFO sightings. APPROVED FOR RELEASE DATE 16 Mar 78 2- #120
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.