Fearless Physicist Tackles Mystery of UFOs

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

# HEADLINE PERSONALITY

# Fearless Physicist

# Tackles Mystery of UFOs

WILLIAM HINES

Writer

A man who has never seen a flying saucer and neither believes nor disbelieves in them about to tackle the intriguing mystery of the UFOs.

UFO stands for "unidentified flying object," which is the official designation for what ordinary folk call flying saucers. Recurring UFO "sightings" have been making life miserable for the Air Force since 1941.

Last Thursday, with an almost audible sigh of relief, the Air Force signed a contract with the University of Colorado and tossed the UFOs into the lap of one of Colorado's most distinguished faculty members, Dr. Edward Uhler Condon.

## 15-Month Contract

Condon is a stocky, crewcut, 64-year-old physicist who has never run away from either a mystery or a controversy. Since there is plenty of both in the flying saucer issue, Condon is likely to have an interesting 25 months—the period covered by the $313,000 Air Force contract.

To observers of the Washington scene, it will be interesting to watch the toughminded, often iconoclastic Condon deal with the predominantly anti-saucer Air Force on the one hand and fervently pro-saucer groups like "NICAP" on the other.

NICAP—the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena-is the Washington-based organization headed by retired Marine Maj. Donald E. Keynoe that has been the worst thorn in the Air Force's side on the saucer issue. Already, while halling Condon's appointment as a step in the right direction, NICAP is making noises that his scientific inquiry may be "superficial."

Sanitized

FULL NAME Edward Uhler Condon.

CLAIM TO FAME-Named to head scientific inquiry into flying saucers.

HOME—Boulder, Colo.

BIRTHDAY—March 2, 1902.

EDUCATION—A.B. and Ph.D.,

University of California.

JOBS-Director, National Bureau of Standards,1945-51,Director of Research,Corning Glass Co., 1951-54,Member, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,1945-51,Professor of Physics,University of Colorado, 1963.

FAMILY—Wife, Emilie Honzik (married 1922), three children. HOBBIES—Reading, politics.

(married 1922), three children. HOBBIES—Reading, politics. This is not likely to happen if Condon gets his way. He has been promised a "free hand" by the Air Force—including access to all pertinent secret information—and his record indicates clearly that he will blow a loud whistle if the Air Force tries any funny business.

The apparent clearance of Condon by the Air Force for secret-data access is the latest chapter in an interesting tale going back to 1947—ironically and coincidentally the birth year of the modern flying saucer uproar.

## Thomas Spread Blaze

At the close of World War II the "atom spy" furor swept through Washington like a prairie fire. One who seized a firebrand and helped spread the blaze, a little farther was Rep. J. Parnell Thomas of New Jersey, head of, the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Condon, head of the National Bureau of Standards under Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace in the Truman administration, found himself an early target of the Thomas committee. He was labeled by one committee member "a security risk and a weak link in our atomic security chain."

Rep. Chet Holifield (D. Calif.), now chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy and then one of its members, took the floor of the House to blast "rumor-mongering character assassins (who should) put up or shut up."

With characteristic good humor masking his innate combativeness, Condon replied to the Thomas committee charges, "If it is true that I am one of the weakest links . . . that is very gratifying and the country can feel absolutely safe, for I am completely reliable, loyal, conscientious and devoted to the interests of my country..."

One of the charges against Condon in 1947-48 was that he was a member of the executive committee of the American-Soviet Science Society. Another was that his wife, who was born in what is now Czechoslovakia, had "interesting" associations with people the Thomas group regarded as unsavory.

## Was A Reporter.

A particularly fur-fetched charge against Condon was that he had attended a communist meeting in Berkeley, Calif., in 1919 in the guise of a reporter for the old Oakland

Following his departure from the Bureau of Standards, Condon headed research activities for Corning Glass Co., but lost his Navy security clearance in 1954. He blamed Vice President Richard M. Nixon for this—justifiably or not—and, unforgivingly, when Nixon was defeated for governor of California in 1962 Condon issued a statement congratulating the people of that state on their discernment.

Condon't early training in the journalistic College of Hard Knocks—including a stint on the Oakland Tribune—may have conditioned him for the rough-and-tumble of the postwar "security-risk" era. his troubles, which culminated in his resignation as Bureau of Standards director in 1951, foreshadowed the J. Robert Oppenheimer case several years ago.

Enquirer. Condon's reply was that he was in fact a reporter and had been assigned to cover the ma

At present Condon is himself embroiled in a state political campaign—as candidate for regent of the University, an elective office in Colorado. He is running as a Democrat, and has received a ringing editorial endorsement from "The Nation," which may or may not count for much in Colorado.

After Oppenheimer was put through the Atomic Energy Commission's meat-grinder in a cause celebre of the mid 50s, the frail and gentle scientist appeared badly injured by the experience. Condon, his bulldog jaw set against friend and foe alike, never seemed to show a bruise from his ordeal.

## Seeks Atom Smasher

Condon also is lobbying enthusiastically for the biggest single piece of Federal scientific "pork". presently available: A $375 million atom smasher which the Johnson

Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000100910001-3

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