Documents / FOIA release
This is a copy of "The UFO Evidence," a report published in May 1964 by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) in Washington, D.C. and edited by Richard H. Hall. The CIA released its copy in 2001. The report draws 746 sightings from more than 5,000 signed reports and argues that unexplained UFOs are real, artificial objects under intelligent control. It criticizes Air Force secrecy and calls for a Congressional inquiry into Project Blue Book and a larger scientific investigation.
“Scientific American”16 pages
thorough news coverage. If so, this would tend to give a false picture of total UFO activity. News coverage and publicity have been spotty and erratic over the years, largely reflecting the degree of official attention to UFOs. In this connection, it is interesting to note that during the past six years the Air Force has constantly debunked UFOs; during that period no real "flap" has occurred in the United States. In the same period, concentrations have occurred. The following chart probably gives a more accurate picture of real increases and decreases of UFO activity. FLAPS(Based on U.S. publicity) CONCENTRATIONS YEAR PERIOD MAIN LOCATIONS X 1947 June-July Western United States X 1950 First Half Midwest, West, & SW U.S. X 1952 July-August Eastern United States X 1952 Sept.-October Europe X 1954 April-December World-Wide X 1954 October France X 1955 August Midwest United States X 1957 November Midwest, Southwest U.S., South America X 1959 June-August Pacific Ocean, Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand X 1960 August Northern California X 1962 May, July-August Argentina X 1962 September New Jersey ## CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0 June-July ## 1947 The first major wave of UFO sightings in the United States began in June 1947. Kenneth Arnold, a private pilot flying near Mt. Ranier, Washington, first reported a sighting to the press. On June 24 he observed 9 flat, shiny objects which fluttered and skipped along as if in a chain. In describing the sighting to newsmen, he said the strange objects flew "like a saucer skipped across water." Newsmen promptly dubbed the objects "flying saucers," and the name stuck. In the next three weeks, similar objects were spotted all over the country, but reports were concentrated in the northwest. Later research in library files, by a NICAP member traveling around the country, uncovered 125 separate UFO reports for June and July. These covered 25 states, with 30% coming from Washington. Washington 38 Colorado 16 Idaho 11 Utah 8 Oregon 6 California 5 New Mexico 3 Wyoming 2 Arizona 2 91 Ninety-one (72% of total) came from states west of the 100 degrees W longitude line. East of that line, Oklahoma had 9 reports, other states had only one or two. The Air Force Project Blue Book Report, released in 1955, lists for the same period: June - 13 sightings, 4 unknown July - 40 sightings, 8 unknown 53 Total The following chart lists the main sightings of this period. DATE LOCATION TIME NUMBER SHAPE COLOR OBSERVERS ACTIONS SECTION 1947June Iowa-Cedar Rapids --- 10 Discs Shiny Railroad Engineer Fast, fluttered ” 24Wash.-Mt. Ranier 1400 9 Flat Bright Pilot(private) Fluttered, skipped ” 24Ore.-Cascade Mtns. --- 5-6 Discs Shiny Prospector,Contractor Banked ” 25N.Y.-Glens Falls --- 1 Disc Red, blue County DeputyTreasurer Unspecified ” 26Ariz.-Grand Canyon --- 1 Ball Silver M.D. High speed ” 28Nev.-Lake Meade 1515 5-6 Circular Unspec. Pilot(USAF) Formation off wing III. ” 28Ala.-Montgomery 2120 1 Light Bright 4USAF Officers Zig-zag,90°turn III. ” 29N.Mex.-Rocket test site --- 1 Disc Silver Rocket expert Flew straight IV. July N.Mex.-Albuquerque --- 1 Disc Bluish Chamber of CommerceExecutive Zig-zag ” 4Ore.-Redmond 1100 4 Discs Unspec. Car full High speed ” 4Ore.-Portland 1305 3-30 Discs Shiny Police,Pilots(private) Oscillated II. ” 4Wash.-Seattle 1745 1 Circular White USCG Yeoman Across wind VIII. ” 4Idaho-Hauser Lake 1900 1 Disc Unspec. Over200persons Circled,shot up
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 186 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.