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.
“UFO Files”49 pages
Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0 Number of reports per day (midnight to midnight) Date Number E-M Main Locations 1 4 0 ---------------- 2* 7 6 Texas--New Mexico 3* 14 6 Levelland, Texas 4 9 6 New Mexico, Brazil 5 31 7 California, Texas 6 16 6 Illinois--Indiana 7 7 2 Scattered 8 2 0 ---------------- 9 4 1 ---------------- 10 2 1 ---------------- 11 4 0 ---------------- 12** 3 2 ---------------- 13 0 0 ---------------- 14 4 1 ---------------- 15 3 1 ---------------- Sub-Totals 110 39 (From the 16th through the 30th, not more than one substantial case per day is on record, and one E-M case.) 16-30 8 1 Totals,1-30: 118 40 * Cases on night of November 2/3 whose times are given as "about midnight" are included in November 2. **Case with uncertain date included under November 12. ## Levelland, Texas The first series of sightings to be widely publicized, and the most intensive single concentration, occurred on the night of November 2/3 in and around Levelland, Texas. The first recorded sighting was at about 10:50 p.m.; the last at 1:30 a.m. In less than three hours, there were 10 very similar sightings within a radius of 20 miles around Levelland. (see map). Why should reddish elliptical UFOs which caused cars to stall suddenly be reported from one small Texas town? No answer is apparent. Within a few hours after the last Levelland sighting, an Army jeep patrol at White Sands proving grounds, about 300 miles to the west, reported an elliptical UFO which descended and hovered. (See below). The following account of the Levelland reports was compiled by Walter N. Webb, NICAP Adviser. Levelland is an oil and cotton town, population about 10,000, located in northwest Texas 32 miles west of Lubbock, in plains country. Early on November 3 its sheriff, Weir Clem, suddenly found himself cast into national prominence following a rapid series of nightmarish reports. At 10:50 p.m. Officer A. J. Fowler received a phone call from a "terrified" farmhand, Pedro Saucedo. He and a friend, Joe Salaz, were driving on Route 116 about 4 miles west of Levelland when they saw a flash of light in a field. "We didn't think much about it," Saucedo said, "but then it rose up out of the field and started toward us, picking up speed. When it got nearer, the lights of my truck went out and the motor died. I jumped out and hit the deck as the thing passed directly over the truck with a great sound and a rush of wind. It sounded like thunder, and my truck rocked from the blast. I felt a lot of heat." When the object had passed, Saucedo got up and watched it go out of sight toward Levelland. It was "torpedo-shaped, like a rocket," and about 200 feet long. As the UFO moved into the distance, the truck lights came back on. Saucedo was able to start the truck and drive to a telephone. Ptn. Fowler thought his caller was drunk and shrugged off the report. About an hour later, the phone rang again. Jim Wheeler, driving on Route 116 about 4 miles east of town had come upon a 200-foot egg-shaped thing sitting on the road. The brightly lit object cast a glare over the area. As he approached the object, his lights and motor died. When Wheeler started to get out of his car, the UFO rose into the sky. As its light blinked out, the car lights came back on. Another call came from Jose Alvarez at Whitharral, 11 miles north of town. Driving on Route 51, he had approached a similar glowing object on the road and his motor and lights had failed. At 12:05 a.m., Newell Wright (who did not report the experience until the next day, and then only at his parents' urging) had "motor trouble" while driving toward Levelland on Route 116 from the east. His ammeter began jumping, the motor gradually died, then the lights went out. Puzzled, Wright got out and lifted the hood to check his battery and wires. Finding nothing wrong, he closed the hood and turned around. For the first time, he noticed an oval object sitting on the road ahead of the car. The object appeared to be over 100 feet long, and was glowing a bluish-green. Frightened, Wright jumped in the car and frantically tried to get it started, without success. Then he sat helplessly watching the object, hoping someone would drive up. After several minutes, the UFO rose "almost straight up," veered to the north, and disappeared almost instantly. The car then started without difficulty. Meanwhile, another telephone report was made at 12:15 a.m. Frank Williams had encountered a similar object on the road close to the position where Alvarez had seen it. He also experienced motor and headlight failure. The light from the UFO was pulsating steadily on and off; each time it came on, Williams' lights went out. Finally it rose swiftly with a noise like thunder, and disappeared. Then the car functioned normally. By this time, Sheriff Clem and other police officers had begun searching the roads around Levelland, as reports continued to come in. At 12:45 a.m., Ronald Martin saw a glowing reddish UFO descend and land on Route 116 ahead of his truck, then turn to bluish-green. The electrical system of the truck failed. When the object took off, it turned reddish again. About 1:15 a.m., James Long encountered a glowing egg-shaped object on a farm-to-market highway just north of town. His engines and lights failed. Then the object rose quickly and sped away. About 1:30 a.m., Sheriff Clem and his deputy were searching on the same road. Near where Long had seen the UFO, Clem saw an oval light "like a brilliant red sunset" streak across the road about 300 yards ahead of his car, lighting up the pavement. Fire Marshal Ray Jones, farther to the north, had a similar experience sometime after 1:00 a.m.; his lights dimmed and motor "almost died, then started up again." The Pettit incident, same night, was uncovered during an investigation by NICAP member James Lee. Two grain combines, each with two engines, failed as a UFO was observed passing. An impressive feature of these reports is that the witnesses (in most cases) were going about their business when the UFOs intruded upon the scene. There is no evidence that the witnesses were searching the sky or otherwise expecting to see anything unusual. Their independent reports told a consistent story.
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.