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 colored, leaving long trail as tracer bullet; abruptly divided in two (in tandem) as if 'exploding', shone more brightly in bluishwhite and red, and threw lateral rays radiating backwards at an angle. Appearance neither 'solid' nor purely 'light'; best described as 'corporified light', forms geometrical and not diffuse,' The object was roughly tear-shaped before and after splitting. The object travelled on a level course, completely disappearing "very suddenly" after about 10 seconds. It moved "rather slowly" leaving a long trail. "I believe it was much too slow for a meteor," Mr. Villela stated, "also its appearance was 'out of this world.' I can think of nothing on earth which would reproduce the phenomenon." ## Hovering Cigar-Shaped Object A Minneapolis Honeywell metallurgist, Melvin C. Vagle, Jr., saw a cigar-shaped UFO on November 22, 1961. NICAP later learned of the sighting through the Honeywell newspaper [7.], and obtained a first-hand report from Mr. Vagle, as well as a detailed painting of the UFO done under his supervision. [See sketch.] It was a clear starlit night about 7:00 p.m. (CST). Mr. and Mrs. Vagle were traveling north on U. S. Highway 81 approaching Grafton. A red light in the sky west of the highway up ahead attracted their attention, then other associated lights made them think it might be an aircraft. As they neared the site and pulled alongside they saw "a cigar-shaped object hovering at a sharp angle over a plowed field. . At the lower end. . there was a bright flashing white light and at the upper end there was a steady red light. Along the length of the fuselage there was a row of square-appearing ports, illuminated with a white yellowish light." The UFO seemed to be motionless until, when the Vagle's son started crying, they drove on. Then the UFO appeared to drift westward across the highway. Earlier the same evening a farmer in the Grafton area had seen a reddish cigar-shaped UFO west of Grafton and reported it to an area newspaper. Accompanying Mr. Vagle's report to NICAP was a letter from the farmer confirming the basic points of his sighting, which occurred at sunset. The farmer could not see any "ports", only a dull reddish glow from the UFO. The object vanished behind a dark cloud after about 10 minutes. ## THE DEFIANCE COLLEGE DEFIANCE, OHIO I hereby certify that the following account of a UFO sighting, witnessed by a scientist known to me, on the faculty of a large university in the State of Ohio, a man of high standing, having grants for research, has been approved by him as an accurate statement. Charles A. Maney "At about 10:00 A.M. on Thanksgiving Day. Thursday, November 24, 1960, I was driving my car south on a highway not far from the campus. A member of my family was a passenger. Low in the sky ahead of me appeared a black spot which I first assumed to be an approaching plane. But as the object got closer I could see that unlike a plane the object had no wings. My curiosity aroused I drove the car to the side of the road adjacent to a golf course, where I and my companion got out to get a better look at the approaching sky object. As it passed us at its closest point, the object was at a straight line distance of from 1200 to 1500 feet, at an altitude of approximately 70 degrees and clearly visible. It was egg-shaped or elliptical, perfectly smooth, no protuberances or markings, clear curved edges, and a bright chalkwhite on top with just a narrow band of shadow across the bottom. The apparent diameter of the horizontal major axis of the ellipse shape viewed at arms length figured out to be approximately 100 feet. The object moved at moderate speed like that of a conventional propeller-driven plane, but silently with no trace of noise whatever. The object traced a smooth arc of travel with no up or down motion. It was in sight some five minutes, moving toward the northwest until it disappeared from view."
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.