UFO Consensus

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# The extraordinary story of the half-million-dollar "trick" to make Americans believe the Condon committee was conducting an objective investigation

# FLYING SAUCER FIASCO

BY JOHN G. FULLER

A STRANGE SERIES of incidents in the University of Colorado Unidentified Flying Objects study has led to a near-mutiny by several of the staff scientists, the dismissal of two Ph.D's on the staff and the resignation of the project's administrative assistant.

The study, announced as a totally objective scientific investigation of one of the most puzzling phenomena of modern times, has already cost the taxpayer over half a million dollars. The committee is scheduled to release its report by the end of the year.

The announcement by the Secretary of Defense in October, 1966, that the Air Force had selected Dr. Edward U. Condon and the University of Colorado for the uFO research contract was welcomed both by skeptical observers and those convinced of the existence of flying saucers.

Maj. Donald Keyhoe and his National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, who were among the severest critics of the Air Force's study, publicly announced cautious support and offered NICAP's nationwide uFO reporting system to the new research group.

Condon, then 64, a distinguished physicist, former president of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society, had grappled with and subdued the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, and served as director of the U.S. Government's National Bureau of Standards from 1945 to 1951. His leadership appeared to promise pure scientific objectivity in the study. Only two details seemed to disturb some observers. Four out of the first five investigators appointed were psychologists. And Robert J. Low, project coordinator and key operations man in the study, held a master's degree in business administration (although his bachelor's degree was in electrical engineering). Some critics felt that more physical scientists were needed. Condon assured them that the staff would become more balanced, and later, it was.

The project staff received a minor jolt early in October of 1966, when the Denver Post published a story: CU AIDE SLAPS UFO STUDY. Low was quoted as saying that the UFO project "comes pretty close to the criteria of nonacceptability" as a university function.

But the massive problems of getting the project started left little time for debate over that statement. Briefings were held in which Dr. J. Allen Hynek, chairman of the Department of Astronomy of Northwestern University and one of the few scientists in the country who had given uFO's serious study, gave the staff the background information he had acquired in his 20 years as scientific consultant for the Air Force. Later, such authorities as Major Keyhoe and Richard Hall from NICAP, Maj. Hector Quintanilla, of the Air Force uFO study, and Dr. James McDonald, senior physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and professor in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Arizona, addressed the group.

McDonald had carried out an extensive investigation on his own. After examining the hundreds of well-documented reports of sightings by military and airline pilots, radar operators, police, technical observers and articulate, rational laymen, McDonald rejected as highly unlikely such conventional explanations for uFO's as ball lightning (plasma), hallucinations, hoaxes and misinterpretations of natural phenomena. He concluded that "only abysmally limited scientific competence has been brought to the study of uFO's within Air Force circles in the past 15 years. Unfortunately, during all this time, the scientific community and the public were repeatedly assured that substantial scientific talent was being used. . . ."

From the beginning, the relationship between Dr. McDonald and Robert Low, the project coordinator, was abrasive. Low, who speaks softly, smoothly and guardedly, contrasts sharply with McDonald, who is intense and bluntly articulate.

The relationship between the Colorado group and NICAP was especially important. NICAP was large and well-organized, and could supply information on UFO sightings on a nationwide scale. NICAP hoped that the Colorado group would retain its scientific objectivity by concentrating on the estimated ten percent of "high credibility" cases, such as those Dr. McDonald was investigating.

The first major turbulence in the new project came early in February, 1967. Condon, burdened by heavy responsibilities in many public and educational projects, could not spend much time in the project offices. Low assumed the responsibilities for most of the decision-making. But on January 25, Condon, known for his breezy, anecdotal style, spoke before a chapter of Sigma Xi, the honorary scientific fraternity. The Elmira, N.Y., Star-Gazette reported:

"Unidentified flying objects 'are not the business of the Air Force,' . . . Dr. Edward U. Condon said here Wednesday night. . . Dr. Condon left no doubt as to his personal sentiments on the matter: 'It is my inclination right now to recommend that the Government get out of this business. My attitude right now is that there's nothing to it.' With a smile, he added, 'but I'm not supposed to reach a conclusion for another year. . . .'"

The story also quoted Condon as saying: "What we're always reduced to is interviewing persons who claim they've had some kind of experience. . . . I don't know of any cases where the phenomenon was still there after the person reports it . . . and it seems odd, but these people always seem to wait until they get home before they report what they saw."

Keyhoe knew of cases where "the phenomenon was still there after the person reported it," and where the observer didn't wait to get home