Ford Press Releases, UFO, 1966 (alternate URL)

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March 28, 1966
Rep. George P. Miller, Chairman
Science and Astronautic• Committee
u. s. House of Repreeentatives
Washington, D,C.
Dear Chairmen Miller and Rivera:
Rep. L. Mendel Rivers, Chail'1ND
Armed Servicee Committee
u. s. Houle of Repre1entativea
WaahiDgton, D. c.
No doubt you have noted the recent flurry of new1paper stories about
unidentified flying objectl (UFO's). I have taken special interest in
these accounts because many of the late•t reported sightinga have been
in my home state of Michigan.
The Air Force sent a consultant, astrophysicist Dr. J, Allen Hynek of
Northwestern Univer•ity, to Michigan to investigate the various reports;
and be dismissed all of them as the product of college student pranks or
swamp gas or an impression created by the rising crescent moon and the
planet Venus. I do not agree that all of these reports can be or should
be so easily explained away.
Because I think there may e substance to some of theae reports and
because 1 bel&eve the Ame can people are entitled to a more thorough
explanation than has been given them by the Air Foree to date, I am
proposing that either the Science and A.!ron.utics Committee or the
Armed Service Co ittee f the Hou•••ab1nnlle bearing• on the 1ub ~t
of UFO's and invit testi ooy from blth the executive branch of t e
goverament of tb peri!ODS ,rho claim to have seen po•a.
I encloae terial which l tpink will be helpful to you in seessing the
advisabilit of an investigation of UFO's.
May 1 first all to your at~en~tn a column bJ Ro oe Dru d, published
last Sunday iQ which Mr. Drummo say1, '~y~ alL of thes eported
sighting& are wh~sicat, tmasin orfunreal; but e need a more credible
and detached appraisal of the evi encf than we are; etting."
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Mr. DrUIIIIlOnd goes on to st•te, "We need to get all he data drawn together
to one place and examined far more objectively than anyone has done so far.
A stable public opinion will come from a trustworthy look at the evidence,
not from belittling it."
"The time has come for the President or Congrea• to name an objective and
respected panel to inv.. tigate, appraise, and report on all present and
future evidence about what 1a going on."
1 agree fully with Mr. Drummond's statements. l also suggest you scan
the enclosed aeries of six articles by Bulkley Griffin of the Griffin•
Larrabee News Bureau here. In the last of his articlea, published la1t
January, Mr. Griffl.n aays, "A main conclusion can be briefly stated. It
11 that the Air Force 1e mialeading the public by its continuing campaign
to produce and maintain belief that all alghtinga can be explained away
as misidentification of familiar objects, such as balloons, stars, and
aircraft."
I have just today received a number of telegrams urging a congresaioaal
inve1tigation of UFO's. One is from retired Air Force Col. Harold R. Brovo,
Ardmore, Tennessee, who says, "I have seen UFO. Will be available to
testify."
Another, from Mrs. lthyle M. Davis, Eugene, Oregon, reads, "Mille O\$t of
ten people want truth o( UFO'a Preas your inve•tigation to the fullest."
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