Documents / Hearing transcript
This is an excerpt from the record of the April 5, 1966 House Armed Services Committee hearing on UFOs, which the Internet Archive holds. It includes correspondence about the September 3, 1965 Exeter, New Hampshire sighting involving Raymond E. Fowler, Project Blue Book and the Exeter police officers, plus a letter on the matter from Minority Leader Ford. Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Major Hector Quintanilla and Secretary Harold Brown testify. They say the police officers' observation remains unidentified and that no radar data or jet scrambles were involved.
6060 DEPARTMENT OF THE Am Foi, Washington, January18, 1966. Hon. L. MENDEL RIRS, hoirtmn, Oommittee on Armed Servi4es, House of Representatives. DEAR MB. CHAIMMAN: Recently you requested information in behalf of Mr. John R. Gray about unidentified flying objects (UFO). The Air Force does not withhold or censor information on UFO's. The re- suits of all Air Force investigations are available to bona fide news representa- tives and scientific researchers. Press releases are issued as warranted, and an annual report (copy attached) on the project is available to the public. There has never been an order issued by the Secretary of the Air Force to suppress or withhold such information. The three conclusions set forth in Mr. Gray's letter are, in fact, the conclu- sions which were reached as a result of a panel of scientific consultants that met at the request of the Government to study the problem in 1953. For your in- formation, the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board has been asked to evaluate the UFO p-ogram. An ad hoe committee has been appointed and will convene sometime in February. The results will be available shortly after the meeting. As a result of investigating over 10,000 reports since 1947, we cannot associ- ate disruption of running engines, radios, and headlights, or malfunction of air- craft instruments, or heat sensations with UFO activity. Nor can we attribute them to aircraft operations. There are many plausible explanations for effects such as car radio static when passing powerlines, overheated car engines, drops in power and voltage in the electrical system, malfunction of equipment, and imagination or panic of an observer. Weather conditions such as temperature inversions can cause known natural or conventional objects to appear to hover, move around, and change colors. Satellites and balloons make no noise while in flight. Balloons can also hover and suddenly accelerate depending on th6 wind conditions. The foregoing information also explains our third conclusion. There has never been a top-secret document, entitled "Estimate of the Situation," which con- cluded that UFO's are interplanetary in nature. As of December 31, 1905, the Air Force has received 10,060 reports since 1947 of which 64 are unidentified and cannot be explained. It is our opinion that all reports could be explained if more detailed objective data had been avail- able. However, because of the fact that analyses of UFO sightings depend pri- marily on the personal impressions and interpretations of the observer rather than on accUiAte scientific data or facts obtained under controlled conditions, positive identification of all sightings is improbable. Information on any UFO report is available to private Citizens upon request. Photographs received in conjunction with UFO reports are evaluated by photo analysis personnel. The objects in such photographs have been evaluated as known natural or conventional objects which - have been misinterpreted by the observer. Such photographs are returned to the owner after analysis. Our Project Blue Book office is located at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, where all UFO records are kept. All objects which have been picked up or tracked on radar have been identified as flocks of birds, weather phenomena, pr reflections from ground targets. Radar scope photography is classified only if it reveals classified defense information. The joint Army-Navy-Air Force publication 146 deals with UFO's only as a catchall class of sightings that does not fall into a recognized category such as ships, submarines, aircraft, or guided missiles. The purpose of the publication is to provide uniform instructions for the peacetime reporting of what is judged to be vital intelligence sightings. Any person who violates the provisions of the publication may be liable to prosecution thereunder. The purpose of this is to emphasize the necessity for handling of such information within official channels only. The article appearing in the December 24, 1959, issue of TIG Brief, entitled "UFO's Serious Business," has been misinterpreted. The purpose of this article was simply to improve the quality of reports and investigative procedures. It also contained guidelines for effective reporting and the equipment necessary for investigations. We have no knowledge of any research projects such as those stated by Mr. Gray, nor do we have any information about the Santiago, Chile, incident.
Hearing transcript, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 37 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.