Documents / Hearing transcript

House Armed Services Committee hearing on UFOs, April 5, 1966

Internet Archive · 1966-04-05 · 37 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

A62
2. On close proximity to conventional aircrafts cause their gyro com-
passes and direction finders to momentarily malfunction?
3. On close proximity t0 conventlnal aircrafts or ground vehicles cause
Intense heat sensation experienced by their occupants?
4. Hover at any one point at any given time and suddenly accelerate hori.
zontally or vertically out of sight In a matter of 5 to 10 seconds?
5. EBxecute an abrupt 90* or 1800 change of direction while In flight?
6. Make no discernible sound while In flight?
7. Glow brilliantly and change colors?
Such behavior and characteristics have been witnessed by reliable persons
and documented enumerable times and are very familiar to the Air Force; in
addition to being definitely beyond the scope of our present technology. If con-
clusion (3) hAd finicided the word "proof" Instead of "evidence," the probability
of truth could also be conceded here. As it stands, the statement Is likewise
false for the same reasons as the arguments listed against conclusion (2). Since
our present state of technology does not permit satisfactory explanations to such
behaviors of these objects, what other assumption can a scientific mind make
than that their origin is extra terrestrial? It may be recalled that the Air Tech-
nical Intelilgence Center (ATIG) at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, in
July-August of 1048 concluded In their top secret document estimate of the
situation that UFO's were Interplanetary. While top Air Force officials will
vehemently deny that such a document ever existed, proof that It does exist and
is accessible for examination by Interested Members of Congress-but not from
the Air Force.
While the Air Force does not publicly admit to the existence of the wealth of
documented evidence that has been accumulated since before the appearance of
the first airplane, it does admit to possessing at least 663 "unknowns" on the
books. Sightings classified as "unknowns" are those well documented by official
and unofficial sources but remain unsolved and "unexplainable." Private
citizens inquiring into the nature of these unknowns will be told that such Is
classified Information (APR 200-2 paragraphs 9 and 10). It should be noted,
in thia.respect, that *Vic" President Humphrey and Senator Birch Bayh were
misinformed by the Air Force through the Congressional Inqtlry Division to
the effect that all of the 663 "unknown" cases were solved. The letter to Sena-
tor Bayh was signed-bY° (ol. Frederick H. Fahringer.
Dealings with, the Air Force concerning informAtion of UFO's have-proven
to be a one-way proposition-all in and none out. Is it little wonder that only
about 10 percent of the citizenry dare risk disparagement for subnifling reports
that are truly unexplainable? The "lending" of photographic evidence of a
sighting by a witness to the Air Force is tantamount to forfeiture. Infre-
quently, an Air Force "slip-up" occurs in his favor.
The Air Force nfaintfin that there is no censorship of UFO's. Anyone fol-
lowing this subject knows differently. Strong feelings were expressed by three
of my acquaintances, all departed In recent years from service In that branch,
In verifying that censorship does indeed exist. Two were radar technicians,
one of whom was stationed at White Sands In 1049 while the-other was assigned
to the 776th Radar Squadron at Point Arena, Calif. In 1961-62. The third was
a member of Project Blue-Book in Alaska during 1i1-62.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff regulation TANAP 146, section III, title 18, United
States Code 793, threatens hIposition of penalties of 1 to 10 years Imprisonment
and/or up to $10,000 flie upon any Air Force pilot who reveals an officlAl UFO
report. Such harsh punishment would certfifily be Indicative of the seriousness
with which the Air Force regards theiJF§ A;Afid all the while the publicized line
Is "they don't exist." The official position was subsequently revealed when on
December 24, 1950, an Air Force Inspector General brief was issued stating that
"UFO's are Serious Business" and Instructing all investigating officers to be
equipped with gelger counters. The degree of seriousness can also be realized
when one considers the lengths to which six agencies of the Federal Government
are extending themselves In research to uncover the suspected secret of these ob-
jects-that of gravity control, or antigravity power. Forty-six such projects of
research of varying degrees are currently being subsidized Including 33 under Air
Force supervision.
While it Is understandable that information pertaining to these projects does
not necessarily fall into the sphere of the public's "right to kpow," there Is no
apparent reason or justicAtion for the continuiation ofthis blackout " policy
regarding UFO's. It matters not whether this policy was Instigated by'the, Air
Force or Its superior, but It does matter when Individual research In this. field Is

Cases discussed

  • The Exeter Incident 1965
    Route 150 in Kensington, N.H., on September 3, 1965; Officers Bertrand and Hunt; regarded as unidentified

About this file

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.