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.

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pose on the Secretary the requirement to tra& down Life magazine
and say give me your negatives, give me your reasons. Is this what
you want?
Mr. STRAfON. Mr. Chairman, it was my understanding we were
asking this question because many people had been somewhat con-
cerne5 by these reports in recent days, including the distinguished
minority leader in'the House.
The CHAIRMAN. Yes.
Mr. STRArroN. And it does seem to me when a nationiU magazine
that has as much influence as Life has, prints some photographtc--
what puirports to be photographic-pieces of evidence of these objects,
we ought to if we are going to allay the concern of these people who
have started this investigation by our c0fifflttee in'the first place, that
we ought to have an answer to it.
The CHAIRMAN. I thiuik so, too, but I don't think we should criti-
cize the Secretary for not having done it.Mr. Secretary, here is what am going to request you do. You get
in touch with Life magazine and request them to furnish you with this
information that Mr. Stratton has brought to your attention, or any
otherifmgazine, and report back to this comMittee.
Secretary BROWN. will be glad tWo so.
* The CHAiMAN. I am sure Life magazine would be eager to d6 this.
Mr. Stratt.n, I thifik you're wise in suggesting it but what I didn't
want to d6 is to unwittingly criticize the Secretary ior not having-done
it.Now, Mr. Secretary, will yOu do it I
Secretary BRowW. We will do it, Mr. Ohair an, and we will I think
continue W6f6llow our groi'nid rles-
The CHAIRMAN. You get those negatives if you can and turnm them
over tOthe doctor, a~d I want a report on it.
Mr. STRAvr N. Mr. Chairman, I have one more question. May I
say I wouldn't dream of critiing the Secretary, he and I are good
friends, and he knows I am only'tryfti to be helpffil.
The CHAIRMAN. Of course, and I know he cherishes your friend-
ship, and so do I.
Mr. STA"N.Fo. The other item that has really led to all this concern
today are these sghtings in Michigan. The Secretary has given us
a report, but I have only had a chance to skim over it. The doctor
here a moment ago commented with respect to these people in Wiscon-
sin that only two or three people in'he frea hId seen'the phenomenon,
and wasn't it surprising that a lot of people who must have been
around 'didn't see it.
If I understand'the newspaper accounts correctly, the thing that is
unique ab6ut the Michigan sightings is thAt a lot. of people in the area
saw it,and the grlS in the dormitory appareiitly sat ar6nd for hours
watching it, anq -eoplocame and went, and allsaw whatever it was.
Now, I wonder f you couild give'us in a iWtshell what the explaka-
tion of this is? Marsh gas is whit I understand is the explangtin.
Could you tell 'us, doctor, in a few words the gist of what you dis-
covered out there that yotuhave reported here?
Dr. HYNEK. I will be happy to. I conduete4a detailed iquir
into. the two reported sightigs at Dexter and HWllsdale, Mich. Of
the 50 to 60 people who reported having seen one or the other of these
I talked with about 32 persons.

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.