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James E. McDonald statement, Symposium on UFOs, House Committee on Science and Astronautics

Princeton (kirkmcd archive) · 1968-07-29 · 55 pages · text from the file's own layer

This is the prepared statement James E. McDonald, a senior physicist at the University of Arizona's Institute of Atmospheric Physics, submitted to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics for its July 29, 1968 Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects. He draws on hundreds of witness interviews and weighs eight hypotheses. His conclusion is that UFOs are probably extraterrestrial surveillance devices. He argues that scientists have wrongly neglected the subject and urges much more scientific investigation and further Congressional hearings.

  • p. 2 …bulk, covering innumerable intriguing cases I had never before heard of, and (above all) after the…
  • p. 6 …problems diminish in significance, though they can never be overlooked. A frequent objection to serious consideration…
  • p. 8 …out-of-the-way rural areas but never over large cities? Why don't large groups…
  • p. 10 …Smith emphasized that they were never certain of sizes
  • p. 15 …Manning remarked to me that he'd never seen anything else like it before or since…
  • p. 22 …Many other sources could be cited to show that the intimation that UFOs are never seen…
  • p. 27 …After the official "explanation" was publicized, he decided he'd never report another one. I predict…
  • p. 28 …Menzel quotes Tombaugh as saying, "I have never seen anything like it before or since, and…
  • p. 31 …In the ensuing two decades, he has never again seen anything like it. Clearly, the probability…
  • p. 32 …Moore never got a sufficiently clear view to identify any finer details if any were present…
  • p. 38 …the past twenty years, cases that ought never have been so labeled, had the evaluators kept…
  • p. 39 …Ground radar stations never detected the unknown that was seen visually and contacted by airborne radar…
  • p. 41 …7) but could never close with the unknown as it continued on its northbound course. At…
  • p. 44 …All three said they had never before seen anything like it. Munger decided to phone his…
  • p. 50 …referred to repeatedly in Menzel's writings, never with any quantitative discussion of precisely what he…
• 13. Lorenzen, C.E., 1966: Flying Saucers, New York, Signet Books, 278 pp. Lorenzen, C.E., and L.J.,
1967: Flying Saucer Occupants, New York, Signet Books, 215 pp. Lorenzen, C.E., and L.J., 1968: UFOs
Over the Americas, New York, Signet Books, 254 pp.
• 14. Michel, A., 1958: Flying Saucer and the Straight Line Mystery, New York, Criterion Books, 285 pp.
Michel, A., 1967: The Truth About Flying Saucers, New York Pyramid Books, 270 pp. (Paperback edition
of an original 1966 book.)
• 15. Stanway, R.H., and A.R. Pace, 1968: Flying Saucers, Stoke-on Trent, England, Newchapel
Observatory, 85 pp.
• 16. Vallee, J., 1965: Anatomy of a Phenomenon, Chicago, Henry Regnery Co., 210 pp. (Paperback edition,
Ace Books, 255 pp.)
• 17. Vallee, J., and J. Vallee, 1966: Challenge to Science, Chicago, Henry Regnery Co., 268 pp. (Also in
paperback)
• 18. Lore, G.I.R., Jr., and H.H. Denault, Jr., 1968: Mysteries of the Skies, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey,
Prentice-Hall Inc., 237 pp.
• 19. Fort, C., 1941: The Books of Charles Fort, New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1125 pp.
• 20. Stanton, L.J., 1966: Flying Saucers Hoax or Reality?, New York, Belmont Books, 157 pp.
• 21. Young, M., 1967; USOs Top Secret, New York, Simon & Schuster, 150 pp.
• 22. Time Magazine, July 14, 1947, p. 18.
• 23. Fuller, C., 1950: The Flying Saucers - Fact or Fiction?, Flying Magazine, July 1950, p. 17.
• 24. Menzel, D. H., 1953: Flying Saucers, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 319 pp.
• 25. Menzel, D.H., and L.G. Boyd, 1963: The World of Flying Saucers, Garden City, New York, Doubleday
& Co., 302 pp.
• 26. Shalett, S., 1949: What You Can Believe About Flying Saucers, Saturday Evening Post, April 30, 1949,
and May 7, 1949.
• 27. CSI Newsletter, No. 11, February 29, 1956 (Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York).
• 28. Flying, June 1951, p. 23.

Cases discussed

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