NASA FOIA 21-HQ-F-00500

through the 1960s - actively investigated reports of unknown airborne objects entering U.S. air
space - this was, at the time, part and parcel of our "homeland security" program during the
height of the Cold War. The U.S. military coined the term "unidentified flying object", which like
almost everything else in the government, soon became known by its acronym " UFO". like
today, the public was encouraged to report the unknown. Given the time period, it should not be
surprising that the government's primary forus was on foreign, not alien, spying, but initially the
latter was not an offidally excfuded possibility.
Somewhere along t he line, the UFO program became politically disfavored. The offidal definition
of "UFO" was narrowed to "my favorite martian" and the offiCial position was "no proof." In
modem terms, "UFOs" were politically incorrect. Citizens who reported UFOs - thinking they
were doing just what the government had "asked of them" - were patronized, marginalized, and
ridiculed. The Air Force, rest assured, was still traCking and investigating unknown airborne
objects entering U.S. air space. But in true bureaucratic form, that part of the old "UFO" project
was spun off in an agency reorganization, and became one of many cfassified "national security"
programs.
The Kecksburg incident was selected as CFi's FOlA pilot, in part, because It occurred during the
time of this reorganization and transformation of the federal government's "UFO" inquiries. The
old Air Force UFO program - called Project Blue Book - was still in operation, but was in the
process of being dismantled. The officia l and publicly available Blue Book file on Kecksburg is
interesting mostly because of what it does not contain . What the file does contain are messages
between the Blue Book office and the Pentagon exhibiting a rurious preoccupation of what to tell
the medIa, with the end result being a decision, completely unsupported at the time, to say it
was a " meteorite. " The paucity of documentation in the public file is out of sync with the degree
of military interest in the incident as reflected in contemporaneous radio and newspaper
accounts.
And then, on the human side, there was Kecksburg - a sleepy little Pennsylvania village chock
full of witnesses who would not come forward at the time because of a sense of patriotism, a
fear of retaliation, or the anxiety of embarrassment. One resident at CR's town meeting
explained that he never came forward until recently because of the "ridicule" factor. At the same
time, there is nearly universal agreement with the comment of a retired Kecksburg firefighter
that the U.S. doesn't send out the military to check Into "shooting stars." No where on the
Pennsylvania turnpike will you see a billboard enticing you to "visit the alien museum and theme
park of Kecksburg, PAn" After nearly 40 years, the residents of Kecksburg still don't know what
happened, but also don't want to be dismissed as "kooks."
Personally, I believe that citizens deserve more honesty and respect from their government.
Aliens may not have invaded Kecksburg in December 1965, but the U.S. military surely did.
Coinddentally, shortly after Kecksburg - in 1966 - Congress enacted the Freedom of Information
Act so that "any person" could make a request to review documentation relating to the operation
of the federal government. As the Supreme Court held: "(d]isclosure, not secrecy, is the
dominant objective of the Act." "[T]he FOIA's central purpose is to ensure that the
Govemment's activities be opened to the sharp eye of public scrutiny." Put simply, people have
4