Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.
“Nevers”43 pages
114 patrolmen. During that night, and several succeeding nights, there were many reports of UFO's over northern California, but this par- ticular event is important not only because of the fact that it has been well authenticated but because of the relatively long time and close nature of the observations. My condensed description that follows is from the official report filed the next day by the two officers (see ap- pendix I and II) from a half-hour taped interview conducted 3 days later by myself and Dr. Carl Johannessen, of the University of Oregon; from a letter written by Officer Charles A. Carson to Walter N. Webb, Charles Hayden Planetarium, Boston, Mass., dated Novem- ber 14, 1960; and from a telephoned interview conducted by Dr. James McDonald with Mr. Carson on October 27,1966. APPENDIX I ADDITIONAL WITNESSES TO THE EVENTS OF AUGUST 13, 1960 When Officer Scott radioed the Tehama County Sheriff's Office, two deputies, Fry and Montgomery, traveled to Los Molinos, somewhat northeast of the first sighting, from which point they observed the UFO simultaneously, though at a greater distance, with Scott and Carson. The night jailer, from a point further north, saw it, and marched his several prisoners out onto the roof of the jail, each of whom saw it. Subsequently, due to newspaper publicity, Carson received a number of letters from motorists who had seen the object while traveling along Highway 99E. After Scott and Carson returned to the Sheriff's Office, they called the radar base again, and talked with the operator while all of them listened in on various extensions. He described to them some of the movements of the object as he had observed it on the radar screen; these corresponded to the move- ments they had observed. Several months later, in a personal interview conducted on January 3, 1961, Captain Blohl, Area Commander at Red Bluff, stated that both Scott and Carson had worked for him for three or four years, and that he had the highest regard for their honesty and devotion to duty. They were not publicity minded, he said. Of Scott, he remarked, "Scotty would rather take a knife or a gun away from a man than make a speech." In the unwanted publicity that was forced upon them, Blohl stated that their story stood up unaltered—that there were no baubles during question periods. APPENDIX II REPORT OF OFFICERS CARSON AND SCOTT TO STATE HIGHWAY PATROL AREA COMMANDER To: Area Commander, Red Bluff. Prom: 0. A. Carson, No. 2358, S. E. Scott, No. 1851. Subject: Unidentified Flying Object. SIR: Officer Scott and I were eastbound on bag Road, east of Corning look- ing for a speeding motorcycle when we saw what at first appeared to be a huge airliner dropping from the sky. The object was very low and directly in front of us. We stopped and leaped from the patrol vehicle in order to get a position on what we were sure was going to be an airplane crash. From our position outside the car the first thing we noticed was an absolute silence. Still assuming it to be an aircraft with power off we continued to watch until the object was probably within 100' to 200' of the ground when it suddenly reversed completely, at high speed and gained approx. 500' altitude. There the object stopped. At this time it was clearly visible to both of us, and obviously not an aircraft of any design familiar to us. It was surrounded by a glow making the round or oblong object visible. At each end, or each side of the object, there were definite red lights. At times about 5 white lights were visible between the red lights. As we watched, the object moved again and performed aerial feats that were actually unbelievable. At this time we radioed Teharaa County Sheriff's Office requesting they contact the local radar base. The radar base confirmed the U.F.0.—com- pletely unidentified. AUGUST 13, 1960.
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.