Symposium on unidentified flying objects: hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress, second session, July 29, 1968.

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would form an important adjunct to any serious study of anomalistic
phenomena (see Walker (1968) included in app. 4 of this report).
The soft data must involve some useful information content, and it
would be extremely unrealistic to neglect it entirely. For this reason,
I have included appendix 3 by Dr. Walker, which presents a logical
procedure for establishing a credibility level for observers. Walker's
report of a hypothetical case integrates the results of general medical,
neuroopthalmologic, neurologic, and psychiatric evaluations, and de-
velops a logical basis for assigning an overall credibility score.
Dr. Robert L. Hall is, of course, eminently qualified to comment on
the question of eyewitness testimony at this seminar.
If serious studies can be initiated, with the objectives of detecting,
analyzing, and identifying the sources of anomalistic observational
phenomena, then I feel that the following scientific benefits can be
expected:
(1) Meteoritics.—Although there are a number of excellent meteor
observation nets operating today, data collected on erratically moving
phenomena (including rapid determination of the location of any
"landings" or impacts) would add significantly to the coverage and
analyses of meteorites and, possibly, entering comets. Furthermore,
the timely recovery of meteoritic debris at the subend point of fireballs
would be most valuable.
(2) Geology.—It has been pointed out by Lamar and Baker (1965),
that there exist residual effects on desert pavements that may have
been produced by entering comets. Furthermore, any geological or
material evidence of the impact or "landing" of extraterrestrial ob-
jects would be of great interest. As Dr. John O'Keefe (1967), Assist-
ant Chief, Laboratory for Theoretical Studies of NASA GSFC indi-
cated "Would it not be possible to get some scraps of these ("UFO")
objects for examination? For instance, a scrap of matter, however
small, could be analyzed for the kind of alloys interrestrial foundries.
A piece of a screw, however small, would be either English, Metric,
or Martian. I am impressed by this because I looked at some tens of
thousands of pictures of the Moon and found that the very small
amount of chemical data has more weight in interpreting the past
history of the Moon than the very large amount of optical data. It
doesn't seem possible that objects ("flying saucers") of this size can
visit the Earth and then depart, leaving nothing, not even a speck,
behind. We could analyze a speck no bigger than a pinhead very
easily." I concur with O'Keefe's remarks, and if there exist "landings"
associated with the anomalistic phenomena, then a prompt and ex-
tremely thorough investigation of the landing site must be accom-
plished before geological/material evidence is dispersed or terrestrial-
ized.
(3) Atmospheric physics.—One of the great mysteries today in the
formation, movement, and explosion of ball lightning. As Singer
(1963) noted:
The specific properties of ball lightning, which present particular difficulty
in experimental duplication, are formations of the sphere in air (at near-at-
mospheric pressure and at a distance from the source of energy) and its extensive
motion. It is evident that additional clarification of both theoretical and experi-
mental aspects is needed.