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.
“Scientific American”26 pages
• 194 is a miniature kangaroo. These five wallabys escaped, and rather than upset people he didn't report this, he waited for people to tell him that they had seen them. And nothing happened for days and days. Well, when they were finally relocated and caught then lots of people started admitting, yes, they had seen these wallabys, but after all, if you see a tiny kangaroo loping across the road in New Rochelle, you are reticent to report it. Mr. RousH. Dr. Hynek again. Dr. HYNEK. I think that is a most interesting point that ties in. I think sometimes we don't ask ourselves really very fundamental questions, and that is, how is it that these reports exist in the first place? It is not just because they are strange, because we don't have reports of Christmas trees flying upside down, or elephants doing strange things in the sky; the reports are strange, but they do have a certain pattern. Now, I have often asked myself, well, why do the reports exist in the first place? And how many are reported? Whenever I give a presentation to some group I frequently will ask them, well, how many of you have seen something in the skies you couldn't explain; that is a UFO, or some friend whose veracity you can vouch for? I have been surprised to find that 10 to 15 percent, albeit it is a specialized audience, they are there already because they are inter- ested, hence there is a selection factor, but nonetheless I am quite sur- prised that many respond. Then I ask the second one, Did you ever report it to the Air Force? And maybe one or two will say that they have. Now, why, then, should people make reports anyway, since theyface such great ridicule? They do it for two reasons, those that I have talked to: One, is out of a sense of civic duty. Time and again I will get a letter saying, I haven't said this to anybody, but I feel it is my duty as a citizen to report this. And many letters come to me. In fact, even saying, please do not report this to the Air Force. The second reason is that their curiosity finally bugs them. They have been thinking about it and they want to know what it was they saw, and many letters I get will end in a rather plaintive note, can you possibly tell me, or can you tell me whether it is possible what I saw ? Those two reasons are the "springs" of why the report is made in the first place. I don't know how much store can be put in the Gallup poll, but I understand when, about 2 years ago a poll was made on this subject, there was something like—the poll reported 5 million people, 5 million Americans had seen something in the skies they could not explain. Over the past 20 years the Air Force has had some 12,000 reports. Therefore, one can logically ask, who is holding out on the other 4,988,000 reports? I think there may be quite a reservoir of reports that simply havenot come out into the open because of this natural reluctance of people to speak out. Mr. RousH. Dr. Hynek, your experience has been similar to mine, although much more extensive. In the 10 years I have served on this committee I have had occasion to ask various witnesses their beliefs
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.