Documents / Hearing transcript

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.

U.S. House of Representatives · 1968-07-29 · 256 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

  • p. 7 …of advanced technological ma- chinery manned by some kind of intelligence, that is, the extrater- restrial…
  • p. 9 …American Association for the Advancement of Science; Astronomy Society(secretary). Specialty: Astrophysics. Fields of Interest: Stellar…
  • p. 19 …The Air Force has no evidence that UFO's are extra-terrestrial or rep- resent advanced…
  • p. 24 18 (The biography of Dr.McDonald follows:) DR. JAMES E. MCDONAI,D Born: Duluth, Minn., May…
  • p. 29 …from some advanced technology sufficiently advanced to do what we cannot do in the sense of…
  • p. 32 …The possibility that these are extraterrestrial devices, that we are dealing with surveillance from some advanced…
  • p. 40 …THE UNCONVENTIONAL NATURE OF THE UFO PROBLEM To both laymen and scientists, the impressive progress that…
  • p. 48 …At first, they thought it was a jet, whose exhaust was somehow accounting for the advancing…
  • p. 59 …advanced civilization of extraterrestrial origin, the pattern of the observa- tions, the motivation of the surveillance…
  • p. 75 …To ignore most of the salient features of a sighting in order to advance an easy…
  • p. 94 …Now, if we want to assess the likelihood that there are intelligentcivilizations somewhere in advance of…
  • p. 95 …be far in advance of our own,and this,therefore raises the question of how likely…
  • p. 96 …that an advance civilization comes here very rarely. But I again emphasize the great uncertainty in…
  • p. 97 91 So, to conclude what I understand is the main reason why this committee has asked…
  • p. 100 …the possibility of its development by other civilizations. But if each of, say, a million advanced…
  • p. 101 …a race of advanced and benign creatures were devoted to our welfare. The interest in unidentified…
  • p. 111 …The possible value of contact for purposes of advancing our knowledge of our technology. Let's…
  • p. 112 …again the same possible great value from under- standing the phenomenon in order to advance our…
  • p. 116 …We must then concern ourselves with the possible consequences of contact with technologically advanced civilizations whose…
  • p. 117 111 the task. We must also 'be concerned with the risks of panic resulting in people…
  • p. 124 …Gravitation remains one of the enigmas of modern science, although there have been some advances in…
  • p. 125 …This will depend upon advances in many fields of science. Some of the things required will…
  • p. 130 …Gravitation remains one of the enigmas of modern science, although there have been some advances in…
  • p. 132 …Baker's professional society memberships include the American Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science, Phi…
  • p. 140 …There have been many debates on the technical capabilities or limits on the capabilities of advanced…
  • p. 141 135 area of forecasting the social characteristics of an advanced extrater- restrial civilization. Philosophers, social scientists…
  • p. 142 …in the environs of the earth, or to make dubious speculations either concerning "their" advanced scientific…
  • p. 143 …the gross characteristics of an advanced civilization. These studies (probablynot Government funded) should include the social…
  • p. 150 …Applications and Advanced Topics, Academic Press, New York, pp. 112-115 and pp. 376 to 392…
  • p. 153 147 00015 "Recent Advances in Astrodynamics," (with Samuel Herrick), Jet Propul- sion, 28, No. 10, 1958…
  • p. 154 …00040 "State-of-the-Art-1960 Astrodynamics,"Astronautics, 5, No. 11, 30, 1960. 00041 "Novel Orbit…
  • p. 157 …Makemson) 00071 Astrodynamics - Applications and Advanced Topics, Academic Press, New York, 1967. 00072 "Recent Advances in…
  • p. 171 …In the past five years, he has advanced from assistant bookkeeper to teller to head teller…
  • p. 174 …He has no desire to advance any further up the bank totem pole, says he never…
  • p. 189 …advanced radar systems air being de- vekii2ed for our missile defense systems, such as the ALTAR…
  • p. 190 …of the Earth or to make very dubious speculations 191, t101 either concerning "their" advanced scientific…
  • p. 203 …The primary attribute of an advanced intelligent civilization is its ability to create its own environment…
  • p. 204 …Menzel became acting Director of Harvard College Observatory and, in 1954, was advanced to the Directorship…
  • p. 207 …approach it or advances as you move away. As we look over the Air Force files…
  • p. 210 …Or at least that is the com- mon argument advanced by UFO buffs. Radar is cursed…
  • p. 212 …Life Member of American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professional Organizational Activities: State delegate to…
  • p. 217 …our level of advancement? As noted in the Special Report of the USAF Scientific Advisory Board…
  • p. 219 …Friedman has a relatively unique background in advanced technology, hav- ing been actively involved in the…
  • p. 222 …the existence of advanced civilizations. We frequently forget that the resolution of present photographs of the…
  • p. 223 …36, 37) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science is planning a UFO seminar…
  • p. 224 …reason, would not examine the data relevant to UFOs or advanced technology. Marcowitz was totally wrong…
  • p. 225 …reason, would not examine the data relevant to UFOs or advanced technology. Marcowitz was totally wrong…
  • p. 226 …B., "The Phenomenological Aspects of Magnetogasdynamic Re-entry." Presented at the 10th Midwestern Mechanics Conference, Colorado…
  • p. 227 …not alone in the Universe and surely some civilizations are more advanced than ours, but interstellar…
  • p. 233 …possible sites in advance, we could simply move in to recover the desired information after an…
  • p. 234 …The effectiveness of the proposed procedure would depend very heavily upon the amount of thought, care…
  • p. 237 …listed in advance on a 'standardized rating sheet. However this part of the experiment will not…
195
as far
as
UFO's
are concerned.
They
have
included
Air
Force
generals
and
Army
generals,
and
usually
they
display
a
great
interest.
Some-
times
they
will
say,
I
don't
believe,
but
my
wife does;
some
will
say.
The
other
day
I
was
engaged
in
a
colloquy
over
on
the
floor
of
the
House,
not
a
part
of
the
record,
but
just
as
a
side
conversation,
with
two
of
my
colleagues
who
sit
on
this
committee.
(At
this
point,
discussion
was
off
the
record.)
Mr.
RousH. Back
on
the
record.
As
a
result
of
my
experience
on
this
committee
I
have
been
privi-
leged
to
visit
the
tracking
stations
which
NASA
has
throughout
the
world.
Each
place
I
have
visited
I
have
asked the
question,
"Have
you
tracked
any
unidentified
flying
object?"
Well,
it
is
obvious
they
apparently
don't
have
the
ability
to
track,
but
the
response
was "No,"
everywhere
except
in
South
Africa.
Then
they
said,
'Anything
we
track,
which
we
do
not
understand,
we
turn
over
to the
Department
of
Defense,"
inferring there
were
some
things
they did
not
understand.
The
same
is
true
with
those
places
in the
world
where
there
is
aBaker
-Nunn
camera.
I
asked the
same
question
of
them.
For
the
most
part
there
was a
boundless
curiosity,
but
a
negative
response.
Dr.
HYNEK.
I
might
respond
to that,
of
course,
in talking
to
them,
you
have
represented
officialdom,
and
they
may
themselves
be
a
little
afraid to
say anything
to
a Congressman
that
might
get
them
intotrouble.
But
I
get
reports
subrosa that are to
the
effect
that people
;
trackers,
and
so
forth,
have
seen things,
but they
would
not dare
think
of
re-
porting
it.
Now,
that
is
hearsay.
I am
sorry
it
is
not hearsay;
it
has happened
to
me.
But
it
is
not
what
I
would
call
"solid
evidence."
Mr.
Rousx.
Just
one
other
comment.
I
serve
on
the
board of
trustees
of
a
college
back
in
Indiana.
In
the course
of
a
year they
had numerous
lectures
by
outstandin* people in
their lecture
series,
quite
outstandingpeople
on
various
subjects,
but they
scheduled
one
lecture
given
by
a
student
at
the
college
on
unidentified flying
objects.
Needless to say,
he
had
the
best
attendance
of
the
entire
series.
Dr.
Harder.
Dr.
HARDER.
Following
on
something
that
Dr.
Hynek
said
about
the small percentage
of
actual sightings
that are reported,
this
would
suggest that the
two
instances
that
I
brought
out,
which
to
my
knowl-
e
are the only extant
pieces
of
what you might
call
scientific
information—information
containing information
of
a
scientific
nature,
might
well
be
multiplied
by a
factor
of
10,
if
it
were not
forthis ridicule
bit,
and
furthermore,
if
it
were not the
subject
of
ridicule,
many
_people
would perhaps take greater care in the observations that
they
do make, and
perhaps
come up
with
similar
kinds of
anecdotal
nature of
somewhat more
importance than
just flashing
lights.
For
instance, the plane of
polarization
or—well,
many
kinds ofobservations
came
to us.
We
would have even at
this
point far
moreanecdotal information of a
scientific
nature
and of
scientific
impor-
tance than
we now
have.
Mr. RousH.
I
think those of you who
have
sat
on
this
panel today
have made perhaps a
greater contribution than you
realize in adding

Cases discussed

About this file

Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.