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.

199
degree of D.Sc.
from
the
University
of
Denver,
his
Alma
Mater,
and
their
John
Evans
Award
in 1965.)
Dr.
Menzel has
been
a
prolific
writer.
His
books,
articles,
and
scientific
papers
cover
a
broad
field,
and
have
been
translated into
many
languages.
He
has
even
ventured
briefly
into
the
realm
of
science
fiction.
His
book,
"Our
Sun,"
published
by
the
Harvard
University Press,
is
one
of
the
so-called
Harvard
series
on
astronomy
and
a
standard
reference
work,
despite
the fact
that
it
is
written in
popular
style
for the
general
public.
Two
popular
books
on
the
subject
of
Flying
Saucers,
the
second
written
with
Lyle
Boyd
and
published
in 1963,
analyze
the
various
reports
and
demonstrate
conclusively
that
these
highly
controversial
"objects"
are
only various manifestation
of
different
natural
phenomena,
not
machines
from
outer
space.
His
first
book
on
Flying
Saucers
was
translated into
Russian.
He
has
lectured extensively
on UFO's
around
the world,
including
South America
and
Mexico.
Dr.
Menzel's
interest
in
promoting
good
writing
by
scientists,
led
him
to
pro-
duce "Writing
a
Techincal
Paper,"
co-authored
by
Professor
Howard Mumford
Jones
of the
Harvard Department
of English
and
Lyle
Boyd,
a
science
editor.
He
is
also
author of
a
"Field
Guide
to
the
Stars
and
Planets,"
a
popular
hand-
book
for beginning astronomers.
PREPARED STATEMENT BY DONALD
H.
MENZELUFO:
FACT
OR
FICTION?Flying saucers
or
UFO's
have
been with
us
for
a
long
time.
June
24,
1968
marked
the
21st
anniversary of the
sighting
of nine
bright
disks
moving
rapidly
along the
hogback
of
Mount
Rainier.
However,
similar
sightings
go
far
back
'in
history,
where
they
have
assumed
various
forms
for
different
people.
Old
records
refer
to
them as
fiery
dragons,
fiery
chariots,
wills
-o'
-the
-wisp,
jack-o'-
lanterns,
ignis
fatetus,
firedrakes,
fox
-fire,
and
even the
devil himself.
And now a new
legend—a modern
myth—has
arisen
to explain
a new
rash
of mysterious
sightings.
Certain
UFO
buffs
argue
that the
peculiar properties
and
maneuvers
of
these
apparitions,
as
reported
by
reliable
people of
all
kinds,
are
so
remarkable
that only
one
explanation for
them
is
possible.
They must
be
vehicles
from
outer
space,
manned
by
beings
far
more
intelligent
than
we.
because the operators
have
clearly built
vehicles
with
capabilities
far beyondanything
we
can
conceive
of.
On
the face
of
it,
this
reasoning
sounds
much
like
that of Sherlock
Holmes.
who
said
on
several
occasions:
"It
is
an
old
maxim
of
mine
that
when
you have
excluded the
impossible,
whatever
remains,
however
improbable,
must
be
thetruth
!"
I
am
willing
to
go
along with
this
formula, but
only
after
we
have
followed
Holmes and
excluded every
possibility
but
that of
manned
UFO's.
And
we
must
also
show
that
no
further
possible solutions
exist.
The
believers
are
too eager to reach
a
decision.
Their -method
is
simple.
They
try
to
find
someone,
whom
they
can
establish
as
an
authority,
who
will
support
their
views.
They
then quote
and
often
misquote
various
authorities
or
oneanother
until
they
believe
what
they are
saying.
Having no
real
logic
on
their
side,
they
resort
to
innuendo as
a
weapon and
try
to
discredit
those
who
fail
to
support
their
view.
The
UFO
magazines
refer
to
me
as
the arch
-demon
of
gaucerdom!
I
concede that the concept of
manned
spaceships
is
not
an
absolute impossi-
bility.
Neither are the concepts
of
ghosts,
spirits,
witches,
fairies, elves,
hob-
goblins,
or the
devil.
The
only
trouble
with
this last
list
is
the fact they are
out of
date.
We
live
in the
age
of
space.
Is
it
not
natural
that
beings
from
outer space should
exhibit
an
interest in
us? But,
when
we
consider that these
beings—if indeed they are
beings—have
been bugging us
for
centuries,
why
should
one not have landed
and shown
himself
to
the President of the United
States, to
a
member of the National
Academy
of
Sciences,
or at
least to
some
member
of Congress?
Please
don't
misunderstand
me. I
think
it
is
very
possible
that
intelligent
life—perhaps
more
intelligent
than
we—may
exist
somewhere
in the vast reaches
of outer space.
But
it is
the very vastness of
this
space that complicates the
problem.
The
distances
are
almo4
inconceivable.
The
time required to reach
the earth—even at speeds comparable with that of light—range
in
hundreds
if
not thousands of years for our near neighbors.
And
it
takes
light
some
billions
of years to reach us from
the most
distant galaxies, times comparable with that