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.
“The Advance”52 pages
212 Air Force (and a few scientists) in their proclamations of "non-existence." The public has been led to believe that everything has been done to either prove or disprove the existence of UFO's—rubbish! Available information of a truly reliable nature should tend to increase activity, not place it in neglect, or worse, in ridicule. Classified (or "unavailable") reports, mostly by the military, rob the public and scientific parties who are interested in and willing to participate in the UFO investigations. How can we even begin to evaluate for ourselves if we must depend nearly 100 percent on information doled out by the news media alone? Many scientists communicate with each other on the subject, often at scientific meetings (aside), but this route is hardly sufficient to establish a recognized basis for realistic study of the problem. The current USAF trend seems to be merely a statement that UFO's do not pose a threat to the security of the United States, and therefore warrant neither credence nor further concern. Similar words come from some of the few Congress- men with whom I have communicated. The discovery of Noah's Ark in Times Square would not necessarily pose a threat to national security either, but it would certainly be a find worthy of the most intensive investigation whether certain individuals accepted its existence or not. REQUIRED INFORMATION Is it not obvious that what we need to establish the existence or non-existence of UFO's is not merely a review of sighting incidents, but an implemented plan to acquire hard facts? Rapid, accurate reporting of sightings is obviously a valuable tool in studying UFO phenomena, but- many of the most creditable observers (military personnel and airline pilots, for example) are not only hesitant to do so, they are understandably adamant when facing the alternatives of silence versus inviting ridicule, and possibly jeopardizing their positions. The obvious addition to gathering interview data is to enlist the aid of the impersonal machine. Evaluate, compile, and catalog reported data according to: time of day and year; atmospheric conditions (cloudy, humid, temperature, calm, and other easily recountable gross observations).; geographic location; approximate size, shape, altitude, velocity, heading, - maneuvers; -and phenomena reportedly asso-ciated with the UFO presence. This can be done with existing information. Up- date and upgrade the files with new data by soliciting information (particularlymilitary and commercial pilots). Then prepare a plan designed by scientists, engineers, pilots, and perhaps psychologists, on means to acquire instrument observations of UFO's hopefully coupled to visual observations. Field -instrument packages could easily be placed in areas where UFO sightings are most concentrated, perhaps according to the time of day or year, atmospheric conditions, or some factor suspected to be related to sighting activity. Such packages might be composed largely of military "surplus" instrumentation such as an infrared scanner, an active rf unit, a wide -band electromagnetic detector, -a directional radiation counter and ionization gauge, a high-speed photographic camera, a three -component magnetometer, and recording environmental devices (temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, etc.). If it became advantageous to include a higher degree of sophistication, such items as a tracking television camera, a communications telemetry system, a sensitive audio recorder with a directional antenna might be added. Deployment and maintenance of the field package could easily be performed by military, university, or industrial techni- cians, but all data reduction and interpretation should be done -by competent scientists familiar with the respective measuring techniques. We should anticipate gathering sufficient data leading to proof of the existence or non-existence of UFO's, and, if they are real, the size (s), shape (s), flight characteristics (speed, rates of turn and climb, preferred direction of travel,etc.), possible means of propulsion and navigation, perhaps the establishment of communications, and eventually their origin. Questions of expense and management responsibilities immediately come to mind, but I think the government would be surprised how many qualified scien- tists, engineers, and technicians would be willing to participate on a low-dollat, volunteer, "as can" basis in support of such a program. At least an inexpensive newsletter could be distributed to the scientific and pilot groups for comments, as a start. Because of the history of wasted funds and unwieldy publicity asso- ciated with the UFO problem, the public may not be very receptive to such a pro-
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.