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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. 18 …Some of these statements which lead to mis- conceptions are: —(1) Only UFO "buffs" report UFO…
  • p. 19 …One great misconception is that only UFO buffs report UFO's; quite the opposite is the…
  • p. 25 …saw their very impressive and sur- prising UFO files, the pattern of which is entirely different…
  • p. 39 …files and modes of operation of both private and official (i.e., Project Bluebook) UFO investigative…
  • p. 41 …Misinter- preted natural phenomena (Hypothesis 3) do explain many sincerely -submitted UFO reports; but, as I…
  • p. 45 …It summarizes about 750 UFO cases in the NICAP files up to about
  • p. 46 …Reference 7 is another now -accessible source of extremely significant UFO documentation; it is unfortunate that…
  • p. 54 …Longview, Wash., July 8, 1949 Many of the UFO cases I am citing are drawn intentionally…
  • p. 60 54 terrestrial hypothesis for UFOs, incomprehensibility must be expected as almost inevitable. Hence there is more…
  • p. 63 …NICAP files. The article, by Post reporter Jimmie Woods, represents one of those rare UFO feature…
  • p. 68 …5) remarks that an astronomer working under con- tract to the official UFO investigatory program interviewed…
  • p. 70 …UFO sightings by meteorologists could be extended very con- siderably by drawing on my file of…
  • p. 72 …the UFO problem in the ensuing two-year period. Many details from the official file on…
  • p. 75 …In my files are many other "balloon" cases from the past twenty years, cases that ought…
  • p. 76 …The third target was spotted visually by myself," Hemphill's signed statement in the case -file…
  • p. 78 …25), who evidently drew his information from the official files. Ruppelt (Ref. 5) states that when…
  • p. 79 …unknowns in official files to be ignored. A famous case in UFO annals involved a B…
  • p. 86 …explanations for classic UFO cases that have been made in the official files in the last…
  • p. 91 …Official file on October 15, 1948 Fukuoka case, Project Bluebook. 43. Melbourne (Australia) Sun, December 16…
  • p. 120 …During that night, and several succeeding nights, there were many reports of UFO's over northern…
  • p. 128 …THE UFO PROPULSION PROBLEM By way of introducing the propulsion problem of UFO's, I will…
  • p. 185 179 rod N.T.TuDE tOURIE 3• MOTION OF UFO SYSTIM a..„. — 73 2.3 2…
  • p. 206 …for a UFO. This viewpoint is absolutely nonsense and the Air Force files bear witness to…
  • p. 207 …But such behavior does not imply, as the UFO addicts argue, the presence of an intelligence…
  • p. 208 …He watches the UFO for a minute or two until it finally disappears. He cannot be…
  • p. 218 …UFO presence. This can be done with existing information. Up- date and upgrade the files with…
  • p. 224 …claimed to have observed a UFO. Interestingly enough the official files con- tain fewer than 12…
  • p. 239 …Indeed, at present the scientific study of the UFO problem is greatly hampered by the circumstance…
  • p. 244 …The dotted line represents "re- liable" sightings in the files of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization…
  • p. 245 …Many radar sightings of UFO's are on file. In a few cases, a UFO has…
  • p. 247 …He states that he has on file more than 300 UFO sightings prior to the 20th…
•
24
don't
get
on
the
wires,
because in
the
present
climate
of
the
opinion,
wire
editors, like
scientists,
Congressmen,
and
the
public
at
large,
feel
sure
there
is
nothing
to
all
this,
and
they
don't
put
them on
the
wires.
You
have
to
go
right to
the
local
town
to
get
press
coverage
in
most
cases.
The
Redlands,
February
1968,
case
illustrates
that
very
well.
Once
in
a
while
a
case
will
get
on
the
wires
and
receive
national
attention,
but
by and
large,
one
just doesn't
read
about
these cases
in
other parts
of
the country,
because
wire
services
don't
carry
them.
Let
me
tell
you
another
case
that
answers
the
questions:
"Why
aren't
there
multiple witnesses?"
"Why
aren't
they
seen
in
cities?"
"Why
aren't
these
ever
seen in
the
daytime?"
It
is
true
that
there
is
a
preponderance of
nighttime
sights.
Maybe
this
is
merely a matter
of
luminosity.
It
is
also
true
that
there
seem
to
be
more
reports
from
rather
re-
mote
areas,
say
desert
areas
or
swampy
areas,
than
in
the
middle of
cities.
But
there
are
city
observations.
And
it
is
also
true there
are
more
individual witness
cases
than
sightings
by
large
crowds.
But
in
every
instance
there
are
striking
exceptions to
this.
In
New
York
City,
on
November
22, 1966,
a
total
of
eight
witnesses,
members
of
the
staff
of
the
American Newspaper
Publishers
Associa-
tion,
were
the
witnesses
in
a
good
case.
I
interviewed
William
Leick,
of
that
staff,
the
manager
of
the
office
there.
I
heard about
it
through
a
NICAP
report.
It
did
not
appear
in the
papers, as
I
will
mention.
William
Leick
had
been looking out
the
window, saw an
object
overthe
U.N.
building.
It
was
hovering,
and
as
he
talked
to
a
colleague
he
realized
there
was
something
odcf
about
it,
so
they
walked out
on
the
terrace.
Soon
they
had
six
others
out
on
the
terrace.
This
was
at
4
:30
in the
afternoon.
It
was
kind
of
a
cushion-shaped
object,
as
he
de-
scribed
it,
and had no
wings. It
was
rocking
a
little
from
time
to
time,blinked in
the afternoon
sun a
little
bit,
had
kind of
an
orange glow.
All
eight
were
watching,
and
after
it
hovered for
several
moments
it
rose
vertically
and
then took
off
at
high
speed.
There
is
an example
of
midtown
sighting in
New
York
where
the
witnesses
are
staff
mem-
bers
of
a
responsible organization.
Leick,
himself,
had
been
trained
in
intelligence,
in
World
War
II.
There
is
no
reason at
all
to
think
he
and
his colleagues
would
invent
this.
They
did
call
a
New
York
paper,but
:to
say they
weren't
the
least bitinterested.
There
was no
report published in
a
New
York
paper.
Next
they
called
a
local
Air Force
office
but
no
one
came
to
investigate
it.
It
came
to
my
attention
because
one of the
members
of
the
staff
knew
of
NICAP
and
sent
NICAP
a
report.
This
sort
of thing has happened
over
and
over again.
The
ridiculelid
keeps
these
out of
sight; too
many
of
them
are occurring to delay
any
longer in getting at
this
problem with
all
possible
scientific
assistance.
A
famous
multiple-witness instance occurred in
Farmington,
N.
Mex.,
on March
17,1950.
I
interviewed seven witnesses there.
A
verylarge
number
of
objects
were
involved.
There were
several different
groups of
objects,
all
described as
disc
-shaped
objects.
They
were ex-
plained as
Skyhook
balloons,
officially,
so
I
checked into that.
I
finally established that there
was no Skyhook
balloon released
anywhere
in the United States
on or near that day.
The
witnesses in-

Cases discussed

About this file

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.