UFO sightings in the 1 960s pro duced many wimesses willing to report what they saw. on these two pages are sketches made either by wimesses or by artists who based their work on wimesses• accounts. The draw ings are among hundreds col lected during the decade, some by the federal government and others by private UFO research groups. These sketches are sim ilar in depicting craft roughly elliptical or round in shape.
efit; then Rivers asked Hynek for his views. Hynek was a good deal more ambivalent than Brown,
and in fact, more so than he had been in the past. In 1 94 8 , when he was first involved with Project Blue Book, he had stated that "the
whole subject seemed utterly ridiculous" and had ex
pected the fad to pass quickly. Instead, UFO sightings had
become more widespread and frequent. The attention of the
Several Oklahomans described this object with ro tating "ports" in 1 967.
national news media waxed and waned, he said, but "the
underlying concern about UFOs, fed by a continuous trickle
that the American public deserves a better explanation than
of reports, is indeed growin g in the mind and sight of the
public." It was time, asserted Hynek, for a thorough, scholarly
that thus far given by the Air Force, ! strongly recommend that there be a committee investiga tion" of the UFO phenome
approach to what he called the " U FO problem." The air force
non. Ford did not get the wide-ranging inquiry that he had
had approached all UFO reports, he continued, with the as
hoped for. H e had asked that members of the executive
sumption "that a conven
branch of government and people who had seen UFOs be
tional explana-
invited to testifY; instead, Rivers summoned just three men to brief the committee: Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown;
o. ._
the director of Proj ect Blue Book, Major Hector Quintanilla, Jr.; and Blue Book's scientific consultant, ] . Allen Hynek. "See
tion existed, either as a mis
if you can shed some light on these highly illuminated ob
identification or as an other
:....,
-
A Texas family reportedly saw this domed craft and its white trail in February 1 967.
jects," drawled Rivers. " We can't just write them off. There
wise well -known obj e c t or
are too many responsible people who are concerned. "
phenomenon, a hallucination, or a hoax. This has been a very
Secretary Brown responded
successful and productive hypothesis." Yet there were incidents for which that approach did not work; Hynek had
with pride that of 1 0 , 1 4 7 UFOs investi
collected twenty that he could not explain. "In dealing with the truly puzzling cases, we
gated since 1 94 7 by
the air force, 9 , 5 0 I had
been identified as "bright stars and planets, comets and me teors," and the like by " care fully selected and highly qual-
have tended either to say that, if an investigation
. . •. --;- .
had been pursued long enough, the misidentified object would have been recognized, or that the sighting
Spotted in Illinois in 1 967, this UFO was described as yellow-orange with red ligh ts.
had no validity to begin with . " Hynek admitted to being in creasingly uncomfortable with the air force's confident ap proach. "As a scientist, ! must be mindful of the lessons of the
itied scientists, engineers, technicians and consultants "
past; all too often it has happened that matters of great value
implied experts - using " the finest A i r Force laboratories, test
to science were overlooked because the new phenomenon
centers, scientific instrumentation and technical equip
simply did not fit the accepted scientific outlook of the time. "
ment. " In the other 646 cases, he said, "the information avail
During a brief, rambling discussion peppered with jokes
able does not provide an adequate basis for analysis. "
about Martians, committee members asked about a partic
He h a d reached a confident conclusion: ' The past 1 8
ularly spectacular sighting that had been covered by
years of investigating UFOs have not yet identified any threat to our national security, or evidence that the unidentified objects represe n t d e v e l o p m e n t s o r p r i n c i p l e s beyond present-day scientific knowledge, or any evidence of extra
terrestrial vehicles . " But despite the utter lack of results thus far, the air force would remain steadfast and, he said, "con tinue to investigate such phenomena with an open mind . "
Congressman Rivers was apparently reassured by Brown's stance; he suddenly saw no reason to continue in executive session and admi tted the crowd of reporters that had gath ered in the halls. Brown repeated his testimony for their ben110
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