147 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
147 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: ASSORTED AP REPORTS FILE: UFO3074
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PART 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
============================================================================
|
|
|
|
Article #: 5
|
|
From: UFO INFO SERVICE
|
|
Date Sent: 06-17-1986
|
|
Subject: 1966 DR. J.E. McDONALD
|
|
|
|
SOURCE: AP (PIERRE, SD)
|
|
DATE: 21 OCTOBER 1966
|
|
|
|
|
|
PHYSICIST SCORES `SAUCER' STATUS
|
|
|
|
Dr. James E. McDonald, professor of meteorology at the U of Arizona and
|
|
senior
|
|
physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, yesterday urged a "radical
|
|
change" in the investigation of unidentified flying objects. Dr. McDonald
|
|
said that explaining saucers as extra-terrestrial visitors seems "absurd,"
|
|
but that now seems to be the "least unsatisfactory hypothesis" for at least
|
|
some of the sightings. "I believe this is a problem of the first order of
|
|
scientific importance. It has been neglected and misrepresented and is
|
|
crying for high- caliber attention." For about 12 years, he has interviewed
|
|
anyone in the Tucson area who reported seeing unusual objects in the sky, and
|
|
now the rash of sightings across the country and Congressional attention on
|
|
the subject has increased his own interest.
|
|
|
|
Dr. McDonald said that 18 years of "administrative foul-up" by USAF, "a very
|
|
low level of scientific competence," and deliberate debunking of UFO
|
|
sightings
|
|
had frightened away scientists and left needless confusion in the public's
|
|
mind. While he is convinced there is no attempt "to cover up a
|
|
super-secret,"
|
|
he says he found evidence in a USAF document that the CIA in 1953 asked USAF
|
|
to `debunk' saucer reports because they were clogging vital military
|
|
reporting channels and demanding too much time of investigators. The CIA
|
|
reiterated a statement it made earlier this month that the agency had helped
|
|
analyze sighting reports of unidentified flying objects in the early 1950's
|
|
to help determine if some objects "might have originated overseas. "USAF at
|
|
that time concluded that the objects were not hostile `artifacts' of foreign
|
|
or extraterrestrial origin. "Presently, the subject of UFOs is a
|
|
responsibility of the Air Force and we have absolutely no interest either in
|
|
building up or debunking any information regarding, or views on, UFOs."
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Article #: 6
|
|
From: UFO INFO SERVICE
|
|
Date Sent: 06-17-1986
|
|
Subject: 1968 SCIENT.RECOMM.STUDY
|
|
|
|
SOURCE: NYT (DC)
|
|
DATE: 30 JULY 1968
|
|
|
|
|
|
SIX SCIENTISTS RECOMMEND FLYING SAUCER STUDY
|
|
|
|
At a hearing yesterday before the House Committee on Space and Astronautics,
|
|
several witnesses urged Federal support for a huge program to collect
|
|
information aimed at finally settling the decades old debate on UFOs. The
|
|
committee chairman, Representative J. Edward Roush of Indiana, urged 3 months
|
|
ago that Congress take over the saucer investigation being conducted by USAF
|
|
after challenging the objectivity of the study.
|
|
|
|
Dr. J. Allen Hynek of Northwestern U said the USA should seek UN cooperation
|
|
in setting up "an international clearing house" for UFO information "because
|
|
there is almost a total lack of quantitative data" on the subject. Dr. James
|
|
E. McDonald, a U of Arizona meteorologist, said that the scientific community
|
|
tended to discount saucer reports because there was no scientific data, and
|
|
yet these same scientists would not support the collection of such data. He
|
|
also contended that the news media, including one New York City newspaper,
|
|
was refusing to print news of UFO sightings. Dr. Hynek and Dr. McDonald were
|
|
supported by Dr. Robert L. Hall, a U of Illinois sociology professor; Dr.
|
|
Robert M. L. Baker Jr. of the Computer Sciences Corporation, El Segundo, CA;
|
|
and Dr. James A. Harder, an associate professor of engineering at the U of
|
|
California, Berkeley. Dr. Carl Sagan of Cornell U, author of Intelligent
|
|
Life in the Universe, took the least positive stand on the existence of UFOs.
|
|
Instead of an expensive UFO data gathering program which has a high risk of
|
|
achieving positive results, he advocated instead an attempt to contact other
|
|
civilizations with radio astronomy coupled with unmanned plenetary space
|
|
flights. Dr. Sagan added facetiously that "it may be that things are so bad
|
|
here that someone up there will come to save us from ourselves."
|
|
|
|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Article #: 7
|
|
From: UFO INFO SERVICE
|
|
Date Sent: 06-17-1986
|
|
Subject: 1966 UFOS CALLED GAS
|
|
|
|
SOURCE: NYT (DETROIT)
|
|
DATE: 26 MARCH 1966
|
|
|
|
|
|
FLYING OBJECTS ARE CALLED GAS
|
|
|
|
Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a Northwestern University Astrophysicist who is also
|
|
USAF's civilian investigator of unidentified flying objects, after studying
|
|
the widely witnessed Dexter and Hilsdale UFO sightings in southern Michigan,
|
|
has called the report by 87 coeds, a college dean, and a civil defense
|
|
director from Hillsdale "a very puzzling sighting. There has been a flood of
|
|
other reports from this area and I could not possibly have the time to
|
|
investigate all of these." The other reports were of little scientific
|
|
value, he added, because there were no substantial groups of witnesses
|
|
agreeing on what they had seen. The other of the "two principal events"
|
|
happened at Dexter the previous night when some 50 people reported seeing a
|
|
similar football-shaped object hovering over a swamp.
|
|
|
|
Dr. Hynek said "This could have been due to the release of variable
|
|
quantities
|
|
of marsh gas. A dismal swamp is a most unlikely place for a visit from outer
|
|
space. It is not a place where a helicopter would hover for several hours,
|
|
or
|
|
where a soundless secret device would likely be tested." Rotting vegetation
|
|
produces the gas "which can be trapped by ice and winter conditions. When a
|
|
spring thaw occurs, the gas may be released in some quantity." This may
|
|
cause
|
|
lights "sometimes right on the ground, sometimes merely floating above it.
|
|
|
|
The flames go out in one place and suddenly appear in another place, giving
|
|
the
|
|
illusion of motion. No heat is felt and the lights do not burn or char the
|
|
ground. They can appear for hours at a time and sometimes for a whole night.
|
|
Generally there is no smell, and usually no sound - except the popping sound
|
|
of little explosions." The astrophysicist emphasized that his explanation
|
|
did not "cover the entire UFO phenomenon over the past 20 years" and that
|
|
very few sightings could be attributed to marsh gas.
|
|
|
|
Dr. Hynek also said that the Milan photographs taken March 17 were "without
|
|
any question" only time exposures of a rising moon and the planet Venus. The
|
|
consultant agreed with a questioner that the flying saucer phenomenon could
|
|
be an interesting field of study for other specialists such as psychologists
|
|
and sociologists. Though his investigation here, he said, is over.
|
|
|
|
=============================================================================
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
*********************************************************************
|
|
* -------->>> THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo <<<------- *
|
|
********************************************************************* |