SUBJECT: ASSORTED AP REPORTS FILE: UFO3074
PART 3
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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."
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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."
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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.
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