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 as 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.