by Dan Wright
Due to the alleged presence of many crewman on the ship's deck when the photos were taken, on February 24, 1958, the Brazilian Navy stated: “Clearly, this Ministry will not be able to make any pronouncement concerning the object seen because the photographs do not constitute sufficient proof for such purpose.” No sworn statements were obtained from crewmen to authenticate the incident and photos. Captain Sunderland was inclined to accept that they were hoaxed.
Details of the land are extremely sharp but the disc is hazy and has little contrast and shows no shadow effect. It also appears that the object was inverted in photograph 2 compared to 1 and 3.... [T]here appears to be no lateral blurring as would occur with any reasonable shutter speed.24
In December 1960 John Warner, CIA Legislative Counsel, responded to a letter (not shown) from Coral Lorenzen, cofounder and head of the civilian Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO). As the Agency had replied to many other cases seeking UFO-related information or statements, Warner said her letter would be forwarded to Lawrence Tacker of the Air Force (now upgraded from major to lieutenant colonel). Lorenzen had expressed concern that in an earlier letter from the Agency to Congressman Scherer, a typing error (dropping the word “by”) potentially changed a meaning; “... provided by the Air Force” became “provided the Air Force.” A misimpression—of just what, is not clear—could have been drawn over the absence of a preposition. Like diplomacy per se, intelligence work was an exacting profession.25
A month before the Kennedy administration took office, Washington correspondent Bulkley Griffin for the Worcester Evening Gazette made an appeal on behalf of those everywhere who were intrigued, confused, or both by claims of anomalies in the sky. Simultaneously, the piece served as a biting indictment of the CIA. His December 15 Gazette article stated in pertinent part:
Maybe the new administration next year will quietly give the green light to some Congressional committee to investigate the unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Put this down as a long-shot possibility. It is not a probability. The Central Intelligence Agency is still in on the matter, as it always has been. The CIA, by the nature of its duties, does not squander facts among the public.
Yet, the UFOs demand attention. They continue to be seen in the sky by pilots, sundry officials, and others (say, who had some special cognizance of the atmosphere above us and by others with some reputation for reliability—especially at night). The Air Force disclaimers that these strange objects relate to anything but familiar objects mistakenly identified, often damage the patent truth, and sometimes approach the ridiculous. A Royal Canadian Air Force CF-100 Canuck interceptor was on a routine mission over Lake Ontario on September 27, 1960, with a second CF-100 trailing by a few miles. Visibility was excellent under light cirrus clouds. When the first jet entered the cirrus, it simply vanished. The other pilot reported that its contrail did not disperse to indicate an explosion. “It simply ended as though both engines had simultaneously flamed out.” The pilot did not radio that he was experiencing any problem and did not bail out. Neither the interceptor nor its two-man crew was ever found. The US Air Force left the case unexplained.
Increasingly, security officials were determined to shield the public from their plainly indicated truth, which is that a clear minority of the mysterious objects represent something real which the Air Force has been unable to identify.26
The writer went on to explain that, initially, the Air Force didn't know the origin of some objects but feared public panic and so claimed they were all misidentified familiar things. “[N]ow the Air Force keeps repeating this because it is stuck with that story.” Referencing the Air Force's scientific consultant J. Allen Hynek: “Some of his explanations ... strain credulity beyond the limit of common sense.”27
The Agency's chief of the Detroit office sent a memo to (illegible) on December 16, titled “Sighting of Unusual Object.” The chief himself had seen a luminous greenish-white light descend across the sky at 6:54 p.m., December 14. Note: the Geminids meteor shower peaked about 7:00 p.m. one night before on December 13.28
While you were away from your desk . . .
A pair of California highway patrolmen witnessed an enormous vehicle descend from the sky at 11:50 p.m., August 13, 1960, two miles from the town of Corning. They presumed at first it was an impending plane crash. The object pulled up short, rose back up to 500 feet and performed aerial acrobatics over a lengthy period. Shaped like an elongated football at 150 feet long and 40 feet in breadth, it was covered in white luminescence, with red lights at either end, and, intermittently, five white lights along the side. Its movements combined incredible speeds, inertia-defying changes of direction, and frequently a sweeping red beam. The patrolmen radioed the local sheriff's office to request a radar assist, which soon confirmed the target. Whenever the object approached the cruiser, radio interference resulted. In a later letter, one of the officers remarked, “[W]e made several attempts to follow it ... But the object seemed aware of us and we were more successful remaining motionless and allow it to approach us, which it did on several occasions.” The only sound they heard was the static on their radio whenever the object approached. Eventually it moved away and the patrolmen followed. Then an identical craft joined the first. Eventually both flew over the horizon.29
Chapter 14
1961: Old News
OSI Deputy Assistant Director Philip G. Strong, a retired brigadier general, penned a brief letter to (now Lieutenant Colonel) Lawrence J. Tacker at the Air Force Office of Information on January 10, 1961. Strong thanked Tacker for sending along a copy of Tacker's new book about UFOs. “Unfortunately, there seems to be a fair sized ‘lunatic fringe’ that will never be really convinced of Air Force objectiveness [sic] and forth-rightness on this subject.”1
With the new Kennedy administration in place, whatever constraints Congress might have experienced under Dwight Eisenhower—a career military officer—on the UFO subject were apparently dissolved. Calls for congressional hearings on the UFO subject were no longer confined to voices in the wilderness such as Donald Keyhoe. Indeed, no less a figure than John McCormack, Speaker of the House of Representatives and a towering Washington figure, added his weight to the matter. McCormack declared to the press, “I feel that the Air Force has not been giving out all the information it has on Unidentified Flying Objects.” He did not claim that UFOs were of extraterrestrial origin. Instead he referenced the ever-growing contingent of witnesses with observational expertise—pilots and others—who had made their accounts public. “What these reliable witnesses have seen can't be disregarded.” McCormack mentioned further that some incidents were simultaneously observed firsthand and caught on radar, calling that compelling. “You can't put it down to atmospheric phenomena.” In speaking out, he joined former CIA Director Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, who had long since called for hearings.2
Perhaps McCormack had yet to read Tacker's book. Nonetheless, whether the speaker was sincere or simply blowing smoke, no such congressional hearing was convened until four years later, a one-day affair held by the House Armed Services Committee; two years after that the House Science and Astronautics Committee would hold another single-day hearing.3
On behalf of The Americana Institute, a think tank devoted to the study of American history and culture, Robert J. Palmer had inquired about the Agency's position on the UFO subject. On April 5, 1961, OSI's Philip Strong again sang the Company's theme song: All governmental responsibility regarding unidentified flying objects was charged to the Air Force.4
Gone but Not Forgotten
Lawrence Houston, an Agency attorney, geared up for another round of biting correspondence by and about the single-minded chemist, Dr. Leon Davidson. Forwarding a letter from a member of Congress to an unnamed “Exec” (presumably the Executive Registry) on the 4th of June, Houston groused about the amount of mail that Davidson had generated.5
On an indeterminate date sometime after June 30, attorney Houston replied to Congressman Joseph Karth's
inquiry. Dispensing with notions of discretion, Houston said Dr. Davidson's belief that the Agency withheld any knowledge of UFOs, that it engaged in psychological warfare on this subject, was “entirely uninformed.”6
An attachment to Houston's letter listed a variety of correspondence from or regarding Davidson dating back to March 1958. Following that list, he added a cryptic note:
In addition we have on file letters from Mr. Davidson to Members of the 1953 Panel requesting in essence their supporting him in obtaining information which would implicate CIA or the OCB in a “1984 type of thought control developing in America.”7
A return buckslip from Executive Registry staff to Houston stated there was no previous record of Leon Davidson.8
Herbert Scoville, OSI's assistant director, wrote to Houston on July 12, attaching a draft letter (not shown) to Congressman Karth concerning Leon Davidson. Scoville pointed out that Davidson had been writing to the Agency since 1958. More recently, his correspondence had been forwarded to the Air Force, the “Executive Agent in such matters.”9
On an indeterminate date thereafter, Houston sent the OSI-prepared letter to Congressman Karth, pointing out that Leon Davidson had had “extensive correspondence with this Agency since early 1958 on the matter of UFO's.” Davidson believed the Robertson Panel and the CIA withheld vital information, he continued. In an attempt to allay Davidson's concerns, a copy of the declassified Robertson Panel Report was sent to him. The portion remaining classified pertained to unrelated intelligence matters.10
USAF's public information officer Lawrence Tacker also wrote a lengthy letter to Davidson to refute his belief that the CIA used the UFO topic in psychological warfare, which he said was entirely unfounded. At Lieutenant Colonel Tacker's request, the Agency had since been forwarding all such correspondence to the Air Force information office. Perhaps by this time the Agency considered Davidson's terrier-like persistence an annoyance it could have done without.
Non-Davidson Business
On September 11, 1961, the White House released a statement that was UFO-related in the sense that misidentifications might result:
Soviet Missile Tests. The four range instrumentation ships are now taking up positions in the “closed” area announced yesterday by the USSR, about 6500 nautical miles from Tyura Tam, while the Soviets have made their usual claim that they are testing boosters for space vehicles. We believe these tests, like those in January and July of last year, are part of the ICBM development program, probably extended range testing of the second generation missile.11
The pot was at a vigorous boil. On October 23, 1961, the Roanoke (VA) World-News carried a story originating from the North American Newspaper Alliance, “Congress Is Being Pressed for Flying Saucer Probe.”12 It revealed that, earlier in the year, Congressman Joseph Karth had been named to head a subcommittee of the Science and Astronautics Committee for the purpose of sorting through the important UFO-related issues. But when Congressman Karth called for a public hearing, the committee chairman, Overton Brooks, denied his request.
Could the UFOs sighted actually be some Air Force secret weapon? Or Soviet? Serious questions were going unanswered. Prominent persons who had spoken out included a former CIA Director (Vice-Admiral R.H. Hillenkoetter) as well as Rear Admiral D.S. Fahrney, former Air Force UFO spokesman Albert Chop, and astronomer Dr. Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto.
Senator Barry Goldwater was the newest political voice calling for opening the UFO question. A Bangor (ME) Daily News editorial of November 17 endorsed that position. The Air Force insisted for years that all UFO reports were normal things misidentified. Now, Senator Goldwater, House Speaker McCormack, and retired Admiral Hillenkoetter had called for renewed hearings. “So, we say get on with the inquiry. We'll be listening.”13 One is left to ponder, all other political issues aside, whether the UFO subject would have been treated differently had Goldwater been elected president three years hence.
While you were away from your desk . . .
March 16, 1961
A Brazilian meteorologist, aboard the USS Glacier, was taking part in a US Navy exercise, Operation Deep Freeze, at Admiralty, Antarctica. He and five others witnessed the flyover of a sharply defined, egg-shaped object, estimated as about the length of a small aircraft. It soared slowly across the sky, 50 degrees above the horizon. Multicolored rays extended back in a V formation—primarily red, blue, and green and changing continually. The vehicle left a narrow orange trail. Suddenly the front and rear split apart, each forming a complete egg shape. Then both vanished.14
September 1961
All abuzz over a Kennedy presidency well underway, executives at the Company could not have foreseen that the signature case in American UFO annals would occur in central New Hampshire. As details of that and similar encounters to come played out across America, CIA analysts were forced to become familiar with a new term in the UFO investigative lexicon: abduction.
On the evening of September 19, 1961, Barney and Betty Hill were returning home from a trip to Quebec. With the Labor Day weekend well past, the tourist season was essentially over. They drove through the White Mountains alone in the darkness, following Highway 3 toward their home in Portsmouth. As they passed the Indian Head rock formation at the town of Lincoln, they heard beeping sounds—as if inside their car at the rear. Hours later they neared Ashland, some 35 miles farther south and heard the beeps again as they both came out of a stupor. What happened in between has for half a century and more been the subject of amazement, late-night speculation, endorsement, skepticism, and even ridicule. For the Agency, it was one more challenge posed by a subject it wanted nothing to do with.15
Chapter 15
1962: Blinders
On April 23, 1962, OSI Deputy Assistant Director Philip Strong sent a Memorandum to US Air Force Headquarters at the Pentagon. Its purpose was to transmit a letter from Thomas B. Scott, a young South Carolina resident, plus Strong's reply. The lad had contacted the CIA regarding his April 2 UFO sighting. Strong's stock reply informed Thomas that the Air Force handled all such matters.1
A non-sourced, multiple-topic report was received from Argentina on May 25. Under the subject headed “Unidentified Flying Objects”:
At Bahia Blanco, south of Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 21 many people observed a “strange luminous body suspended for several minutes over the city.” One local resident took two photographs, the prints of which revealed an oval shape.
A luminous anomaly crossing the sky was photographed several times by a reporter for the Nueva Principia (Argentine) newspaper. He stated that the object stopped and changed course.2
A Venezuelan observatory investigated multiple reports around the country and asked the public to submit observations in order to determine whether the phenomenon was “a cluster of meteorites, part of an artificial satellite, or due to other causes.”3
While you were away from your desk . . .
April 19, 1962
A “huge object” was tracked by radars at Colorado's Air Defense Command and at Nellis AFB, Nevada, following an original alert in upstate New York. Along the way the unknown was chased by armed interceptor jets. It landed near a power station at Eureka, Nevada. Immediately, electricity to the community was cut and remained off for over an hour until the vehicle left. As it rose into the sky, a brilliant flash was seen in Reno and parts of California.4
April 30 and July 17, 1962
Surely the CIA gained the particulars of two incidents involving the X-15 rocket plane. But for some reason no internal communications resulted—at least none prompting documents contained in the 2017 file dump.
NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker was aboard the X-15 on April 30, when two disc-shaped objects overtook him as he sped along at 3,400 mph, well over Mach 4. “Two UFOs just passed overhead,” Walker radioed as they came within 200 feet and were captured on film by the plane's aft fuselage cameras. The discs climbed past 200,000 feet and were finally lost from view. Walker later remarked that this h
ad been the second time he observed UFOs while flying the experimental aircraft.5
Then on July 17, Major Robert White was piloting the X-15 at its maximum altitude of 314,000 feet when he reported to the NASA flight control center that “several” anomalous objects were flying in formation with him. “There are things out there. There absolutely is!” Time magazine quoted his radioed exclamation.6
August 7, 1962
Just after midnight at a Titan missile site near Oracle, Arizona, a crewman spotted a brilliant object descending from overhead and called to a second man. As the intruder drew closer, now likened to a full moon in apparent size, they ran inside and telephoned the Davis-Monthan AFB. The unknown was hovering directly over a missile silo. In minutes two jet interceptors approached, and the intruder streaked northward out of sight. The jets circled the site boundary then left. A few minutes later the object returned and hovered momentarily over the missile silo again before ascending swiftly and vertically into the night.7
Chapter 16
1963: Cooper Spills the Beans
A May 2, 1963, letter to the editor of the Hartford Courant was titled “Aerial Phenomena.” The writer pointed to Air Force Regulation 200-2, issued July 20, 1962, which called UFOs “serious business.” Per the new regulation's strictures, base commanders were now allowed to release information to the press and public only if the incident involved an identifiable source. USAF personnel were permitted to discuss the subject only with prior approval and only on a need-to-know basis. Further, the letter writer quoted Vice Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, a former CIA director: “Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs.... The A.F. has assumed the right to decide what the American people should or should not know,” the admiral had added. The letter writer plugged NICAP as the source of truth on the subject.1