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73-500: NICAP was a non-profit organization and faced financial collapse many times in its existence, due in no small part to business ineptitude among the group's directors. Following a wave of nationally publicized UFO incidents in the mid-1960s, NICAP's membership spiked dramatically and only then did the organization become financially stable. However, following publication of the Condon Report in 1968, NICAP's membership declined sharply, and

146-476: A press conference on January 16, 1957, where he announced that UFOs were under intelligent control, but that they were of neither American or Soviet origin. The press conference received major attention, doubtless aided by Fahrney's stature. In April 1957, Fahrney resigned from NICAP, citing personal issues. It was later disclosed that his wife was seriously ill. Fahrney was bothered by the whispers and ridicule his UFO interests generated among many of his peers in

219-448: A UFO). However, longtime NICAP member Richard H. Hall related privately that this position was "tactical and not doctrinaire." In other words, NICAP did not necessarily dismiss occupant reports out of hand, but elected to focus on other aspects of the UFO phenomenon which would be perceived by mainstream observers as less outlandish and more believable. The attention given to the contactees of

292-441: A basis in the report for [Condon's] prediction that nothing of scientific value will come of further studies." Astronomer J. Allen Hynek wrote that "The Condon Report settled nothing." He called Condon's introduction "singularly slanted" and wrote that it "avoided mentioning that there was embedded within the bowels of the report a remaining mystery; that the committee had been unable to furnish adequate explanations for more than

365-431: A confirmed believer in the validity of UFO sightings, learned from a Committee member about a memo Low had written on August 9, 1966, in which he reassured two University of Colorado administrators that they could expect the study to demonstrate that UFO observations had no basis in reality. McDonald, after locating a copy of the memo in the project's open files, wrote to Condon, quoting a few lines from it. In response to

438-455: A generally positive review for the Condon Report, but wondered why so much effort had been expended on such a subject: "The Colorado project is a monumental achievement, but one of perhaps misapplied ingenuity. It would doubtless be inapt to compare it with earlier centuries' attempts to calculate how many angels could balance on the point of a pin; it is more like taking a sledgehammer to crack

511-658: A graduate student; chemist Roy Craig; electrical engineer Norman Levine and physicist Frederick Ayer. Several other scientists or experts served in part-time and temporary roles or as consultants. Public response to the Committee's announcement was generally positive When the Project was announced, The Nation , commented: "If Dr. Condon and his associates come up with anything less than the little green men from Mars, they will be crucified." In November 1966, retired USMC Major Donald Keyhoe and Richard H. Hall , both of NICAP , briefed

584-480: A number of uncritical enthusiasts along with a small percentage of cranks , astronomer J. Allen Hynek cited NICAP and Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) as the two best civilian UFO groups of their time, consisting largely of sober, serious-minded people capable of valuable contributions to the subject. Until the mid-1960s, NICAP gave little attention to Close encounters of the third kind (CE3) (where animated beings are purportedly sighted in relation to

657-485: A nut, except that the nuts will be quite immune to its impact." On January 8, 1969, the New York Times headlined its coverage: "U.F.O. Finding: No Visits From Afar." The article said the project's final report on U.F.O.s "has uncovered no evidence that they are intelligently guided spacecraft from beyond the earth." Critics made their case repeatedly without obtaining the government support they sought. One described

730-490: A plotter or conspirator is unfair and hardly accurate." Project investigator Roy Craig's later wrote that the memo did not trouble him because Condon had not known of the Low memo for eighteen months and it did not reflect his views. Condon wrote in the Project's Final Report that the memo's description of the Project as emphasizing the "psychology and sociology" of those who report UFO sightings showed how completely Low misunderstood

803-569: A quarter of the cases examined." Hynek contended that "Condon did not understand the nature and scope of the problem" he was studying and objected to the idea that only extraterrestrial life could explain UFO activity. By focusing on this hypothesis, he wrote, the Report "did not try to establish whether UFOs really constituted a problem for the scientist, whether physical or social." Astrophysicist Peter A. Sturrock wrote that "critical reviews...came from scientists who had actually carried out research in

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876-688: A sociological basis) wrote of the report: "Intelligent laymen can (and do) point out the logical flaw in Condon's conclusion based on a statistically small (and selected) sample, Even in this sample a consistent pattern can be recognized; it is ignored by the 'authorities,' who then compound their 'felony' by recommending that no further observational data be collected." In November 1970, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics generally agreed with Condon's suggestion that little of value had been uncovered by scientific UFO studies, but "did not find

949-584: A year with a staff of over a dozen. On October 6, 1966, the University of Colorado agreed to undertake the UFO study, with Condon as director, Low as coordinator, and Saunders and astronomer Franklin E. Roach as co-principal investigators. The Air Force announced its selection of Condon and the University of Colorado in October 1966. Other Committee members included astronomer William K. Hartmann ; psychologists Michael Wertheimer , Dan Culbertson and James Wadsworth,

1022-428: Is that nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge. Careful consideration of the record as it is available to us leads us to conclude that further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby." He also recommended against the creation of a government program to investigate UFO reports. He also described

1095-518: Is warranted by data of the past two decades." In response to the Report's findings, the Air Force closed Project Blue Book , established in March 1952, on December 17, 1969. The Report earned a mixed reception from scientists and academic journals, while receiving "almost universal praise from the news media". Many newspapers, magazines and journals which published approving reviews or editorials related to

1168-552: Is what I say: this thing of getting a fact that you definitely have on the exploding of this bomb has helped us in going back and looking over what we had before, and it will help us in what we get in the future. But you picked up in the mid-air on the thing, and we didn't know when they started, sir. The JCAE was not satisfied with Hillenkoetter's answer, and his and the CIA's reputation suffered among government heads in Washington, even though

1241-551: The Denver Post that the project had met the University's acceptance threshold by the narrowest of margins and was accepted largely because it was difficult to say no to the Air Force. Some have suggested that finances were factor in Colorado's decision to accept the Air Force's offer of $ 313,000 for the project. Condon dismissed this suggestion, noting that $ 313,000 was a rather modest budget for an undertaking scheduled to last more than

1314-560: The Central Intelligence Group (September 1947). Under the National Security Act of 1947 he was nominated and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as DCI, now in charge of the newly established Central Intelligence Agency (December 1947). At first, the U.S. State Department directed the new CIA's covert operations component, and George F. Kennan chose Frank Wisner to be its director. Hillenkoetter expressed doubt that

1387-510: The House Unamerican Activities Committee and other government Loyalty Boards in the 1940s and 1950s made him "almost legendary" among fellow scientists. On Condon's behalf, Robert J. Low, an assistant dean of the university's graduate program, explored faculty reaction to the proposed project and found it mixed and wary. He also tried to reassure those who found the enterprise unworthy of scientific investigation. Low told

1460-682: The Korean outbreak ," and sought to have it declassified until his death in 1964. Admiral Hillenkoetter returned to the fleet, commanding Cruiser Division 1 of the Cruiser-Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet from October 1950 to August 1951 during the Korean War . He then commanded the Third Naval District with headquarters in New York City from July 1952 to August 1956 and was promoted to

1533-470: The Report noted that there were gaps in scientific knowledge in the fields of "atmospheric optics, including radio wave propagation, and of atmospheric electricity" that might benefit from further research in the UFO field. The Report detailed 59 case studies, though for legal reasons their locations were changed. New York Times science editor Walter Sullivan , in his introduction to the published version of

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1606-448: The Report , said the series "reads like a modern, real-life collection of Sherlock Holmes episodes. The cases range from the eerily perplexing to the preposterously naive. The reader is given a taste of scientific method, even though the cases are often such that they defy anything approaching deductive analysis." Six chapters covered field studies of such physical evidence as electromagnetic effects, and visual and radar images. One treated

1679-622: The Spanish Civil War , he coordinated the evacuation of Americans from the country. After the German invasion of France, Hillenkoetter entered Vichy France and aided the underground movement. As executive officer of the USS ; West Virginia  (BB-48) , he was wounded during the attack on Pearl Harbor , and afterwards was officer in charge of intelligence on Chester W. Nimitz 's Pacific Fleet staff until 1943. He briefly served as commander of

1752-599: The University of Arizona , and others suggested astronomer Donald Menzel . All were judged too closely allied with one position or another. Walter Orr Roberts , director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research , and Menzel suggested physicist Edward Condon of the University of Colorado . In the summer of 1966, Condon agreed to consider the Air Force's offer. He was among the best known and most distinguished scientists of his time. Condon's tenacious encounters with

1825-499: The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH). In late January 1967, Condon stated in a lecture that he thought the government should not study UFOs because the subject was 'nonsense', adding, "but I'm not supposed to reach that conclusion for another year." One NICAP member resigned from NICAP in protest and Saunders confronted Condon to express his concern that NICAP's withdrawal would eliminate a valuable source of case files and produce damaging publicity. In July 1967, James E. McDonald ,

1898-455: The 1950s and early 1960s, facing collapse on several occasions. For most of his tenure as director, Keyhoe sent irregular letters to NICAP's members, warning of the organization's imminent collapse, and soliciting funds to keep NICAP going. According to Jerome Clark (see sources below), Keyhoe often paid for much of NICAP's operating expenses himself. By the early 1960s, much of the American public

1971-494: The 1950s such as George Adamski and Truman Bethurum (who typically claimed ongoing contact with benevolent " Space Brothers ") was almost certainly a factor in NICAP's reluctance to study UFO occupant reports too closely. But with the 1964 New Mexico Lonnie Zamora UFO encounter  — regarded by researchers as one of the most reliable UFO occupant reports — NICAP loosened its restrictions on studying UFO occupant reports. NICAP

2044-445: The 1960s. Growing numbers of critics—including U.S. politicians, newspaper writers, UFO researchers, scientists and some of the general public—were suggesting that Blue Book was conducting shoddy, unsupported research or perpetrating a cover up . The Air Force did not want to continue its studies but did not want a cessation of studies to provoke additional cover-up charges. UFOs had become so controversial that no other government agency

2117-521: The Air Force had asked the National Academy of Sciences to "provide an independent assessment of the scope, the methodology, and the findings" of the Committee. A panel chaired by Yale astronomer Gerald M. Clemence studied the Report for six weeks and concluded that "on the basis of present knowledge the least likely explanation of UFOs is the hypothesis of extraterrestrial visitations by intelligent beings" and that "no high priority in UFO investigations

2190-506: The CIA could be taken by such surprise. Hillenkoetter imprecisely replied that the CIA knew it would take the Soviets approximately five years to build the bomb, but the CIA misjudged when they started: We knew that they were working on it, and we started here, and this organization [CIA] was set up after the war and we started in the middle and we didn't know when they had started and it had to be picked up from what we could get along there. That

2263-636: The CIA had good sources in Korea, implying that the CIA would be able to provide warning before any invasion. Following the invasion, the press suspected the administration was surprised by it, and wondered whether Hillenkoetter would be removed. The DCI was not influential with President Harry S. Truman , but Hillenkoetter insisted to the President that as the Director of Central Intelligence, it would be politically advantageous to testify before Congress to try to remedy

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2336-598: The CIA wanted to divert public attention from UFOs. It used three cases to make the case for extraterrestrial activity. Project investigator Roy Craig later described each of the cases as "utter nonsense," "highly suspect," and unexplained but very weak. The Committee delivered its Report to the Air Force in November 1968, which released it in January 1969. The Report, 1,485 pages in hardcover and 965 pages in paperback, divided UFO cases into five categories: old UFO reports from before

2409-419: The Committee convened, new reports, photographic cases, radar/visual cases, and UFOs reported by astronauts. Some UFO cases fell into multiple categories. Condon authored 6 pages of "conclusions and recommendations," a 43-page "summary," and a 50-page history of UFO phenomena and research over the preceding twenty years. In his introductory "Conclusions and Recommendations", Condon wrote: "Our general conclusion

2482-652: The Condon Report. Some compared any continued belief in UFOs with the belief that the earth is flat. Others predicted that interest in UFOs would wane and in a few generations be only dimly remembered. Science , the official publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said "The Colorado Study is unquestionably the most thorough and sophisticated investigation of the nebulous UFO phenomenon ever conducted." The March 8, 1969 issue of Nature offered

2555-454: The December 1969 issue of Physics Today , Committee consultant Gerald Rothberg wrote that he had thoroughly investigated about 100 UFO cases, three or four of which left him puzzled. He thought that this "residue of unexplained reports [indicated a] legitimate scientific controversy." Critics charged that Condon's case summaries were inaccurate or misleading with enigmatic reports "buried" among

2628-452: The Project when he wrote the memo. Despite the withdrawal of NICAP from the Project, members of its Early Warning Network continued to report sightings to the investigators, as did journalists. Scientists who anticipated the Committee would recommend against continued government UFO research rushed their own refutation into print in advance of the Committee's Final Report . Called UFO's? Yes! and written by Saunders, it questioned whether

2701-612: The Report as "a rather unorganized compilation of independent articles on disparate subjects, a minority of which dealt with UFOs." Hynek described the Report as "a voluminous, rambling, poorly organized" and wrote that "less than half...was addressed to the investigation of UFO reports." In the April 14, 1969 issue of Scientific Research , Robert L. M. Baker, Jr. wrote that the Condon Committee's Report "seems to justify scientific investigation along many general and specialized frontiers." In

2774-475: The Report, it is "the most influential public document concerning the scientific status of this UFO problem. Hence, all current scientific work on the UFO problem must refer to the Condon Report". Beginning in 1947 with Project Sign , which then became Project Grudge and finally Project Blue Book , the U.S. Air Force conducted formal studies of UFOs, a subject of considerable public and some governmental interest. Blue Book had come under increasing criticism in

2847-600: The September 20, 1949 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) stating, "the earliest possible date by which the USSR might be expected to produce an atomic bomb is mid-1950 and the most probable date is mid-1953." Hillenkoetter was called before the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy (JCAE) to explain how the CIA not only failed to predict the test, but also how they did not even detect it after it occurred. JCAE members were steaming that

2920-529: The U.S. Air Force should work "with a few selected universities to provide scientific teams" to study UFOs. The Committee suggested that about 100 well-documented UFO sightings should be studied annually, with about 10 man-days devoted to each case. At a Congressional UFO hearing on April 5, 1966, Air Force Secretary Harold Brown defended the Air Force's UFO studies and repeated the O'Brien Committee's call for more studies. Hynek repeated his call for "a civilian panel of physical and social scientists" to "examine

2993-469: The UFO area, while the laudatory reviews came from scientists who had not carried out such research." As an example, Sturrock noted a case in which an allegedly supersonic UFO did not produce a sonic boom . He notes that "we should not assume that a more advanced civilization could not find some way at traveling with supersonic speeds without producing a sonic boom." Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter (May 8, 1897 – June 18, 1982)

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3066-454: The UFO problem critically for the express purpose of determining whether a major problem exists." Shortly after the hearing, the Air Force announced it was seeking one or more universities to undertake a study of UFOs. The Air Force wanted to have several groups, but it took some time to find even a single school willing to accept the Air Force's offer. Both Hynek and James E. McDonald suggested their own campuses, Northwestern University and

3139-629: The United States. Many of their members were amateurs, but a considerable percentage were professionals, including journalists , military personnel , scientists and physicians . One of NICAP's prime goals was thorough field investigations of UFO reports. They would eventually compile a significant number of case files and field investigations which Clark characterises as "often first rate". By 1958, NICAP had grown to over 5000 members. Keyhoe's financial management and business skills were only slightly better than Brown's, and NICAP hobbled along throughout

3212-467: The confirmed cases. In December 1969, physicist James E. McDonald called the Report "inadequate" and said "it represents an examination of only a tiny fraction of the most puzzling UFO reports of the past two decades, and that its level of scientific argumentation is wholly unsatisfactory." In a 1969 issue of the American Journal of Physics , astronomer Thornton Page (who thought the phenomenon had

3285-504: The controversy. Representative J. Edward Roush said the Look article raised "grave doubts as to the scientific profundity and objectivity of the project." He held a hearing dominated by critics of the Project. Low resigned from the Project in May 1968. Some later critics of the Committee's work saw little reason to make much of the memo. Committee member David Saunders wrote that "to present Low as

3358-681: The destroyer tender USS Dixie before joining the Bureau of Naval Personnel in 1944. After the war, then- Captain Hillenkoetter commanded the USS  Missouri in 1946 before returning to his pre-war posting as naval attaché in Paris before becoming head of the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) in May 1947. President Truman persuaded a reluctant Hillenkoetter, then a rear admiral , to become Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and run

3431-461: The direction of physicist Edward Condon . The result of its work, formally titled Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects , and known as the Condon Report , appeared in 1968. After examining hundreds of UFO files from the Air Force's Project Blue Book and from the civilian UFO groups National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO), and investigating sightings reported during

3504-556: The field of UFO studies. When the United States Air Force , in collaboration with the University of Colorado , established the Condon Committee (1966–68) to study UFOs, NICAP initially aided its investigations, but Keyhoe quickly became disenchanted and limited NICAP's role. NICAP formally severed ties with the Condon Committee in early 1968. Following the publication of the Condon Committee's report (which concluded there

3577-529: The history of NICAP knows that the group didn’t need anybody's help in its disintegration; it simply self-destructed." As to his father's involvement as an alleged CIA agitator, Bryan writes, "my father’s unswerving, outspoken faith in UFOs ;... was, I felt, something of an embarrassment ... I do not believe it was the sort of public position an agent would take whose covert goal was to smother interest in UFOs." NICAP published its final newsletter in 1980;

3650-407: The life of the Project, the Committee produced a Final Report that said the study of UFOs was unlikely to yield major scientific discoveries. The Report's conclusions received a mixed reception from scientists and academic journals. The report has been cited as a decisive factor in the generally low level of interest in UFO activity among academics since that time. According to a principal critic of

3723-459: The memo, on April 30, 1968, NICAP severed its ties with the Committee and Keyhoe circulated copies of Low's memo. Press coverage included an article in the May 1968 issue of Look , "Flying Saucer Fiasco", that presented interviews with Saunders and Levine, detailed the controversy, and described the project as a "$ 500,000 trick." Condon responded that the article contained "falsehoods and misrepresentations." Scientific and technical journals reported

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3796-412: The military and focused on the CIA as the source of the UFO cover up. By December 1969, NICAP's board, headed by Colonel Joseph Bryan III, forced Keyhoe to retire as Chief of NICAP. Under Bryan's leadership, NICAP disbanded its local and national affiliated groups . Afterwards, John L. Acuff became NICAP's director. NICAP's membership continued to drop as it was led by Acuff and then Alan Hall. By now,

3869-596: The military. Keyhoe became NICAP's director. He established a monthly newsletter, The U.F.O. Investigator . Another prominent figure joined NICAP's board of governors: Keyhoe's Naval Academy classmate VADM Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter , USN (Ret.) He had been Director of Central Intelligence and first head of the Central Intelligence Agency . Another important name on the letterhead was that of Gen. Albert Coady Wedemeyer USA (Ret.) The organization had chapters and local associates scattered throughout

3942-491: The news reports, and by mid-August the rumors of Hillenkoetter's removal were confirmed when President Truman announced that General Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith would replace him as DCI. President Truman installed a new DCI in October. Nebraska Congressman Howard Buffett alleged that Hillenkoetter's classified testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee "established American responsibility for

4015-507: The observations of U.S. astronauts. Notably in Case 02 in Section IV, Chapter 2 the report said of the 1956 Lakenheath-Bentwaters incident : "In conclusion, although conventional or natural explanations certainly cannot be ruled out, the probability of such seems low in this case and the probability that at least one genuine UFO was involved appears to be fairly high." Even before its completion,

4088-535: The organization again fell into long-term financial decline and disarray. Despite these internal troubles, NICAP probably had the most visibility of any civilian American UFO group, and arguably had the most mainstream respectability; Jerome Clark writes that "for many middle-class Americans and others interested in UFOs but repelled by ufology ’s fringe aspects, it served as a sober forum for UFO reporting, inquiry, investigation, and speculation". NICAP advocated transparent scientific investigation of UFO sightings and

4161-512: The organization was all but paralyzed by infighting, including unsubstantiated charges that the Central Intelligence Agency had infiltrated NICAP. In fact, several persons with CIA ties had joined NICAP; however, their motives and reasons for joining NICAP have been the subject of some debate. One person specifically named as a suspected CIA infiltrator was retired Air Force Colonel Joseph Bryan III. His son, writer C. D. B. Bryan , dismisses this idea, suggesting that "Anyone who knows anything about

4234-484: The organization was officially dissolved at the end of that year. NICAP's archive of UFO sighting case files was subsequently purchased by the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). Condon Report The Condon Committee was the informal name of the University of Colorado UFO Project , a group funded by the United States Air Force from 1966 to 1968 at the University of Colorado to study unidentified flying objects under

4307-567: The panel. They agreed to share NICAP's research files and to improve the collection of UFO reports. The Committee also secured help from APRO , another civilian UFO research group. The Committee moved slowly, hampered by disagreements about the use of funds and methodology. By hiring people with no prior position on UFOs, the Committee staff lacked expertise and subject matter expertise. As they began their analyses, Committee members usually worked without coordination with one another. Individuals embraced diverse approaches, especially with respect to

4380-645: The press did not write about the CIA's first Soviet intelligence failure. The U.S. government had no intelligence warning of North Korea 's invasion (June 25, 1950) of South Korea. DCI Hillenkoetter convened an ad hoc group to prepare estimates of likely communist behavior on the Korean peninsula; it worked well enough that his successor institutionalized it. Two days prior to North Korea's invasion of South Korea, Hillenkoetter went before Congress (the House Foreign Affairs Committee ) and testified that

4453-458: The problem that confronts the scientific community, that each scientist must evaluate the record for himself, and that the Report' s recommendation against further research "may not be true for all time." He advised that government agencies and private foundations "ought to be willing to consider UFO research proposals...on an open-minded, unprejudiced basis....[E]ach individual case ought to be carefully considered on its own merits." In particular,

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4526-652: The rank of vice admiral on 9 April 1956. His last assignment was as Inspector General of the Navy from 1 August 1956 until his retirement from the Navy on 1 May 1957. The National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena was formed in 1956, with the organization's corporate charter being approved October 24. Hillenkoetter was on NICAP 's board of governors from about 1957 until 1962. Donald E. Keyhoe , NICAP director and Hillenkoetter's Naval Academy classmate, wrote that Hillenkoetter wanted public disclosure of UFO evidence. Perhaps Hillenkoetter's best-known statement on

4599-455: The same agency could be effective at both covert action and intelligence analysis. As DCI, Hillenkoetter was periodically called to testify before Congress . One instance concerned the CIA's first major Soviet intelligence failure, the failure to predict the Soviet atomic bomb test (August 29, 1949). In the weeks following the test, but prior to the CIA's detection of it, Hillenkoetter released

4672-468: The situation. After the testimony, some Senators told the Washington Post that Hillenkoetter confused them when explaining the CIA did not predict when North Korea would invade by saying it was not the CIA's job to analyze intelligence, just to pass it on to high-ranking policymakers. Even though most senators believed Hillenkoetter ably explained the CIA's performance, many at the CIA were embarrassed by

4745-651: The subject was in 1960 in a letter to Congress, as reported in The New York Times : "Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense." Hillenkoetter lived in Weehawken, New Jersey , following his retirement from the Navy, until his death on June 18, 1982, at New York City 's Mount Sinai Hospital . Actor Leon Russom portrayed Hillenkoetter in an episode of Dark Skies ,

4818-726: Was a member of the board of governors of National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) from 1957 to 1962. Born in St. Louis, Missouri on May 8, 1897, Hillenkoetter graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland , in 1919. He served with the Atlantic Fleet during World War I and joined the Office of Naval Intelligence in 1933. He served several tours in naval intelligence , including as assistant naval attaché to France, Spain, and Portugal. During

4891-414: Was devoted to evidence of intelligent control and yet another to physical evidence or interactions, such as electromagnetic effects, radar tracking, photographs, sound, physiological effects, and so on. Another section examined observed patterns, such as descriptions of shape, colors, maneuvers, flight behavior, and concentrations of sightings. This book is still considered an invaluable reference source in

4964-465: Was founded on October 24, 1956, by inventor Thomas Townsend Brown . The board of governors included several prominent men, including Donald Keyhoe , Maj USMC ( Ret. ), and former chief of the Navy's guided missile program RADM Delmer S. Fahrney USN (Ret.) By early January 1957, however, Brown had proved so financially inept that the board asked him to step down. Fahrney replaced him, then convened

5037-593: Was keenly interested in UFOs and NICAP's membership peaked at around 14,000. This influx of members greatly improved the group's finances. Hillenkoetter left the board in 1962. In 1964, NICAP published The UFO Evidence , edited by Richard H. Hall , a summary of hundreds of unexplained reports studied by NICAP investigators up to 1963. Sightings were systematically broken down by witness category and special types of evidence. For example, individual chapters were devoted to sightings by military personnel, pilots and aviation experts, and scientists and engineers. Another chapter

5110-443: Was nothing extraordinary about UFOs) in January, 1969, public interest in the subject abated, and NICAP's membership rapidly dropped to about 5000. 1969 saw the last NICAP efforts of any significance, two monographs : Strange Effects from UFOs and UFOs: A New Look . NICAP's membership plummeted in the late 1960s, and Keyhoe faced accusations of financial incompetence and authoritarianism. By 1969, Keyhoe turned his focus away from

5183-496: Was skeptical of " contactee " tales involving meetings with space visitors, the alien abduction phenomenon , and the like. The presence of several prominent military officials as members of NICAP brought a further measure of respectability for many observers. Throughout its existence, NICAP argued that there was an organized governmental cover-up of UFO evidence. NICAP also pushed for governmental hearings regarding UFOs, with occasional success. Though any UFO-related group attracts

5256-512: Was the third director of the post–World War II United States Central Intelligence Group (CIG), the third Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency created by the National Security Act of 1947 . He served as DCI and director of the CIG and the CIA from May 1, 1947, to October 7, 1950, and, after his retirement from the United States Navy ,

5329-618: Was willing to take on further UFO studies. Following a wave of UFO reports in 1965, astronomer and Blue Book consultant J. Allen Hynek wrote a letter to the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (AFSAB) suggesting that a panel convene to re-examine Blue Book. The AFSAB agreed and the committee it formed, chaired by Brian O'Brien , convened for one day in February, 1966, and suggested UFO studies could be undertaken "in more detail and depth than had been possible to date" and that

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