FOIA: McCormack Briefing on UFO's - August 1958

McCormack_Briefing_Aug1958.pdf
McCormack Subcommittee Briefing on UFO's - August 1958
Memorandums withing the USAF advising of the McCormack Subcommittee and Space Committee Briefing on Atmospheric Phenomenon. Report of the UFO program
Document date: 1958-08-12
Department: USAF, Division of Legislative Liason
Author: Maj. James F. Byhne, Maj. Gen. N. P. Fisher
Document type: Memo, Report
pages: 31


Archivist's Notes: Good Quality, majority readable. Memos discussing the McCormack briefing and the USAF response, also includes a general description of the UFO Program which includes reported number of sighting and various opinions on the topic including explanations for sightings and public perception.





[edit on 2/8/2008 by JacKatMtn]

This is the documentation of an Air Force briefing to the House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration the subject of Unidentified Flying Objects. The hearings were closed to the public so as not to attract attention. They covered the scientific approach of investigation to see if there was anything that could be gleaned to apply to future space exploration.

The briefing started with the 10-year history of investigating UFOs by the Air Force in 1947 when Kenneth Arnold reported seeing several disc shaped objects over Mount Rainier in Washington State. The Air Force was given the responsibility of investigating reports of UFOs under Project Sign.

The letter says that in 1949 the name of the project was changed to Project Grudge in which there was 375 UFO reports investigated and 20% of these cases were classified unknown. The reasons for the unknown cases were given as “misinterpretation of conventional objects”, “residual war nerves”, “Hoaxes and publicity seeking”, and “actions of psychopathic persons”.

Increased reports of sightings fuelled interest and the project was renamed again to Project Blue Book in 1951. Sightings peaked in 1952 with over 100 reports per month and the climaxed with sighting of UFOs over the Capitol in July.

As a result of public outcry, Director of Intelligence, General Sanford went on national TV and gave a press conference to explain there was no threat to the US. He later had the CIA form a panel (later called Robertson Panel) to make an assessment of the situation. The conclusions were that the phenomenon was it was not interplanetary vehicles and whatever the cause was, it posed no threat to the security of the United States. They also recommended that future reports be downplayed to reduce public interest in the subject. There were concerns that civilian UFO groups were saying the Air Force was not being truthful about the subject, and other concerns were that this could be used as a Cold War weapon against the US to create disruptions.

The document continues with a similar copy of the first report, with some additions.

Related FOIA Documents:
FOIA: Project Blue Book documentation index and project summary
FOIA: Project Blue Book Presentation

Related Discussion:
A few questions about Project: Blue Book

Related topics:
Robertson Panel
Project Blue Book

I want to add something about McCormack briefing.

This briefing came after the increasing number of letters sent to the Congress in 1958 and after the request done by Senator McClellan’s sub-committee which requested a formal presentation of all aspects dealing with the UFO Program. The briefing was given to the sub-committee on January 31, 1958, and the members seemed satisfied. Politics again plagued the program later on in the year when Senator McCormack’s subcommittee requested an up-dated briefing. A full scale briefing was given to the sub-committee and again satisfaction was expressed by the members. The hobby clubs were clamoring for an open hearing in Congress and this was the reason for all the sub-committee briefings. They needed the exposure and they were applying pressure at the top.

A fascinating read, what caught my attention was the bottom of the report where they spoke about the first course to improve operations with the objects by reducing the number of unknowns to as near zero as possible.
The second was to cope with the growing problem of public participation in the program.
"We feel confident that the solution of the first will greatly help in relieving the second. The first problem is wholly ours and is being handled. The number of unknowns is being steadily reduced." It goes on to include such comments as "There appears to be little difference between the intelligence of reporting by qualified trained observers such as AF Pilots and those of lay observers. The second 'problem' involves matters of public relations and the cooperation of the press."
One other thing that I noted was that they kept up with all of the UFO networks and groups at this point and even kept a close scrutinizing eye on the Books and movies that depicted and involved Ufology. They were obviously concerned about this public trend and in one part even stated the following:
"Reducing confidence in AF, many other aspects of the public participation in the UFO program and is as far as the AF is concerned they are all bad. "
Can you imagine what it would take to maintain this level of control today? Would it even be possible?