Eglin_AFB_Briefing_1960.pdf
Project Blue Book Eglin Air Force Base Conference 1960
Mostly Good Scans of the written presentation by Dr. Hynek on the subject of UFO's to attendees of the Hypervelocity Impact Conference
Banquet.
Document date: 1960-04-27
Department: USAF
Author: Dr. J. Allen Hynek
Document type: Written Presentation
pages: 40
Archivist's Notes: Very interesting read, but a few pages are unreadable. This is the written version of a talk presented by Dr. Hynek at Eglin
AFB. In it he discusses background of UFO reports and UFO reporting in general as well as offering examples of UFO reports for critique as well as
his own critique of the negative aspects of the UFO conventions.
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This is an interesting report by Dr. J. Allen Hynek. He was the spokesperson for the US Government and Project Blue Book during this era, but he gives
his own assessment of the situation that some people may be seeing things, and it may be a reaction to the nuclear age. He leaves the interpretation
open to alternative ideas that we could in fact be visited by a species of another world. He is someone caught between the age of innocence and that
of cynicism which he knew he was being drawn into being a part of. I think this report was a true part of him speaking that later leads him to found
one of the leading UFO organizations of that time.
The report is almost a romantic interpretation of events that can’t be explained. I think that if I were part of this investigation that Mr. Hynek
and I would have been good friends.On the other hand, I would have to put myself in the place of the government that is based on the assumption of
trying to cover up this subject. Why would I let someone like J. Allen Hyneck be allowed to continue with this? Why would I consider his employment
for yet another nine years before BB was shut down?
Maybe J. Allen Hyneck was the right man for the job at this time, and did what he could to bring about the truth. He saw that there was a connection
with other countries on this subjet and because of that any government might consider this a threat.
This report is revealing to say the least. Look into what he is saying, instead of what is being said. Before it becomes illegible toward the end, you
start to see that J. Allen Hyneck was beginning to believe that something was happening and this report does not describe what history will tell you.
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That's what is saying in an interview:
During the years that I have been its consultant, the Air Force has consistently argued that UFO's were either hoaxes, hallucinations or
misinterpretations of natural phenomena. For the most part I would agree with the Air Force. As a professional astronomer--I am chairman of the
department of astronomy at Northwestern University--I have had no trouble explaining the vast majority of the reported sightings. But I cannot explain
them all. Of the 15,000 cases that have come to my attention, several hundred are puzzling, and some of the puzzling incidents, perhaps one in 25, are
bewildering. I have wanted to learn much more about these cases than I have been able to get from either the reports or the witnesses....Getting at
the truth of "flying saucers" has been extraordinarily difficult because the subject automatically engenders such instantaneous reactions and
passionate beliefs. Nearly all of my scientific colleagues, I regret to say, have scoffed at the reports of UFO's as so much balderdash, although
this was a most unscientific reaction since virtually none of them had ever studied the evidence. Until recently my friends in the physical sciences
wouldn't even discuss UFO's with me. The subject, in fact, rarely came up. My friends were obviously mystified as to how I, a scientist, could have
gotten mixed up with "flying saucers" ---Saturday Evening Post: 1966
-- Dr. J. Allen Hynek: Professor emeritus and chairman of the astronomy department at Northwestern University. Earlier, he was director of the
Lundheimer Astronomical Research Center at Northwestern. He has written astronomy books and articles that have appeared in numerous science journals,
as well as an astronomy column for Science Digest magazine. He was chief scientist for NASA's satellite tracking program, and for twenty years was
the scientific consultant to the United States Air Force in the investigation of the UFO phenomenon. He is credited with coining the phrase "close
encounters of the third kind" and was Steven Spielberg's technical consultant on the film of that name. Dr. Hynek died in April 1986.
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