reply to post by Kandinsky
Kandinsky some truly great posts there mate and thanks for linking the Vallee pages, when it came to Major Hector Quintanilla, I don't think Dr Hynek
was too impressed with his (or Sgt Moody's) methods of 'objective' investigation and I can well believe Vallee's claims about the Major not being at
all interested in the Michigan sightings and 'not giving a damn':
"When Major Quintanilla came in, the flag of the utter nonsense school was flying at its highest on the mast. Now he had a certain Sgt.
Moody assisting him...Moody epitomized the conviction-before-trial method. Anything that he didn't understand or didn't like was immediately put into
the psychological category, which meant "crackpot." He would not ever say that the person who reported a case was a fairly respectable person, maybe
we should look into it, or maybe we should find out. He was also the master of the possible: possible balloon, possible aircraft, possible birds,
which then became, by his own hand (and I argued with him violently at times), the probable; he said, well, we have no category "possible" aircraft.
It is therefore either unidentified or aircraft. Well, it is more likely aircraft; therefore it is aircraft.... An "unidentified" to Moody was not a
challenge for further research. To have it remain unidentified was a blot... and he did everything to remove it. He went back to cases from Captain
Gregory's days and way back in Ruppelt's days and redid the files. A lot that were unidentified in those days he "identified" years and years
later".
Dr J Allen Hynek, Chairman of the Department of Astronomy at Northwestern University and scientific consultant for Air Force investigations of UFOs
from 1948 until 1969 (Projects Sign, Grudge and Blue Book).
link
I've not posted all the interview but there's a relevant part below about the Michigan 'swamp gas' case and Dr Hynek's changing attitudes towards the
UFO subject, he discusses the pressure put on him by the USAF to produce conventional explanations and also mentions how the sightings kick-started
the Brian O'Brien Committee which eventually led to the now infamous (and hideously agenda based)
Condon report.
STACY: Was there ever any direct pressure applied by the Air Force itself for you to come up with a conventional explanation to these phenomena?
HYNEK: There was an implied pressure, yes, very definitely..
STACY: What began to change your own perception of the phenomenon?
HYNEK: Two things, really. One was the completely negative and unyielding attitude of the Air Force. They wouldn't give UFOs the chance of existing,
even if they were flying up and down the street in broad daylight. Everything had to have as explanation. I began to resent that, even though I
basically felt the same way, because I still thought they weren't going about it in the right way. You can't assume that everything is black no matter
what. Secondly, the caliber of the witnesses began to trouble me. Quite a few instances were reported by military pilots, for example, and I knew them
to be fairly well-trained, so this is when I first began to think that, well, maybe there something to all this.
The famous "swamp gas" case which came later on finally pushed me over the edge. From that point on, I began to look at reports from a different
angle, which was to say that some of them could be true UFOs..
STACY: Was it the famous Michigan sightings of 1966, explained away as "swamp gas" that finally did lead the Air Force to bring in a reputable
university?
HYNEK: Yes, that, as you know, became something of a national joke and Michigan was soon being known as the "Swamp Gas State." Eventually, it resulted
in a Congressional Hearing called for by then state Congressman, Gerald Ford, who of course later went on to become President. The investigation was
turned over to the Brian O'Brien Committee who did a very good job. Had their recommendations been carried out, things might have turned out much
better than they did. The recommended that UFOs be taken away from the Air Force and given to a group of universities, to study the thing in a as wide
a way as possible. Well, they didn't go to a group, they went to a university and a man they were certain would be very hard-nosed about it, namely,
Dr. Edward Condon at the University of Colorado. That was how the Condon Committee and eventually the Report came to be.
link
Cheers.
edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12 because: (no reason given)
