House Armed Services Committee UFO hearing (1966)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
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| Date | 5 April 1966 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Military encounters (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic) |
| People | Mendel Rivers, Harold Brown, Hector Quintanilla, J. Allen Hynek, Brad Sparks |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 68 |
| Year | 1966 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1966 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 15 |
On 5 April 1966 the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, chaired by Representative L. Mendel Rivers of South Carolina, held a short open hearing on unidentified flying objects. It followed a wave of sightings in Michigan and a request from House Republican leader Gerald Ford, and it led directly to the Air Force-funded University of Colorado study under physicist Edward Condon.[1][2][3]
Background
In March 1966 several hundred people in Michigan reported strange lights. About 50 witnesses near Dexter described lights and a football-shaped object over a swamp, and the next evening 87 students at Hillsdale College watched an object hover near their dormitory. J. Allen Hynek, the Air Force's scientific consultant, told a press conference that at least two of the sightings could have been caused by marsh gas. On 25 March Ford said he would ask the Armed Services and the Science and Astronautics committees to consider full investigations, arguing that if the Air Force's explanation was correct it should have no trouble explaining it to a committee.[2][4]
The hearing
The witnesses were Secretary of the Air Force Harold Brown, Project Blue Book chief Major Hector Quintanilla and Hynek. Brown defended the Air Force program and said there was no evidence of a threat or of extraterrestrial vehicles; Hynek proposed that a civilian panel of scientists review the problem. During the hearing Rivers also said that the 1948 "Estimate of the Situation", said to have concluded that UFOs were interplanetary, had never existed.[1][5][6]
Radar cases
During the hearing and in related statements, officials said that none of the radar cases on file remained unexplained. Researchers have since contrasted this with Blue Book's own files, which list a number of radar and radar-visual cases as "unidentified"; analyst Brad Sparks's catalogue of Blue Book unknowns includes several.[5][7]
Outcome
Later in 1966 the Air Force Office of Scientific Research funded an independent study at the University of Colorado, directed by Edward Condon. Its report, released in 1969, concluded that further study was unlikely to add to scientific knowledge, and the Air Force closed Project Blue Book that December. Quintanilla later wrote an unpublished memoir, UFOs: An Air Force Dilemma, defending Blue Book's work.[3][8]
People and topics
- Project Blue Book — The Air Force's public UFO investigation from 1952 until its closure in December 1969.
- House Armed Services Committee — The House committee that held a UFO hearing in 1966.
- Mendel Rivers — Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee during the 1966 UFO hearing.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Harold Brown — Air Force Secretary who testified at the 1966 House UFO hearing.
- Hector Quintanilla — Last head of Project Blue Book (1963–69).
- J. Allen Hynek — Astronomer and Air Force UFO consultant from 1948 to 1969 who later founded the Center for UFO Studies.
- Brad Sparks — UFO analyst known for his catalogue of Blue Book unknowns and work on the CIA lawsuit.
- Condon Report — Condon Report
On the Timeline
- Gerald Ford's call for UFO hearings (3 April 1966) — Rep. Gerald Ford is told an upcoming UAP study won't be tied to the Air Force.
- FBI denials of UFO interest (21 July 1966) — The FBI tells citizens UAP have never been its concern, contradicting its own files.
See every 1966 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "Unidentified Flying Objects", hearing before the House Committee on Armed Services (5 Apr 1966), GovInfo · govinfo.gov · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, "New York Times, 26 March 1966" (Ford's call for an inquiry) · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- "The Bolender Draft (Not Memo), Oct 20, 1969", NICAP · nicap.org · archived copy
- "Flying saucers and swamp gas", Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan · bentley.umich.edu · archived copy
- Condon Committee — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Project Sign — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Brad Sparks, catalogue of Project Blue Book unknowns (2016), CISU · cisu.org · archived copy
- Hector Quintanilla, "UFOs: An Air Force Dilemma" (unpublished memoir), via Patrick Gross · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- House Armed Services hearing on UFOs, 5 April 1966 — GovInfo · govinfo.gov · archived copy
- Gerald Ford pushes congressional UFO hearings, 1966 — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- 1966 UFO hearing transcript (PDF) — Internet Archive · ia600402.us.archive.org · archived copy
- UFOs in Congress in the 1960s — Podcast UFO · podcastufo.com · archived copy
- White House file: Armed Services UFO hearing, 1966 — LBJ Library · discoverlbj.org · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
- web.archive.org · web.archive.org · archived copy
Further reading
- Project Blue Book — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Project Blue Book records — National Archives · archives.gov · archived copy
- Project Blue Book files — The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- J. Allen Hynek — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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