McCormack subcommittee UFO briefing (1958)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 13 August 1958 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Government programs (topic), Congress & law (topic) |
| People | John McCormack, Donald Keyhoe |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 62 |
| Year | 1958 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1958 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 8 |
In August 1958 officers from the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base gave a closed briefing on UFOs to the Subcommittee on Atmospheric Phenomena of the House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration, chaired by House Majority Leader John McCormack. It was one of several private sessions in 1958 in which the Air Force persuaded members of Congress that public hearings were unnecessary.[1][2]
Background
In the late 1950s the civilian group NICAP, led by retired Marine Major Donald Keyhoe, was the most persistent force pressing for congressional hearings on UFOs. In January 1958 investigators for Senator John McClellan's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held informal talks with the Air Force and were persuaded that nothing was being withheld, and in 1958 the Air Force also briefed Representative John Henderson.[2][3][4]
The briefing
Air Force records of the 1958 sessions describe how it handled UFO reports and what it had found. According to the testimony, the Air Force told the subcommittee that civilian UFO groups were its biggest UFO-related problem, because they publicised cases, criticised the Air Force and pressed for hearings. The members said they were satisfied and that formal hearings were unnecessary, and the briefing recommended playing the program down.[1][5]
McCormack's view
McCormack's later comments suggest he was not fully convinced. The testimony reports that in 1961 he said he believed the Air Force was not sharing everything it knew.[5]
Significance
Later Air Force papers described briefings to congressional staff in 1958, 1960 and 1961 as a way of heading off hearings. Representative Joseph Karth's push for hearings in the early 1960s collapsed after a premature announcement by Keyhoe, and the first open congressional hearing on UFOs did not take place until 1966. The 1958 sessions are an early example of Congress reviewing the subject behind closed doors, something that happened again in the 2010s and 2020s.[2][3][6]
People and topics
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Air Technical Intelligence Center — The Air Force intelligence center at Wright-Patterson that housed Project Blue Book.
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — The Ohio air base that housed Project Blue Book and is linked to the Hangar 18 legend.
- John McCormack — House Majority Leader and Speaker who chaired a 1958 UFO briefing and doubted the Air Force.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- NICAP — The leading U.S. civilian UFO group of the 1950s and 1960s.
- Donald Keyhoe — Retired Marine officer, author and director of NICAP who campaigned against UFO secrecy.
On the Timeline
- Henderson UFO briefing (1958) (20 June 1958) — The Air Force briefs members of Congress on handling constituent questions about UAP.
- Hunter AFB "UFO crash" letter (1958) (30 October 1958) — An Air Force colonel writes about a 'UFO crash' near Hunter AFB, Georgia.
See every 1958 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Air Force briefing to the McCormack subcommittee (1958), AFU archive (PDF) · files.afu.se · archived copy
- Paul McCarthy, "Politicking and paradigm shifting: James E. McDonald and the UFO case study", chapter 4, Project 1947 · project1947.com · archived copy
- Air Force and congressional UFO documents (1958), UFO Scans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- "1958 Congressman Henderson briefing", UFO Scans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- "1958 McCormack congressional sub-committee", UFO Scans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
- National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- 'Congress is being pressed for flying saucer probe' — CIA reading room · cia.gov · archived copy
- Air Force briefing to the House Subcommittee on Atmospheric Phenomena, Aug 1958 — UFO Scans · ufoscans.com · archived copy
Further reading
- U.S. congressional hearings on UFOs — 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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