Global Strategies Project — UFO Quotes
Global Strategies Project
reference documents
UFO Reference Papers
A Comprehensive Overview
Compiled by S. Meyers for the
Global Strategies Project
Public debunking of UFOs does not affect sightings themselves. In other words:
"You can change the channel...but you can't change the News."
"I think a great deal of the misunderstanding about UFOs among scientists
is that the scientists have never had access to the best data.” (Jacques Vallee)
"Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions."
(Albert Einstein)
"Because this topic is so controversial, I have tried very hard to do as little arguing, and as much presenting of useful information, as possible. Whether you think UFOs are aliens, or are classified aircraft, or nonsense, this information will provide a clear path through a complicated historical maze. While I do believe, based upon the historical record, that this phenomenon is quite real (and not merely classified aircraft), my opinions are entirely unimportant. What matters is the historical record, insofar as we can learn it. I intend this to be a contribution toward making that historical record clearer. Mainly, however, I have expended as much energy as possible to make this book concise and informative. Your time as a reader is valuable. I have no desire to waste it."
Richard Dolan commenting on his book
"UFOs and the National Security State: An Unclassified History"
"UFOs are an outreach program for the consciousness-impaired." Dr. John Mack.
I think the true test of a genius is the ability to see the follies of one's own times. The ability to change one's own times is the true test of a leader. And the ability to do both is the true test of a visionary who will never be elected. (Marilyn vos Savant)
Quotes from respected scientists, politicians and astronauts
regarding UFO and ET phenomena
"The day will arrive when the governments of earth will finally admit
we are not alone, that humans have come face-to-face
with other lifeforms from the cosmos.
Anyone still on the fence about the existence of UFOs must contend
with the testimonies of these respected and honored men."
Clark McClellend - NASA
"Germany may have recovered a flying saucer as early as 1939".
General James H. Doolittle went to Sweden in 1946 to inspect a flying saucer that had crashed in Spitzbergen.
“Regarding the air raid over Los Angeles it was learned by Army G2 that Rear Admiral Anderson...recovered an unidentified airplane off the coast of California...with no bearing on conventional explanation. This Headquarters has come to the determination that the mystery airplanes are in fact not earthly and, according to secret intelligence sources, they are in all probability of interplanetary origin.”
General George C. Marshall top-secret memo to the President, March 5, 1942
"...coming to grips with the reality that our planet is not the only one harboring intelligent life the universe."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, President memo on White House stationary to 'The Special Committee on Non-Terrestrial Science & Technology'. Concerning the Cape Girardeau UFO crash of 1941, Roosevelt went on to state that we will, "take every advantage of such wonders that have come to us" after we have won the war. Feb 22, 1944
"Before we could do any more, the Army, after conferring with (U.S.) officials, ordered the investigation stopped."
Dr. Paul Santorini, on UFOs over Greece in 1946
"...submit an agreement providing for the peaceful absorbtion of a celestial races(s) in such a manner that our culture would remain intact with guarantee that their presence not be revealed." "One must consider the fact that mis-identification of these space craft for a intercontinental missile in a re-entry phase of flight could lead to accidental nuclear war with horrible consequences."
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, Director of Advanced Studies, Princeton
Professor Albert Einstein, Princeton, draft of joint memo from Oppenheimer/Einstein, June 1947. "As I understand it, Marshall rebuffed the idea of Oppenheimer discussing this with the President. I talked to Gordon and he agreed." 'VB' (Vannover Bush?)
RAAF CAPTURES FLYING SAUCER ON RANCH IN ROSWELL REGION
"No Details of Flying Disk are Revealed"
"The many rumors regarding the flying disk became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disk through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff's office of Chaves County."
"Roswell Daily Record" July 8, 1947
(referring to crash retrieval in New Mexico desert in July of 1947 and its subsequent security classification) "I must insist upon full access to discs recovered... The Army grabbed one and would not let us have it for cursory examination."
J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director, 1947
"We soon established that they were not missiles. But, before we could do any more, the Army, after conferring with foreign officials, ordered the investigation stopped. Foreign scientists flew to Greece for secret talks with me... A world blanket of secrecy surrounded the UFO question because the authorities were unwilling to admit the existence of a force against which we had no possibility of defense."
Dr. Paul Santorini, Greek physicist and engineer credited with developing the proximity fuse for the Hiroshima atomic bomb; two patents for US Nike missile guidance system, and a centimetric radar system.
"The phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious."
General Nathan Twining, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Sept. 23, 1947
"The first UFO came down in 1941 into the ocean west of San Diego and was retrieved by the Navy. The Navy has held a leadership position in UFO matters ever since. There was another crash in 1946, as well as two other crashes in 1947 besides Roswell."
Dr. Michael Wolf, Colonel USAF
Dr. Michael Wolf: scientific consultant to the President and the National Security Council on extraterrestrial matters; member of Majestic Twelve (MJ-12), UFO secrecy management agency's (Special Studies Group) and has been in charge of its lead agency, the Alphacom Team. Previously Dr. Wolf served as an Air Force Colonel, pilot, flight surgeon and counter-intelligence officer for the CIA and NSA. He has an MD in Neurology, a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics, a ScD in Computer Science, a JD in Law, an M.S. in EM influence on organisms, and a B.S. in biogenetics.
"It appears to be metallic object... tremendous in size... directly ahead and slightly above... I am trying to close for a better look." (his last radio broadcast made in fatal pursuit of unidentified flying object)
Pilot Captain Thomas Mantell; January 7, 1948
"Army intelligence has recently said that the matter of 'Unidentified Aircraft' or 'Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,' otherwise known as 'Flying Discs,' 'Flying Saucers,' and "Balls of Fire,' is considered top secret by intelligence officers of both the Army and Air Forces."
FBI memo on UFOs1949
Memo regarding a disk found in the Mojave desert in January, 1950: "On this land a flying disk has been found intact, with eighteen three-foot tall human-like occupants, all dead in it but not burned."
New Orleans FBI Branch to Director, FBI March 31, 1950
"I can assure you that flying saucers, given that they exist, are not constructed by any power on earth."
President Harry S. Truman, Press conference, Washington DC, April 4, 1950
"The matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States Government, rating higher even than the H-bomb. Flying saucers exist. Their modus operandi is unknown but concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Dr. Vannevar Bush. The entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significance."
Wilbert Smith, in a formerly classified Canadian government memorandum. Nov 21, 1950
Donald Slayton a Mercury astronaut revealed in an interview he had seen UFOs in 1951: "I was testing a P-51 fighter in Minneapolis when I spotted this object. I was at about 10,000 feet on a nice, bright, sunny afternoon. I thought the object was a kite, then I realized that no kite is gonna fly that high. As I got closer it looked like a weather balloon, gray and about three feet in diameter. But as soon as I got behind the darn thing it didn't look like a balloon anymore. It looked like a saucer, a disk. About the same time, I realized that it was suddenly going away from me -- and there I was, running at about 300 miles per hour. I tracked it for a little way, and then all of a sudden the damn thing just took off. It pulled about a 45 degree climbing turn and accelerated and just flat disappeared."
Donald "Deke" Slayon, NASA Mercury Astronaut
"For six hours...there were at least ten unidentifiable objects moving above Washington. They were not ordinary aircraft."
Harry. G Barnes, Senior Air Traffic Controller for the CAA 1952
"In view of the wide interest within the Agency. Outside knowledge of Agency interest in Flying Saucers carries the risk of making the problem even more serious in the public mind than it already is."
CIA memo 1952
"The least improbable explanation is that these things UFO's are artificial and controlled. My opinion for some time has been that they have an extraterrestrial origin.
Dr. Maurice Bilot, one of the world's leading aerodynamicists and mathematical physicists. Life, April 7, 1952
"At this time the reports of incidents convince us that there is something going on that must have immediate attention. Sightings of unexplained objects at high altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of vehicles."
H. Marshall Chadwell, Assistant Director of Scientific Intelligence, CIA; December 2, 1952
"There are many reasons to believe that they (UFOs) do exist: there is so much evidence from reliable witnesses."
Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh (Sunday Dispatch, London, Mar. 28, 1954)
"More than 10,000 sightings have been reported, the majority of which cannot be accounted for by any 'scientific' explanation... I am convinced that these objects do exist and that they are not manufactured by any nation on this Earth."
Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, Commander-in-Chief of RAF Fighter Command, London Sunday Dispatch July 11, 1954
"Of course flying saucers are real -- and they are interplanetary."
Air Chief Marshall Lord Dowding, former head of Royal Air Force during World War II; August 1954
"...it is as impossible to confirm UFOs in the present as it will be to deny them in the future."
Dr. Wernher von Braun
"(UFOs) are conceived and directed by intelligent beings. They probably do not originate in our solar system." Years later he was quoted as saying, "We cannot take the credit for our record advancement in certain scientific fields alone. We have been helped." When asked by whom, he replied,"The people of other worlds."
Dr. Herman Oberth, father of modern rocketry 1954
"It is my thesis that flying saucers are real and that they are space ships from another solar system. I think that they possibly are manned by intelligent observers who are members of a race that may have been investigating our earth for centuries. I think that they possibly have been sent out to conduct systematic, long-range investigations, first of men, animals, vegetation, and more recently of atomic centers, armaments and centers of armament production."
"These objects are conceived and directed by intelligent beings of a very high order. They probably do not originate in our solar system, perhaps not even in our galaxy."
Dr. Hermann Oberth Army Ballistic Missile Agency and later NASA, 1954
"The problem of 'flying discs' has polarized the attention of the whole world, but it's serious and it deserves to be treated seriously. Almost all the governments of the great powers are interested in it, dealing with it in a serious and confidential manner, due to its military interest."
Brigadier General João Adil Oliveira, Chief of the Air Force General Staff Information Service, Brazil, "Briefing to the Army War College" in Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 2, 1954
Washington, July 28th, 1995 - Congressman Steve Schiff released the General Accounting Office report detailing the results of a records audit related to events surrounding a crash near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. The 20 page report is the result of information requests to Congressman Schiff and the difficulty he had getting answers from the Department of Defense. Schiff said important documents, which may have shed more light on what happened at Roswell, are missing. "The GAO report states that the outgoing messages from Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) for this period of time were destroyed without proper authority. It is my understanding that these outgoing messages were permanent records, which should never have been destroyed. The GAO could not identify who destroyed the messages...or why."
Congressman Steve Schiff
"In the firm belief that the American public deserves a better explanation than that thus far given by the Air Force, I strongly recommend that there be a committee investigation of the UFO phenomena. I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs, and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment of the subject."
President Gerald Ford
"In my opinion, the UFO problems...constitutes an areas of extraordianry scientific interest."
Dr. James McDonald, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, UFOS: A Scientific Debate
"Well, Slim, (McClelland's knick name by Astronaut friends), I was flying a P-51 Mustang at about 12,000 feet over Minneapolis in 1951. I thought it was a simple kite. As I flew closer to it I looked at it and thought it was a weather balloon. But as I got behind it I could tell it wasn't a balloon. It looked like a disc."
NASA astronaut Donald "Deke" Slayton to Clarke McClelland
"Maximum security exists concerning the subject of UFOs."
CIA Director Allen Dulles 1955 (later, member of the Warren Commission)
"I have discussed this matter with the affected agencies of the government, and they are of the opinion that it is not wise to publicize this matter at this time."
Senator Richard Russell, head of Senate Armed Services Committee regarding his sighting of a UFO during a 1955 trip to the Soviet Union.
"Because of the developments of science, all the countries on earth will have to unite to survive and to make a common front against attack by people from other planets. The politics of the future will be cosmic, or interplanetary."
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, former Five Star General of the Army,(New York Times, Oct 8, 1955.)
"While flying with several other USAF pilots over Germany in 1957, we sighted numerous radiant flying discs above us. We couldn't tell how high they were. We couldn't get anywhere near their altitude."
"While working with a camera crew supervising flight testing of advanced aircraft at Edward's Air Force Base, California, the camera crew filmed the landing of a strange disc object that flew in over their heads and landed on a dry lake nearby. A camera crewman approached the saucer, it rose up above the area and flew off at a speed faster than any known aircraft."
NASA astronaut, L. Gordon Cooper
"Reliable reports indicate there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds and controlled by thinking intelligences."
Navy Admiral Delmar Fahrney public statement, 1957
"We have stacks of reports about flying saucers. We take them seriously when you consider we have lost many men and planes trying to intercept them."
General Benjamin Chidlaw - US Eastern Air Defense, Air Defense Command
"It is impossible to deny any more the existence of flying saucers at the present time. The flying saucer is not a ghost from another dimension... It is a fact confirmed by material evidence. There are thousands of documents, photos, and sighting reports demonstrating its existence. For instance, when I went to the Air Force High command to discuss the flying saucers I called for ten witnesses - military (AF officers) and civilians - to report their evidence about the presence of flying saucers in the skies of Rio Grande do Sul, and over Gravataí AFB [Air Force Base]; some of them had seen UFOs with the naked eye, others with high powered optical instruments. For more than two hours the phenomenon was present in the sky, impressing the selected audience: officers, engineers, technicians, etc."
Brigadier General João Adil Oliveira Brazil, Feb. 28, 1958
"Congressional investigations are still being held on the problem of unidentified flying objects and the problem is one in which there is quite a bit of interest. Since most of the material presented to the Committees is classified, the hearings are never printed."
Congressman William H. Ayres 1958
"Saucers exist; I saw two. They were intelligently flown or operated (evasive tactics, formation flight, hovering). They were mechanisms, not United States weapons, nor Russian. I presume they are extraterrestrial."
Lt. Colonel Richard Headrickradar bombing expert, 1959