Born: May 1, 1910
Died: April 27, 1986
Science is but a drop, our ignorance a sea.
J. Allen Hynek
Josef Allen Hynek was an American astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific advisor to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three projects: Project Sign, Project Grudge and Project Blue Book.
from the Introduction of J. Allen Hynek‘s book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry
[J. Allen Hynek on the US Air Force‘s Project Blue Book, Project Sign and Project Grudge]
“After 22 years of “stewardship” of the UFO problem, the air force terminated its “Project Blue Book”, the name given to the major portion of its UFO investigation program. Originally termed “Project Sign” and initiated in September, 1947, on February 11, 1949, it became “Project Grudge”; then from summer of 1951 to late 1969 it was called, “Project Blue Book”. Code names are not supposed to have any special significance, but the reader may read into them whatever he wishes.
Throughout this period the project was located at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, first as part of the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) and later under the aegis of the Foreign Technology Division (FTD). The air force’s formal public association with the UFO problem ended in December, 1969, when Secretary of the Air Force Robert C. Seamans officially terminated Project Blue Book, largely upon the recommendation of the Condon Report, the work of the air force-sponsored scientific group at the University of Colorado under the direction of Dr. E. U. Condon.”
[J. Allen Hynek on being invited by the US Air Force to work for Project Sign]
“In my association with the UFO phenomenon I was somewhat like the proverbial “innocent bystander who got shot”. Project Sign needed an astronomer to weed out obvious cases of astronomical phenomena ━ meteors, planets, twinkling stars, and other natural occurrences that could give rise to the flying saucer reports then being received, and I was a natural choice. I was then director of Ohio State University’s McMillin Observatory and, as such, the closest professional astronomer at hand.”
[J. Allen Hynek on his skepticism on flying saucer reports before deciding to join Project Sign as a scientific challenge to clear away “nonscience”]
“Before I began my association with the air force, I had joined my scientific colleagues in many a hearty guffaw at the “psychological postwar craze” for flying saucers that seemed to be sweeping the country and at the naiveté and gullibility of our fellow human beings who were being taken in by such obvious “nonsense”. It was thus almost in a sense of sport that I accepted the invitation to have a look at the flying saucer reports ━ they were called “flying saucers” then. I also had a feeling that I might be doing a service by helping to clear away “nonscience”. After all, wasn’t this a golden opportunity to demonstrate to the public how the scientific method works, how the application of the impersonal and unbiased logic of the scientific method (I conveniently forgot my own bias for the moment) could be used to show that flying saucers were figments of the imagination? Although many of my colleagues at the university looked askance at my association with such “unscientific” activity, I felt secure. I had ample “files protection”; as an astronomer I had been invited to examine the subject.
Such was my initiation and my inclination at the time. However, the opportunity to demonstrate to the public how the scientific method works, using the analysis of flying saucer reports as the vehicle, never materialized. While I was still working on my report for Project Sign, it became Project Grudge, and the Pentagon began to treat the subject with subtle ridicule. Furthermore, even though many UFO reports were not militarily classified, they were still by no means open to public examination. Such strictures effectively prevented letting the public in on the results of flying saucer investigations, let alone the process of investigation. The public was given only the end results ━ in cryptic news releases that, on the whole, left their questions unanswered and lowered the public’s estimation of the air force’s scientific image.
[J. Allen Hynek on his lack of involvement with Project Grudge, and his renewed position with Project Blue Book]
I played essentially no part in Project Grudge, and it was not until after the organization of Project Blue Book, under Captain Ruppelt in 1952, that I again became scientific consultant on UFO matters. Although my chief responsibility was as astronomical consultant, I concerned myself with all reports as they came in, each month reviewing current reports. Thus I became aware of some very interesting cases, most of which were submerged in a veritable quagmire of nonsense reports.
[J. Allen Hynek on his feeling of responsibility to set forth his experiences with UFO reports, interviewing UFO witnesses, dealing with the United States Air Force (USAF), and testifying before Congressional groups]
The termination of Project Blue Book heightened my sense of obligation to set forth my experiences, many of them startling, with the UFO problem and with the air force over a period of more than 20 years. Now I feel somewhat like a traveler returned from a long journey through unexplored, strange, and exotic lands, who finds it incumbent upon himself to set down an account of his travels and of the bizarre antics and customs of the “natives” of that strange land for the benefit of those who stayed at home.
I have had an opportunity to read and study all the reports in the Blue Book files, to interview many hundreds of witnesses ━ the reporters of UFO experiences ━ and even to testify several times before Congressional groups, which expressed considerable interest in the antics of the natives of UFO land.
I had
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from Chapter 1 of J. Allen Hynek‘s book The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry
[J. Allen Hynek on null]
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[J. Allen Hynek on null]
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