Table 1 UFO and alien quotes from people... | Emerald Publishing

Table 1

UFO and alien quotes from people in power

Individual – position	Quote/comment
Dr Paul Santorini regarding UFOs seen over Greece in 1946	“Before we could do anymore, the army, after conferring with (US) officials, ordered the investigation stopped”
US President Harry S. Truman (1950)	“I can assure you that flying saucers, given that they exist are not constructed by any power on earth”
FBI memorandum by Air Intelligence Officer Commander Boyd (1952)	“The objects sighted may possible be from another planet … at the present time there is nothing to substantiate this … but the possibility is not being overlooked…. Intense research is being carried out by Air Intelligence…. The Air Force is attempting in each instance to send up jet interceptor planes”
Royal Air Force Commanding Officer Air Chief Marshall Lord Hugh (1954)	“Of course the flying saucers are real – and they are interplanetary … the cumulative evidence for the existence of UFOs is quite overwhelming and I accept the fact of their existence”
Major General Joe W. Kelly, 1957	“Air Force interceptors still pursue UFOs as a matter of national security to this country and to determine technical aspects involved”
Darling Observatory Astronomer Dr Frank Halstead (1957)	“Many professional astronomers are convinced that [flying] saucers are interplanetary machines”
Navy Admiral Delmar Fahrney in a public statement during 1957	“Reliable reports indicate there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds and controlled by thinking intelligences”
Lt. Colonel Richard Headrick, radar bombing expert, 1959	“Saucers exist (I saw two). They were intelligently flown or operated (evasive tactics, formation flight, hovering). They were mechanisms, not US weapons, nor Russian. I presume they are extraterrestrial”
Roscoe Hillenkoetter, Former CIA Director, public statement, 1960	“Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. However, through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe that unknown flying objects are nonsense”
NASA X-15 pilot Major Robert White (1962)	“There are things out there! There absolutely is!”
Dr James McDonald before Congress, 1968	“My own present opinion, based on two years of careful study, is that UFOs are probably extraterrestrial devices engaged in something that might very tentatively be termed ‘surveillance’”
Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan (1973)	“I have been asked [about UFOs] and I have said publicly I thought they were somebody else, some other civilisation”
Chief of NASA Communications Systems Maurice Chatelaine (1979)	“All Apollo and Gemini flights were followed, both at a distance and sometimes also quite closely, by space vehicles of extraterrestrial origin – flying saucers or UFOs, if you want to call them by that name”
Air MarshallAzim Daudpota, Zimbabwe speaking about a UFO sighting over the country in 1985	“This was no ordinary UFO. Scores of people saw it. It was no illusion, no deception, no imagination”
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (1990s)	“The phenomenon of UFOs does exist, and it must be treated seriously”

Individual – position	Quote/comment
Dr Paul Santorini regarding UFOs seen over Greece in 1946	“Before we could do anymore, the army, after conferring with (US) officials, ordered the investigation stopped”
US President Harry S. Truman (1950)	“I can assure you that flying saucers, given that they exist are not constructed by any power on earth”
FBI memorandum by Air Intelligence Officer Commander Boyd (1952)	“The objects sighted may possible be from another planet … at the present time there is nothing to substantiate this … but the possibility is not being overlooked…. Intense research is being carried out by Air Intelligence…. The Air Force is attempting in each instance to send up jet interceptor planes”
Royal Air Force Commanding Officer Air Chief Marshall Lord Hugh (1954)	“Of course the flying saucers are real – and they are interplanetary … the cumulative evidence for the existence of UFOs is quite overwhelming and I accept the fact of their existence”
Major General Joe W. Kelly, 1957	“Air Force interceptors still pursue UFOs as a matter of national security to this country and to determine technical aspects involved”
Darling Observatory Astronomer Dr Frank Halstead (1957)	“Many professional astronomers are convinced that [flying] saucers are interplanetary machines”
Navy Admiral Delmar Fahrney in a public statement during 1957	“Reliable reports indicate there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds and controlled by thinking intelligences”
Lt. Colonel Richard Headrick, radar bombing expert, 1959	“Saucers exist (I saw two). They were intelligently flown or operated (evasive tactics, formation flight, hovering). They were mechanisms, not US weapons, nor Russian. I presume they are extraterrestrial”
Roscoe Hillenkoetter, Former CIA Director, public statement, 1960	“Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. However, through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe that unknown flying objects are nonsense”
NASA X-15 pilot Major Robert White (1962)	“There are things out there! There absolutely is!”
Dr James McDonald before Congress, 1968	“My own present opinion, based on two years of careful study, is that UFOs are probably extraterrestrial devices engaged in something that might very tentatively be termed ‘surveillance’”
Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan (1973)	“I have been asked [about UFOs] and I have said publicly I thought they were somebody else, some other civilisation”
Chief of NASA Communications Systems Maurice Chatelaine (1979)	“All Apollo and Gemini flights were followed, both at a distance and sometimes also quite closely, by space vehicles of extraterrestrial origin – flying saucers or UFOs, if you want to call them by that name”
Air MarshallAzim Daudpota, Zimbabwe speaking about a UFO sighting over the country in 1985	“This was no ordinary UFO. Scores of people saw it. It was no illusion, no deception, no imagination”
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev (1990s)	“The phenomenon of UFOs does exist, and it must be treated seriously”

Sources: Heseltine (2020a, 2020b); Spignesi and Birnes (2019)