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O’Brien Committee

A United States Air Force (“USAF”) Scientific Advisory Board (“SAB”) Ad Hoc Committee (the “Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project Blue Book”, commonly known as “the O’Brien Committee”) met for one day on 3 February 1966 to review Project “Blue Book” under the chairmanship of Dr. Brian O'Brien. Issued a report dated March 1966.

 

 

 

 

Sections below

1. Web Resources

2. Book References

3. Other material

 

Web Resources

A searchable PDF copy of the O'Brien Committee report is embedded below and can also be found at:

http://www.isaackoi.com/documents/chronology/19660300_obrien_report.pdf

 

 

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The text of the O’Brien Committee report, obtained from various sources, is available online at:

http://www.cufon.org/cufon/obrien.htm

There is a rapid turnover of UFO material on the Internet. Many links to material on UFO websites quickly become out of date. Therefore, instead of giving many links to specific webpages I have instead included below a search box which can be used to search various leading UFO websites at the same time. You can then click on tabs at the top of the search results to list only results from forums, only results from websites I have labelled as "skeptical" etc. I have included tabs for a couple of specific websites that I find particularly useful, including the valuable archives of the UFO UpDates email discussion List. The relevant websites are all listed in the discussion of the "UFO Searchillion" search engine in Section 2.4 of the "Free UFO Researcher Starter Pack" and continues to evolve...

 

The relevant search box is one of the two main tools on this website which are intended to help reduce the amount of reinvention of the wheel within UFOlogy. The other main tool is the collection of tables of references to discussion of UFO incidents, personalities and other matters in various books. Those tables can be sorted by author, length and date. I hope these tools are useful.

 

 

 

Book References

Complete text of report presented in the Condon Report (“Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”, Edward U Condon (Director) and Daniel S Gillmor (Editor) (1969)) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 1280-1290 (in Appendix A) of the uncorrected version submitted to the Air Force (with the same page numbering in the 3 volume paperbound edition distributed by the National Technical Information Service, US Department of Commerce) at pages 811-818 of the Vision hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Bantam paperback edition). The first of these editions has the same page numbering as the edition available free online at the following links:

http://www.project1947.com/shg/condon/contents.html

Extract of report of the O’Brien Committee appears by Steiger, Brad in his “Project Blue Book“ (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 337-338 of the Ballantine Books paperback edition (Appendix D: Special Report USAF Ad Hoc Committee).

The table below includes references to relevant discussions in UFO/SETI books noted by Isaac Koi during a review of approximately 963 UFO/SETI books during the period 2003-2006 (with a few later additions). The table can be sorted by author, date and length of discussion by clicking on the relevant word in the top line of the table.

Many of the tables of references on this website are considerably longer than the references to books found on most other UFO websites. Indeed, some are probably the longest that have been collated in relation to some events and personalities. Together with the "UFO Searchillion" search box, I hope that these tables are found to be a useful contribution to UFOlogy.

For discussion of the O’ Brien Committee see the following:

 

Year

Discussion by:

 

No. of Pages

1996

Brookesmith, Peter in his “UFO: The Government Files” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 54 (in Chapter 3) of the Parragon hardback edition.

1

1998

Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 475-476 (forming part of an entry entitled “Project Blue Book”) also briefly discussed at page 593 (forming part of an entry entitled “University of Colorado UFO Project”) of the Visible Ink Press softcover edition.

3

1996

Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: 1st edition: Volume 3 – High Strangeness” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 412-413 (in an entry entitled “Project Blue Book, 1960-1969”) also briefly discussed at pages 517-518 (forming part of an entry entitled “University of Colorado UFO Project”) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition.

4

1998

Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) in Volume 2:L-Z at page 946 (forming part of the entry entitled “University of Colorado UFO Project” at pages 946-959), 738 (forming part of an entry entitled “Project Blue Book” at pages 730-742) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition.

2

1998

Clark, Jerome in his “The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning - 2nd edition” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) in Volume 2:L-Z at page 738 (forming part of the entry entitled “Project Blue Book” at pages 730-742) of the Omnigraphics hardback edition.

1

1969

Condon Report (“Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”, Edward U Condon (Director) and Daniel S Gillmor (Editor) (1969)) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages v (in the Preface, by Thurston E Manning), 10-11, 18 (in Section 2 “Summary of the Study”, by Edward U Condon), 903-909 (in Section 5, Chapter 2 “UFOs: 1947-1968”, by Edward U Condon) of the uncorrected version submitted to the Air Force (with the same page numbering in the 3 volume paperbound edition distributed by the National Technical Information Service, US Department of Commerce) at pages xviii, 7-8, 13, 541-545 of the Vision hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Bantam paperback edition). The first of these editions has the same page numbering as the edition available free online at the following links:

 

http://www.project1947.com/shg/condon/contents.html

11

1995

Craig, Roy in his “UFOs – An Insider’s View” (1995) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages xv-xvi (in the Preface) of the UNT softback edition.

2

1999

Davidson, Keay in his “Carl Sagan: A Life” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 225 (in Chapter 8) of the Wiley softcover edition.

1

1997

Devereux, Paul and Brookesmith, Peter in their “UFOs and Ufology – the first 50 years” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 88 (in Chapter 7) of the Blandford softcover edition.

1

1998

Dick, Steven J in his “Life on Other Worlds“ (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 151-152 (in Chapter 5) of the Cambridge hardback edition.

2

1996

Dick, Steven J in his “The Biological Universe” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 290 (in Chapter 6) of the Cambridge hardback edition.

1

2000

Dolan, Richard in his “UFOs and the National Security State: Volume 1: 1941-1973” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 390-391 (in Chapter 7) of the Keyhole softcover edition, at pages 297-298 of the 2002 revised Hampton Road softcover edition.

2

2003

Druffel, Ann in her “Firestorm : Dr James E McDonald's Fight for UFO Science” (2003) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 255 (in Chapter 10), 388 (in Chapter 14) of the Wild Flower Press softcover edition.

2

1968

Earley, George W in “Encounters with Aliens” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 17 (in the Editor’s Preface) of the Charter House softcover edition.

1

1967

Edwards, Frank in his “Flying Saucers – Here and Now!” (1967) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 46-47 (in Chapter 3) of the Lyle Stuart hardback edition, at pages 23-24 of the Bantam paperback edition.

2

1976

Flammonde, Paris in his “Ufo Exist!” (1976) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 408-410 (in Chapter 20) of the Ballantine Books paperback edition.

3

1981

Fowler, Raymond in his “Casebook of a UFO Investigator” (1981) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 44 (in Chapter 5) of the Prentice-Hall hardback edition.

1

1980

Greenwell, J Richard in “The Encyclopedia of UFOs” (1980) edited by Ronald Story (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 252 (in an entry entitled “O’Brien Committee”) of the NEL hardback edition.

1

1997

Haines, Gerald K (National Reconnaissance Office historian) at footnote 70 in his study entitled “A Die-Hard Issue : CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90” in “Studies in Intelligence”, Issue 1997 Vol. 1, No. 1 (the text of the study is available online on various websites, including the CIA’s:

http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/97unclass/ufo.html#ft70 )

1

1999

Hall, Michael David in his “UFOs : A Century of Sightings” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 281-282 (in Chapter 7) of the Galde Press softcover edition.

2

2001

Hall, Richard in “The UFO Evidence: Volume 2 – A Thirty Year Report” (2001) (edited by Richard Hall) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 6 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “Master Chronology”) of the Scarecrow Press hardback edition.

1

1995

Harbinson, W A in his “Projekt Saucer” (1995) at page 235-236 (in Chapter 12) of the Box Tree hardback edition.

2

2000

Hoyt, Diana Palmer in her Masters thesis entitled “UFOcritique : UFOs, Social Intelligence, and the Condon Report” (2000.0420) in Chapter 2 at pages 29-30. Complete text of the Masters thesis available online at:

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05082000-09580026/unrestricted/UFOCRITIQUE.pdf

2

1977

Hynek, J Allen in his “The Hynek UFO Report” (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 271 (in Chapter 12) of the Barnes & Noble hardback reprint (1997) at page 280 of the Dell paperback edition (with the same page numbering in the Sphere paperback edition).

1

1972

Hynek, J Allen in his “The UFO Experience” (1972) (Chapter 12) at pages 197-198 of the Henry Regnery hardback edition (with same page numbering in the Abelard-Schuman hardback edition) at pages 223-224 of the various Ballantine paperback editions, at pages 245-246 of the Corgi paperback edition.

2

1975

Jacobs, David Michael in his “The UFO Controversy in America” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 198-200, 206-207 (in Chapter 8) of the Indiana hardback edition, page 176-177, 183 of the Signet paperback edition.

5

1987

Kinder, Gary in his “Light Years” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 166 (in Chapter 8) of the Viking hardback edition.

1

1979

Knight, David C in his “UFOs: A pictorial history from antiquity to the present” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 99 (in Part 4) of the McGraw Hill hardback edition.

1

1967

Lorenzen, Coral and Lorenzen, Jim in their “Flying Saucer Occupants” (1967) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 157 (in Chapter 9) of the Signet paperback edition.

1

1969

Lorenzen, Coral and Lorenzen, Jim in their “UFOs: The Whole Story” (1969) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 256-258 (in Chapter 12) of the Signet paperback edition.

3

1977

Menzel, Donald and Taves, Ernest in their “The UFO Enigma“ (1977) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 82 (in Chapter 7) of the Doubleday hardback edition.

1

2002

Moseley, James and Pflock, Karl in their “Shockingly Close to the Truth!” (2002) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 195, 196 (in Chapter 9) of the Prometheus hardback edition.

2

1994

Peebles, Curtis in his “Watch the Skies!” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 171-172 (in Chapter 12) of the Smithsonian hardback edition, page 206 of the Berkley paperback edition.

2

1999

Poundstone, William in his “Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos” (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 92, 93 (in the chapter entitled “Cambridge 1963-1968”) of the Owl Books softcover edition.

2

1974

Quintanilla, Hector (Major) in his unpublished manuscript entitled “UFOs: An Air Force Dilemma” (copyright 1974) at pages 48-50 of the manuscript, at pages 61-63 of the NIDS pdf version available free on-line on various websites, including at the following link:

http://www.projectbluebook.us/UFOs%20An%20Air%20Force%20Dilemma%20By%20Quintanilla.pdf

http://www.nidsci.org/pdf/quintanilla.pdf

 

3

1996

Randles, Jenny and Hough, Peter in their “50 Years of UFO Encounters” (1996) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 49-50 (in unnumbered section entitled “1966: UFOs Under the Microscope”) of the Encounters Magazine softcover edition.

2

1994

Randles, Jenny and Hough, Peter in their “The Complete Book of UFOs” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 223 (in Chapter 18) of the Piatkus softcover edition.

1

1985

Randles, Jenny and Warrington, Peter in their “Science and the UFOs " (1985) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 48-49 (in Chapter 3), 51 (in Chapter 4) of the Blackwell hardback edition.

2

1984

Randles, Jenny in “The Age of the UFO” (1984) (edited by Peter Brookesmith) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 59 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “ ‘UFOs are bunk’ ”) of the Black Cat hardback edition. The relevant chapter is an article reprinted from the weekly partwork “The Unexplained”.

1

1987

Randles, Jenny in “The UFO Conspiracy” (1987) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 64 (in Chapter 9) of the Barnes & Noble hardback edition.

1

2000

Randles, Jenny in her “The Little Giant Encyclopedia of UFOs” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 64 (in Part 1, “A UFO Timeline”) of the Sterling softcover edition.

1

1981

Randles, Jenny in her “UFO Study” (1981) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 51 (in Chapter 3) of the Hale hardback edition.

1

1980

Sachs, Margaret in her “The UFO Encyclopedia“ (1980 (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 227-228 (in an entry entitled “O’Brien Report”) of the Corgi softback edition.

2

1997

Sagan, Carl in his “The Demon Haunted World” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 79 (in Chapter 5) of the Headline softcover edition.

1

1968

Saunders, David and R Roger Harkins in their “UFOs? Yes!” (1968) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 25 (in Chapter 1) of the Signet paperback edition.

1

1976

Smith, Marcia S in her “The UFO Enigma: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, UG 633, 76-52 SP” (1976) at pages 62-63, 70 (in Chapter 5) of the Congressional Research Service stapled edition.

3

1997

Spencer, John and Spencer, Anne in their “Fifty Years of UFOs” (1997) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 72 (in the unnumbered chapter entitled “1967-1977”) of the Boxtree hardback edition.

1

1991

Spencer, John in his “The UFO Encyclopedia” (1991) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 4 (in an entry entitled “Ad Hoc Committee”) of the Guild hardback edition (with the same page numbering in the Avon softcover edition) at page 5 of the Headline paperback edition.

1

1966

Stanton, L Jerome in his “Flying Saucers : Hoax or Reality?” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 116-117 (in Chapter 7) of the Belmont paperback edition.

2

1978

Stemman, Roy in his “Mysteries of the Universe: Great Mysteries” (1978) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 153 (in Chapter 7) of the Book Club Associates hardback edition.

1

1981

Story, Ronald in his “UFOs and the Limits of Science” (1981) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 61-62 (Chapter 2) of the NEL Hardback edition.

2

1981

Story, Ronald in his “UFOs and the Limits of Science” (1981) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 61 (Chapter 2) of the NEL Hardback edition.

1

1999

Sturrock, Peter in his “The UFO Enigma“ (1999) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 15-16 (in Chapter 2) of the Warner Aspect hardback edition.

2

1993

Thompson, Richard in his “Alien Identities: Ancient Insights into Modern UFO Pheonemena” (1993) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 91-92 (in Chapter 3) of the GHP revised softcover edition.

2

1966

Vallee, Jacques and Vallee, Janine in their “Challenge to Science – The UFO Enigma” (1966) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 105 (in Chapter 5) of the Ballantine Books paperback edition, at page 89 of the Tandem paperback edition.

1

1988

Vallee, Jacques in his “Dimensions“ (1988) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 227-228 (in Part 3, Chapter 8) of the Souvenir Press hardback edition.

2

1975

Vallee, Jacques in his “The Invisible College” (1975) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 42 (in Chapter 2) of the Dutton hardback edition, at page 51 of the Panther paperback edition (published under the title “UFOs : The Psychic Solution”).

1

1998

Wright, Susan in her “UFO Headquarters” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 55-57 (in Chapter 3) of the St Martin’s Press softcover edition.

3

 

Other Material

Text of report presented by Quintanilla, Hector (Major) in his unpublished manuscript entitled “UFOs: An Air Force Dilemma” (copyright 1974) at pages 48-50 of the manuscript, at pages 61-63 of the NIDS pdf version available free on-line on various websites, including at the following link:

http://www.projectbluebook.us/UFOs%20An%20Air%20Force%20Dilemma%20By%20Quintanilla.pdf

http://www.nidsci.org/pdf/quintanilla.pdf

Please use the comments section below to share references to any particularly interesting relevant articles.