Firestorm: Dr. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science

Thank you for the fantarstic thread! I didn't see a link to his collection at the University of Arizona Special Collections, so here it is. Next time I am nearby, will definitely make the trip to visit this. Has anyone here been to see it ?
James E. McDonald collection

Originally posted by owlwoman

Thank you for the fantarstic thread! I didn't see a link to his collection at the University of Arizona Special Collections, so here it is. Next time I am nearby, will definitely make the trip to visit this. Has anyone here been to see it ?

James E. McDonald collection

Owlwoman, many thanks for sharing that link, along with this page posted earlier in the thread by Easynow it all makes for some extremely interesting reading.

Anne Druffel also mentions Major Donald Keyhoe's work with Dr Mcdonald in the OP video and I don't know if you've seen them before but his UFO archives have now been made available free on line and cover some pretty darn intriguing historical and global UFO reports, government documents and scientific papers:


Major Donald Keyhoe's UFO Archives


Cheers!

Extremely good UFO documentary 'UFOs - A Secret History' which includes a great section on the agendas and motivations of the Condon Committee and the work of Dr James E. Mcdonald.

See 40:20

Author Anne Druffel goes into more detail about the surveillance and harassment experienced by Dr James E. Mcdonald during the last years of his life - also mentioned is the terrible attack on his daughter whilst on the Harvard campus:

From 1968 through 1970, inexplicable occurrences vexed McDonald. On airline trips his luggage was frequently "lost" and returned later, rifled through. A briefcase containing sensitive reports by military UFO witnesses was stolen off an airliner under mysterious, unexplained circumstances. McDonald was followed around Tucson by curious unmarked cars, and other signs of silent surveillance puzzled him. His persistence and perseverance brought him through these trials, but he began to privately suspect, with good reason, that government agents might be monitoring him. He confided his concerns only to a few close friends.

In September 1969, one of McDonald's daughters was raped and nearly murdered on the Harvard campus. The details of the attack were unexplained, and McDonald's repeated attempts to clarify them led to intense frustration..

link

At the link Anne Druffel also writes that, in the months leading up to his death, Dr Mcdonald informed two close colleagues that he was 'very close to learning the answer to UFOs and was holding discussions at the highest level of government':

A few weeks before these hearings, McDonald had told two close colleagues in the UFO field that he was very close to learning the answer to UFOs, and was holding discussions at "the highest level" of government. He explained that he was not free to discuss the details, but would soon be able to reveal what he knew.

McDonald's handwritten UFO journals contain notations up to March 17, 1971. Project Blue Book had been disbanded, and the best of its radar-visual UFO files had been declassified. McDonald had promptly traveled to Maxwell AFB in Alabama to study and copy them. He was amazed at the of information they contained: empirical evidence, the precious seeds of proof, which seemed to have been ignored by the government for 24 years.

Great radio interview with Tim Binnall and Anne Druffel:

Part Two

It's the middle portion of our 3-part "miniseries" with esteemed Ufologist Ann Druffel. Over the course of the next two episodes, we'll go in-depth on Ann's book Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science, covering the remarkable life and amazing contributions to Ufology by renowned atmospheric physicist James McDonald.

Part Three

The concluding installment of our special BoA:Audio "miniseries" with esteemed Ufologist Ann Druffel, wrapping up our in-depth discussion on Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science. In this week's episode, we'll be covering James McDonald's goals for a national UFO monitoring system, the unspoken pressure on McDonald to provide a UFO "breakthrough," the Condon Report, in-depth, including the "Low memo" and how McDonald was responsible for that document getting widely released, the reaction of Ufology to the Condon Report and if Ann thinks the UFO field was permanently damaged by the series of events that befell it in the late '60s / early '70's.

We'll also examine the folding of NICAP, and the events that led up to McDonald's death, beginning with his clandestine meeting with "top government officials," the SST Congressional hearings which saw McDonald publicly ridiculed by a Congressman, family issues that plagued McDonald towards the end of his life, and his subsequent suicide and Ann's thoughts on what may have been behind it and the result of McDonald's mysterious death on other scientists who may have been interested in UFOs. Plus, much more in this comprehensive interview.

Following on from this post about the surveillance and harassment of Dr James Mcdonald towards the end of his life, there's a link below about his Australian UFO research which goes into more detail about how the scientist may have found out what was actually behind the phenomena.

Mystery surrounds some aspects of McDonald's research. "About a month before he was due to testify in March, top-level government officials reportedly got in touch with McDonald." (p.491.)

In February 1971, McDonald was in conversation with Dr Robert M Wood (a physicist who worked for McDonnell-Douglas.) Although Druffel reports that Wood doesn't recall the exact words used by McDonald, he recalls McDonald saying something along the lines "I think I've got the answer;" "I found out what's behind it;" "I just can't tell you right now;" "You won't believe it! I've got to pin it down a little bit more, and then I'll come out." (p.492.)

In 1973, Wood said "I think he found the trail to the classified work...and some documentation that made it pretty clear that there was a cover up going on, that this was the most classified program in the country." (p.492.)

Unfortunately, the UFO research community was not to find out just what McDonald had meant, as he died, by his own hand, on 13 Jun 1971.

link

Doc Mcdonald accuses CIA of ordering USAF to debunk UFO reports:

The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington

Google News Archive

Interesting report from the Australian tape recorded interviews of James McDonald from Keith Basterfield involving UFO sighting by crew of a Military tank in April, 1966 - sourced by RealTVUFOs:

Occasionally you come across a UAP report which you would like to know much more about, but whatever you do, or whomever you communicate with, you are never able to find out anything more about the event.

I came across such a tantilising sighting, when I saw a listing of Australian tape recorded interviews, by James E McDonald. These tapes were recorded by McDonald when he was here in Australia in 1967. One line on the listing referred to a "Military tank sighting 24 April 1966."

In all my years collecting and analysing Australian UAP reports, I can honestly say that I have never come across, what is presumably a sighting by the crew of a tank! Plus the date was only some 18 days after the famous Westall incident, which is said, by some people, to have involved members of the Australian Army.

link

Originally posted by karl 12
Doc Mcdonald accuses CIA of ordering USAF to debunk UFO reports:

The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington

Google News Archive

That actually makes sense because many of the UFO reports were of CORONA, U-2 and A-12 and other aerial reconaissance projects run by CIA.

Originally posted by mbkennel

That actually makes sense because many of the UFO reports were of CORONA, U-2 and A-12 and other aerial reconaissance projects run by CIA.

I'm assuming your basing your opinion on the claim made by Gerald K. Haines in 1997 - have you ever checked its veracity?

1997--The CIA and Spy Planes

In a report published at about the same time as the Air Force's "crash dummy" revelation, the Central Intelligence Agency tried to write off thousands of UFO reports as mistaken observations of secret spy planes. It ended up writing fiction.

The first demonstrably incorrect statement was that there had been a major increase in UFO reports immediately following the first test flight of the prototype U-2 spy plane in August 1955. A simple count of cases in the files of Project Blue Book (which the CIA admits it used) shows that there had actually been a major decrease.

Then the CIA claimed that half of almost 9,000 UFO sightings made between mid-1955 and late1969 had been mistaken observations of U-2 and later SR-71 spy planes. Since those airplanes cruise too high to be seen from the ground (at more than 70,000 feet), this could not be the case. Moreover, one of the hallmarks of UFO descriptions in that period was their spectacular maneuvers, including right-angle turns at high speed. Both the U-2 and the SR-71 are among the least maneuverable airplanes used by the U.S. military.

Thirdly, the CIA claimed it had conspired with the staff of the Air Force's Project Blue Book to conceal the alleged sightings of spy planes by having them falsely labeled as obscure types of atmospheric phenomena. Had this been the case, several thousand UFO reports for 1955 - 1969 in the permanent files of Project Blue Book would be blamed on ice crystals, temperature inversions, and so on. But the actual total is barely three dozen.

Why the CIA would invent such an easily disproved story is unknown

link

The phrase 'demonstrably incorrect' is used in the article from the Coalition for Freedom of Information website so I guess all it's a matter of doing is checking if there actually was an increase or decrease in reports after August 1955; if hallmarks of UFO reports from that era actually did involve highly unusual flight characteristics; if the CIA actually did conspire with Project Blue Book to mislabel alleged U2 sightings as 'obscure types of atmospheric phenomena' and if the total number of these alleged Bluebook reports is only actually three dozen.

Below is another relevant article which also bring up the points that the spy plane flights were too few in number to account for all the alleged UFO reports; that the flights were carried out in areas far from public view and that the U-2 and A-12 flew at very high altitudes and were difficult to detect with the naked eye - there's also an interesting snippet concerning the then Project Bluebook Chief Robert Friend:

In 1997, Haines claimed that the CIA used UFO reports as cover for spy planes such as the U-2, and that the Air Force knowingly went along with this deception. Always ready to accept CIA material, the `New York Times' ingested the story - hook, line, and sinker. And thus another bogus claim became historical fact.

There are many problems with the claim. First, the CIA is never a credible source about its own history. After all, it is in business to deceive. Second, spy plane flights were too few in number to account for many UFO reports and they were carried out in areas far from public view. Third, the black U-2 and A-12 "Oxcart" flew at very high altitudes and were difficult to detect both visually and (in the case of the A-12) on radar. Fourth, UFO reports of the era bear little if any resemblance to the flight characteristics of high-altitude spy planes.

But most fatally, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Robert Friend, head of the Air Force's Project Blue Book from 1958 to 1963, later said there is absolutely no truth to the CIA's claims. Not only was Haines wrong about an agreement between the CIA and Air Force but Friend said he never received a single UFO report that he thought could be attributed to a spy plane.

link

Cheers.

Rare clip of Doc Mcdonald being interviewed about UFOs on television in Australia - see 5:50

Some good reading from Michael Swords concerning Frank Drake,Carl Sagan and Jim Mcdonald (far left).

SETIans & UFOs: A [pathetic] Snapshot of who we are.

Link

Great article about official UFO/USO research with a bit more on Dr James Mcdonald's missing briefcase saga - apparently he went to Point Mugu and China Lake and was granted 'extraordinary access' to the base there.


Introduction to the First Update of the Catalogue of UFOs/USOs Reported by Seagoing Services

originally posted by: karl 12
Some good reading from Michael Swords concerning Frank Drake,Carl Sagan and Jim Mcdonald (far left).

SETIans & UFOs: A [pathetic] Snapshot of who we are.

Link

What a great photo. They were all men of science. With the deaths of James McDonald and Dr. J Allen Hynek the serious scientific analysis of UFOs and unidentified phenomena seems to have gone out of the window in favor of wild conspiracy theories of ancient aliens, alien abductions and bases on Earth.

Even Dr. Peter A. Sturrock couldn't help it get back on the rails. It had been off the for far too long by the time he convened his panel in the 1990s.

It is no surprise why SETI moved on to mainstream credibility while UFOlogy stayed where it was or got worse in terms of credibility in the decades since that photo was taken.

This is now one of the faces of UFOlogy:

Great thread OP! It's strange there has been no major debunking on this thread........(scratches head)

I don't know why some debunkers insist on using the pejorative "believers" and the like, as if they were talking about some kind of cult.

I guess some may get emotionally attached to the investigation, but I think most of us have just stumbled over evidence over time that has made us curious and spurred us to do more research.

I honestly think we've moved past the question of "Are ET's interacting with us", this has been conclusively demonstrated time and time again.

The questions for me now are what does ET want, and why such a cover-up?

originally posted by: PlanetXisHERE
Great thread OP! It's strange there has been no major debunking on this thread........(scratches head)

I don't know why some debunkers insist on using the pejorative "believers" and the like, as if they were talking about some kind of cult.

This is why...

I honestly think we've moved past the question of "Are ET's interacting with us", this has been conclusively demonstrated time and time again.

The questions for me now are what does ET want, and why such a cover-up?

:facepalm:


You believe a certain narrative which there is nothing in the way of hard evidence for. Hence you are A UFOs as "OMG Aliens" believer.

Seems like a discussion of the FOIA-released documents would contribute to this thread --
badufos.blogspot.com...

originally posted by: JadeStar

What a great photo. They were all men of science. With the deaths of James McDonald and Dr. J Allen Hynek the serious scientific analysis of UFOs and unidentified phenomena seems to have gone out of the window in favor of wild conspiracy theories of ancient aliens, alien abductions and bases on Earth.

Even Dr. Peter A. Sturrock couldn't help it get back on the rails. It had been off the for far too long by the time he convened his panel in the 1990s.

Thanks for the post mate and yes those two scientists are very sorely missed - I'd say the way mainstream science deals with the subject nowadays is an absolute disgrace and Dr. Peter A. Sturrock probably hits the nail on the head with these two statements:

"Most scientists have never had the occasion to confront evidence concerning the UFO phenomenon. To a scientist, the main source of hard information (other than his own experiments' observations) is provided by the scientific journals. With rare exceptions, scientific journals do not publish reports of UFO observations. The decision not to publish is made by the editor acting on the advice of reviewers. This process is self-reinforcing: the apparent lack of data confirms the view that there is nothing to the UFO phenomenon, and this view (prejudice) works against the presentation of relevant data."
Peter A. Sturrock, "An Analysis of the Condon Report on the Colorado UFO Project," Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol.1, No.1, 1987



"The definitive resolution of the UFO enigma will not come about unless and until the problem is subjected to open and extensive scientific study by the normal procedures of established science.
In their public statements (but not necessarily in their private statements), scientists express a generally negative attitude towards the UFO problem, and it is interesting to try to understand this attitude. Most scientists have never had the occasion to confront evidence concerning the UFO phenomenon.”
Dr. Peter A. Sturrock, Professor of Space Science and Astrophysics and Deputy Director of the Center for Space Sciences and Astrophysics at Stanford University (Survey of American Astronomical Society)

Thought this one from Bruce was a relevant one as well.

“For nearly 40 years, the science establishment has ignored the UFO problem, relegating it to the domain of “true believers and mental imcompetents” (a.k.a. "kooks and nuts" [according to the former editor of Applied Optics magazine]). Scientists have participated in a "self-cover-up" by refusing to look at the credible and well-reported data. Furthermore, some of those few scientists who have studied UFO data have published explanations which are unconvincing or just plain wrong and have "gotten away with it" because most of the rest of the scientific community has not cared enough to analyze these explanations. The general rejection of the scientific validity of UFO sightings has made it difficult to publish analyses of good sightings in refereed journals of establishment science.”
Bruce Maccabee, optical physicist

originally posted by: JadeStar

This is now one of the faces of UFOlogy..

Yes that's not a pretty face - maybe it's all been engineered that way to 'use ridicule and precision propaganda techniques so the subject would be portrayed in a negative light thereby making people reluctant to report their experiences'.

originally posted by: PlanetXisHERE

I think most of us have just stumbled over evidence over time that has made us curious and spurred us to do more research.

Good point there and that's pretty much how I got into this subject -some of the internal government documents really do describe some incredibly bizarre flying objects (doing some incredibly bizarre things) and quite a number of the official explanations for UFOs are absolute codswallop.

originally posted by: JimOberg

Seems like a discussion of the FOIA-released documents would contribute to this thread..

Thanks for the Robert Sheaffer link Jim - there's also another post of his below in case you missed it.

link

Apparently the 'accidental camouflage' claim is nonsense.

originally posted by: JadeStar



You believe a certain narrative which there is nothing in the way of hard evidence for. Hence you are A UFOs as "OMG Aliens" believer.

Yes, insults, essentially an ad hominem attack, are typical of disinformation.

There is much evidence, if you choose to ignore it there is nothing I can present that will change your mind, not that I really care.

I guess some people need to be told by the government or "mainstream science" that something is real before they will accept it, and cannot think for themselves. Others can think for themselves, this has always been a threat to the established order.