The study of UFOs is commonly assumed to have began on June 23, 1947 with a sighting in Washington State by a respected local pilot Kenneth Arnold. After an interview describing what he saw, the crescent shaped objects were quickly dubbed by the media ‘flying saucers.’ Subsequent books by Major Donald Keyhoe (ret. USMC) and other popular authors of the time increasingly came to the conclusion that flying saucers were extraterrestrial in origin. The term ‘flying saucer’ more and more became associated with the extraterrestrial hypothesis. If one spoke of flying saucers, it was accepted that one was talking about technologies that had an other-worldly origin, and this had important public policy implications. Keyhoe eventually realized that the highest echelon of the military leadership in the U.S. were very anxious to cover up the extraterrestrial explanation, and ignore the conclusions of investigations conducted by even their own senior technical specialists.
"I completely disagree with Webre & Salla's POV for the reasons given by Colin Bennett elsewhere on this site." - Jack Sarfatti