Encyclopedia > National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena
The National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (or NICAP) was a civilian unidentified flying object research group active in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
A non-profit organization (abbreviated NPO, or non-profit or not-for-profit) is an organization whose primary objective is to support an issue or matter of private interest or public concern for non-commercial purposes, without concern for monetary profit. ...
October 24 is the 297th day of the year (298th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United...
A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML...
Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ...
An unidentified flying object, or UFO, is any real or apparent flying object which cannot be identified by the observer and which remains unidentified after investigation. ...
Overview Though NICAP was a non-profit organization, the group faced collapse many times in its existence, due in no small part to financial ineptitude among the group’s directors. Only for a few years in the 1960’s when the organization's membership spiked dramatically was NICAP on firm financial ground. A non-profit organization (abbreviated NPO, or non-profit or not-for-profit) is an organization whose primary objective is to support an issue or matter of private interest or public concern for non-commercial purposes, without concern for monetary profit. ...
Despite these internal troubles, NICAP probably had the most visibility of any civilian American UFO group, and arguably had the most mainstream respectability; Jerome Clark writes that "for many middle-class Americans and others interested in UFOs but repelled by ufology’s fringe aspects, it served as a sober forum for UFO reporting, inquiry, investigation, and speculation" (Clark, 412). NICAP advocated transparent scientific investigation of UFO sightings and was skeptical of "contactee" tales involving meetings with space visitors, the alien abduction phenomenon, and the like. The presence of several prominent military officials as members of NICAP brought a further measure of respectability for many observers. Jerome Clark (1946 - ) is an American researcher and writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other anomalous phenomena; he is also a songwriter of some note. ...
Ufology is the study of unidentified flying object (UFO) reports, sightings, alleged physical evidence, and other related phenomena. ...
Contactees are persons who claim to be in regular contact with extraterrestrials. ...
The abduction phenomenon is an umbrella term used to describe a number of hypotheses, claims or assertions stating that non-human creatures kidnap individuals—sometimes called abductees—usually for medical testing or for sexual reproduction procedures. ...
Throughout its existence, NICAP argued that there was an organized governmental cover up of UFO evidence. NICAP also pushed for governmental hearings regarding UFOs, to at best limited and occasional success. Look up Cover-up in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Though any UFO-related group attracts a number of uncritical enthusiasts along with a small percentage of cranks, astronomer J. Allen Hynek cited NICAP and APRO as the two best civilian UFO groups of their time, comprised largely of sober, serious minded people capable of valuable contributions to the subject (Hynek, 1972). Crank is a pejorative term for a person who holds some belief which the vast majority of his contemporaries would consider false, clings to this belief in the face of all counterarguments or evidence presented to him. ...
Josef Allen Hynek (May 1, 1910 - April 27, 1986) was a U.S. astronomer, professor, and ufologist. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Until the mid-1960s NICAP gave little attention to close encounters of the third kind (where animated beings are purportedly sighted in relation to a UFO). However, longtime NICAP member Richard H. Hall related privately that this position was "tactical and not doctrinaire." (Druffel, 93). In other words, NICAP did not necessarily dismiss occupant reports out of hand, but elected to focus on other aspects of the UFO phenomenon which would be perceived by mainstream observers as less outlandish. The attention given to the contactees of the 1950s (who typically claimed ongoing contact with benevolent "Space Brothers") was almost certainly a factor in NICAP’s reluctance to study UFO occupant reports too closely. But with the 1964 Lonnie Zamora UFO encounter — regarded by researchers as one of the most reliable UFO occupant reports — NICAP loosened its restrictions on studying UFO occupant reports. Richard H. Hall (1930 -) is a leading Ufologist and proponent of the extraterrestrial hypothesis to explain UFO sightings; he has also written numerous books and articles dealing with the role of women in the American Civil War. ...
Contactees are persons who claim to be in regular contact with extraterrestrials. ...
Space Brothers aka Space People aka Nordic Spacemen were the type of space alien normally reported by classic contactees, those who claimed to have had face-to-face encounters with flying saucer crewmembers and (usually) rides in their saucers, beginning in 1952 with George Adamski and continuing with many inspired...
Lonnie Zamora (born? - died?) was a New Mexico police officer who reported a close encounter of the first, second and third kinds on Friday, April 24, 1964, near Socorro, New Mexico. ...
History
1950s NICAP was founded on October 24, 1956, by physicist Thomas Townsend Brown. On the Board of Directors were several prominent persons, including retired United States Marine Corps officer Donald Keyhoe and retired United States Navy Rear Admiral Delmer S. Fahrney, who had headed the Navy’s guided missile program. Thomas Townsend Brown (March 18, 1905 – October 22, 1985) was an American physicist. ...
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the United States military responsible for providing power projection from the sea,[1] utilizing the mobility of the U.S. Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. ...
Donald Edward Keyhoe (June 20, 1897 - November 29, 1988) was an anus rimmer and a penis sucker in the Marine Corps officer with some flight experience, writer of many aviation articles and stories in a variety of leading publications, and manager of the promotional tours of aviation pioneers, especially of...
USN redirects here. ...
By early January, 1957, however, Brown had proved so financially inept that the Board of Directors asked him to step down. Fahrney replaced him, then convened a press conference on January 16, 1957 where he announced that UFOs were under intelligent control, but that they were of neither American or Soviet origin. The press conference received major attention, doubtless aided by Fahrney’s stature. A joint press conference by U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the White House. ...
In April, 1957 Fahrney resigned from NICAP, citing unspecified pressing personal issues. It was later disclosed that his wife was seriously ill, but also that Fahney was bothered by the whispers and ridicule his UFO interests generated among many of his peers in the military.
Keyhoe became NICAP’s director. He established a monthly newsletter,The U.F.O. Investigator. Also in 1957, another prominent figure came onboard: Vice Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter joined NICAP’s board of directors; he had earlier been the head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter (May 8, 1897 - June 18, 1982), born in St. ...
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an intelligence agency of the United States government. ...
The organization had chapters and local associates scattered throughout the United States. Many of their members were amateurs, but a considerable percentage were professionals, including journalists, military personnel, scientists and medical doctors. One of NICAP’s prime goals was thorough field investigations of UFO reports. They would eventually compile a significant number of case files and field investigations which Clark characterises as "often first rate". (Clark, 413)
By 1958, NICAP had grown to over 5000 members. Keyhoe’s financial skills were only slightly better than Brown’s, and NICAP hobbled along for several more years, facing collapse on several occasions. For most of his tenure as director, Keyhoe sent irregular letters to NICAP's members, warning of the organization's imminent collapse, and soliciting funds to keep NICAP from collapse. According to Jerome Clark (see sources below), Keyhoe often paid for much of NICAP's operating expenses himself.
1960s The 1960s found much of the North American public keenly interested in UFOs, and NICAP’s membership crested at 14,000. This influx of members greatly improved the group’s finances.
When the the U.S. Air Force, in collaboration with the University of Colorado, established the Condon Committee (1966-68) to study UFOs, NICAP initially aided its investigations, but Keyhoe quickly became disenchanted, limiting NICAP's role. NICAP formally severed ties with the Condon Committee in early 1968. Following the Condon Committee’s report (which concluded there was nothing extraordinary about UFOs), public interest in the subject abated, and NICAP’s membership dropped to about 5000. Seal of the Air Force. ...
The University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder, UCB officially[2]; Colorado and CU colloquially) is the flagship university of the University of Colorado System in Boulder, Colorado. ...
The Condon Committee was the informal name of the University of Colorado UFO Project, a study of unidentified flying objects, undertaken at the University of Colorado and directed by physicist Edward Condon from 1966 to 1968. ...
1969 saw the last NICAP efforts of any significance, two monographs: Strange Effects from UFOs and UFOs: A New Look. A monograph is a scholarly book or a treatise on a single subject or a group of related subjects. ...
NICAP's membership plummeted in the late 1960s, and Keyhoe faced charges of financial incompetence and authoritarianism. By 1969 Keyhoe turned his focus away from the military and focused on the CIA as the source of the UFO cover up. By December, 1969, NICAP's board, headed by Colonel Joseph Bryan III, forced Keyhoe to retire as NICAP chief. Bryan was actually a former covert CIA agent who had served as founder and head of the CIA's psychological warfare division. Under Bryan's leadership, NICAP disbanded its local and state affiliate groups (Denzler, p. 17). Afterwards, John L. Acuff became NICAP’s director.
1970s NICAP’s membership continued to drop as it was led by Acuff and then Alan Hall. By now the organization was all but paralyzed by infighting, including unsubstantiated charges that the Central Intelligence Agency had infiltrated NICAP. In fact, several persons with CIA ties had joined NICAP; however, their motives and reasons for joining NICAP have been the subject of some debate. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an intelligence agency of the United States government. ...
One person specifically named as a suspected CIA infiltrator was retired Air Force Colonel Joseph Bryan III. His son, writer C.D.B. Bryan, dismisses this idea, suggesting that "Anyone who knows anything about the history of NICAP knows that the group didn’t need anybody's help in its disintegration; it simply self destructed." As to his father’s involvement as an alleged CIA agitator, Bryan writes, "my father’s unswerving, outspoken faith in UFOs ... was, I felt, something of an embarrassment ... I do not believe it was the sort of public position an agent would take whose covert goal was to smother interest in UFOs." (Bryan, 191fn)
1980 saw the last publication of NICAP’s newsletter; the organization dissolved later that year. NICAP's archive of UFO sighting case files was subsequently purchased by the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). The Center for UFO Studies is an unidentified flying object research group. ...
References in popular culture - The frequently UFO-themed X-Files made occasional references to NICAP, most notably in the season 1 episode 'Fallen Angel' in the shape of NICAP researcher Max Fenig (Scott Bellis). Fenig later returned in the season 4 two-part episode 'Max'/'Tempus Fugit'.
UFO can mean: Unidentified flying object United Future Organization, a Japanese-Brazilian electronic jazz band UFO, the rock band that previously featured Michael Schenker UFO, the Gerry Anderson TV series United Farmers of Ontario, a political party that formed the government in Ontario from 1919 to 1923 U.F.O...
The X-Files is a Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning science fiction television series created by Chris Carter, which first aired on September 10, 1993, and ended on May 19, 2002. ...
List of epsiodes from the television show The X-Files, with plot synopses for each episode. ...
Fallen Angel was the tenth episode of the first season of The X-Files science-fiction television series created by Chris Carter. ...
This article contains episode information and plot summaries from the television show The X-Files. ...
‹ The template below (Unreferenced episode) is being considered for deletion. ...
Tempus fugit is a latin expression meaning time flees, more commonly translated as time flies. It is frequently used as an inscription on clocks. ...
Sources - C.D.B. Bryan, Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs and the Conference at M.I.T. Alfred A. Knopf, 1995; ISBN 0-679-42975-1
- Jerome Clark, The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial. Visible Ink, 1998; ISBN 1-57859-029-9
- Brenda Denzler, The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs. University of California Press, 2003; ISBN 0-520-23905-9
- Hynek, J. Allen, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry, Chicago: Henry Regenery Co., 1972
External links
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