Not new

As a pilot and former Air Force officer, I can definitely say that this craft [Phoenix Lights incident] did not resemble any man-made object I'd ever seen. And it was certainly not high-altitude flares [as stated by the Air Force], because flares don't fly in formation.

— Fife Symington

Governor, Arizona

1997 | In Plain Sight p 119

My position both privately and publicly expressed over the last dozen years or more [about the 1980 Rendlesham forest incident at RAF Bentwaters], is that there are only two possibilities, either: a) An intrusion into our air space and a landing by unidentified craft took place at Rendlesham, as described. Or: b) The Deputy Commander of an operational, nuclear armed, US Air Force base in England, and a large number of his enlisted men, are lying. Either of these simply must be 'of interest to the Ministry of Defence,' which has been repeatedly denied, in precisely those terms.

— Lord Hill-Norton

Admiral, UK Chief of the Defence Staff

10/22/1997 | UFOs: Generals ... p 173

[Tape recording during Rendlesham incident with other soldiers]
I see it, too... It's back again... It's coming this way... There is no doubt about it... This is weird... It looks like an eye winking at you... It almost burns your eyes... He's coming towards us now... [panic] Now we are observing what appears to be a beam coming down to the ground... One object still hovering over Woodbridge base... beaming down.

— Charles Halt

Lt Colonel, US AIr Force
Deputy Base Commander, RAF Bentwaters

12/28/1980 | UFOs: Generals ... p 170

I was the senior security officer in charge of Woodbridge base security [Rendlesham]... I held a top-secret US and NATO security clearance... It maneuvered through the trees and shot off at an unbelievable rate of speed. It was gone in the blink of an eye. In my logbook, which I still have, I wrote 'Speed Impossible.' I subsequently learned that other personnel based at Bentwaters and Woodbridge, all trained observers, had witnessed this takeoff.

— James Penniston

Sergeant, US Air Force

2010 | UFOs: Generals ... p 179

I spoke to former RAF radar operator Nigel Kerr [about Rendlesham]... for three or four sweeps, something did show up, directly over the base. But it faded away... Arguably the most critical piece of evidence... The Defence Intelligence Staff had assessed the radiation readings taken at the landing site and judged them to be 'significantly higher than the average background,'... about seven times what would have been expected for the area concerned.

— Nick Pope

UK Ministry of Defense (Ret.)

2010 | UFOs: Generals ... p 171

Behind the scenes, high ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense... To hide the facts, the Air Force has silenced its personnel.

— R.H. Hillenkoetter

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Vice Admiral US Navy

2/28/1960 | The New York Times

If we persist in refusing to recognize the existence of the UFOs, we will end up, one fine day, by mistaking them for the guided missiles of an enemy — and the worst will be upon us.

— L.M. Chassin

General
NATO coordinator of Allied Air Service

1960 | US Air Force

No agency in this country or Russia is able to duplicate at this time the speeds and accelerations which radars and observers indicate the flying objects are able to achieve. There are signs that an intelligence directs these objects because of the way they fly. The way they change position in formations would indicate that their motion is directed.

— Delmer Fahrney

Admiral
Head of Navy guided missile program

1/1/1957 | In Plain Sight p 47

Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles.

— H. Marshall Chadwell

Asst. Director CIA, Scientific Intelligence

12/2/1952 | The New York Times

Probably what we saw [in 1952 over Washington, DC] was from somewhere else. Look the Air Force is a very deadly being when it comes to intercepting an unknown. If it proves hostile we are going to shoot it down. Other than that, no problem.

— William Coleman

Colonel, US Air Force
Public Spokesman for Project Blue Book

10/6/2020 | The Phenomenon

[In 1952 over Washington, DC], I am convinced they are solid objects. I am convinced that they are probably from another planet or outer space somewhere. I have always felt that way since that night.

— Albert M Chop

Press Spokesman for Project Blue Book

10/6/2020 | The Phenomenon

[At an Air Force base in Germany 1952] Unlike fighters they would almost stop in their forward velocity and change 90 degrees, sometimes in their flight path... We had practically all the fighters we could muster on the base up climbing as high as they could climb with guys that have binoculars with them... they were round in shape and very metallic looking. And they would come over and do the same maneuvers that we make except everyone once in a while one of them goes 'zip' [hand motion]. And you just can't do that in a fighter.

— Gordon Cooper

NASA Astronaut and US Air Force fighter pilot

1998 | The Phenomenon

They came in like this and went out like this [makes a v]. There would be no way to make a complete reversal or 90 degree turn at 12,000 miles [per hour] or greater without making the occupants juice on the wall. That kind of really shook us up... Nothing could have gotten to that degree of scientific progress without some of the intermediate steps becoming public knowledge. We just knew that they were not from this planet.

— William Nash

Pan American pilot, former fighter pilot

10/6/2020 | The Phenomenon

Since 1947 we have received and analyzed between 1,000 and 2,000 reports... However there have been a certain percentage of this volume of these reports, that have been made by credible observers of relatively incredible things. We can say that the recent sightings are in no way connected with any secret development by any department by the United States.

— John Samford

Director of Intelligence, Major General US Air Force

1952 | The Phenomenon

Not entirely impossible that the objects sighted may possibly be ships from another planet such as Mars.

— John Samford

Director of Intelligence, Major General US Air Force

1952 | UFOs: Generals ...

This [Evelyn and Paul Trent case] is one of the few UFO cases in which all factors investigated, geometric, psychological, and physical, appear to be consistent with the assertion that an extraordinary flying object, silvery, metallic, disc-shaped, tens of meters in diameter, and evidently artificial flew within sight of two witnesses.

— Air Force UAP inquiry

Case 46: McKinville. Oregon

5/11/1950 | Condon Report

The [UAP] phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious... extreme rates of climb, maneuverability (particularly in roll), and motion which must be considered evasive when sighted or contacted by friendly aircraft and radar... [which] lend belief to the possibility that some of the objects are controlled either manually, or remotely.

— Nathan Twining

Commander of Air Materiel Command, Lt. General US Air Force

9/23/1947 | US Air Force

I kept looking for their tails. They don't have any tails. I thought well something is wrong with my eyes. They seemed to flip and flash in the sun just like a mirror. I'd be glad to confirm it with my hands on a bible because I did see it. Whether it has anything to do with our army or some foreign country, I don't know.

— Kenneth Arnold

Pilot

1947 | The Phenomenon