James E. McDonald

James Edward McDonald (May 7, 1920 to June 13, 1971) was a professor of meteorology and senior physicist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the University of Arizona in Tucson.¹² After about two years of study he told the House Committee on Science and Astronautics on July 29, 1968 that he had interviewed "several hundred witnesses" and regarded the UFO problem as "a matter of extraordinary scientific importance."¹ In 1966 he read the 1953 Robertson Panel report at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and afterward charged publicly that the Central Intelligence Agency had influenced Air Force policy.³

Career before the UFO work

His biography, entered in the 1968 hearing record, lists a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Omaha (1942), a meteorology degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1945) and a Ph.D. in physics from Iowa State University (1951); service in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1945 in "naval intelligence and aerology"; a research position on the cloud physics project at the University of Chicago (1953 to 1954); and appointments at Arizona from 1954. It lists membership on the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Weather and Climate Modification from 1965, the ESSA-Navy Project Stormfury Advisory Panel from 1966 and a National Science Foundation weather modification panel from 1967, and records that he married Betsy Hunt in 1945 and had six children.¹ His obituary in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society by Louis J. Battan describes his 1954 paper on raindrop shapes, his 1958 article "The physics of cloud modification," and his work on the Academy panel, whose 1966 report expressed optimism about cloud seeding after his review of commercial operators' data.²

1966 and the Robertson Panel report

Paul E. McCarthy, whose 1975 University of Hawaii dissertation used McDonald's correspondence, wrote that McDonald's atmospheric research was monitored by Jim Hughes of the Office of Naval Research. On April 30, 1966 McDonald wrote to Hughes about UFOs; later in May Hughes told him that Jim Kearney at Pasadena Naval Research did work on laser detection of clouds that might account for some high-speed radar tracks, suggested that he go to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to examine the Project Blue Book files, and said that because the work was for ONR it would pay the trip expenses. McCarthy asked whether it was coincidence that Hughes suggested the trip "at the exact time McDonald wanted to make it," and wrote that this was "the beginning of what would become a controversy within a controversy" over McDonald's use of ONR atmospheric research funds for what appears to be UFO research. On May 26 McDonald thanked Hughes for the trip, and McCarthy wrote that in the same letter McDonald said he wished a briefing, when in Washington, on "the rumored Navy studies of UFOs" and asked whether ONR might fund his travel for UFO research.³

McCarthy wrote that McDonald made his first visit to Wright-Patterson on June 6, 1966; that there he viewed the Robertson Panel report, which Major Hector Quintanilla had given routine declassification after twelve years; that on June 30 Colonel Louis DeGoes told him a photocopy needed authorization; and that on his third visit, July 20 to 22, DeGoes told him the CIA had decided to reclassify it. McCarthy wrote that neither DeGoes nor Dr. Cacciopo, chief scientist at the Foreign Technology Division, showed interest in the CIA involvement, that McDonald began to discuss the report in his lectures in October 1966, and that "for McDonald this was probably the beginning of his concern for a cover-up."³ McCarthy also wrote that the Los Angeles Times story on his Tucson talks said he believed in "persons from outer space," that the Associated Press story said he believed in current CIA involvement, and that McDonald told Richard Hall of NICAP to leave the arrangements for the Washington talk to Hall, who should "tone down the CIA angle."³

The Condon Committee

McCarthy wrote that McDonald's letter of January 31, 1968 to Robert Low of the Condon Committee at the University of Colorado set out his criticisms of the project, including Condon's press statements, the lack of investigation of cases in which McDonald believed the Air Force had inhibited inquiry, and a $50,000 radar study contract with the Stanford Research Institute; that on February 8 Edward Condon dismissed David Saunders and Norman Levine from the project; and that McDonald sent copies of the Low memo and National Academy correspondence to Hughes at ONR, asking that they be held in confidence and sent to his home address, "in light of the day when he would apply to the ONR for funding to do UFO work."⁴

The July 29, 1968 symposium

The Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, Ninetieth Congress, second session, was held on July 29, 1968 as hearing No. 7. McDonald followed J. Allen Hynek on the program. He told the committee that he had visited Wright-Patterson and seen the files, contacted the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena and the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, and found NICAP had "on the order of 10,000 or 12,000 cases," and he said the problem had been "swept under the rug." His prepared statement lists eight hypotheses (hoaxes; hallucination and rumor; misinterpreted natural phenomena; semi-secret technology; poorly understood physical phenomena; poorly understood psychological phenomena; extraterrestrial devices of a surveillance nature; and spaceships bringing messengers) and states that his present opinion, "based on two years of careful study, is that UFOs are probably extraterrestrial devices engaged in something that might very tentatively be termed 'surveillance.'" It cites a 1960 remark by Vice Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, former CIA director, that "it is imperative that we learn where the UFOs come from and what their purpose is," and recounts numbered cases beginning with Boise, Idaho, July 4, 1947 and Montgomery, Alabama, July 24, 1948. He said that before 1966 he had interviewed about 150 to 200 witnesses and since then about 200 to 250 more, including about 80 in Australia.¹ Physics Today's obituary of September 1971 said he accused the Air Force, which had commissioned the Condon study, of being "blissfully unaware" of the seriousness of the situation and later challenged the Condon Report.⁵

The SST testimony

McDonald studied the effect of supersonic transport exhaust on the stratospheric ozone layer. Battan wrote that McDonald "spent hundreds of hours" on the printed material, concluded SST emissions could reduce ozone, increase ultraviolet radiation and increase skin cancer, and "did his utmost to convince other scientists, laymen and politicians that the SST represented a danger to society."²

Physics Today wrote that he testified at a private Department of Transportation hearing in 1970 and "again this year at a House Appropriations Committee hearing," and that "although some members of the House Committee doubted his report, a National Cancer Institute specialist later concurred with McDonald, saying that McDonald's estimate of the impact of supersonic planes on skin cancer was, if anything, too modest."⁵

The printed hearing, Civil Supersonic Aircraft Development (SST), House Appropriations Subcommittee on Department of Transportation and Related Agencies (chaired by Rep. John J. McFall), records that McDonald was the first witness of the afternoon session of Tuesday, March 2, 1971. He told the subcommittee that he spoke "as an individual scientist" and not for the Academy or its panel, and that he had begun looking at SST effects when the panel's chairman asked him to update his 1966 work on ice crystals and after the panel's August briefings from the SCEP (Study of Critical Environmental Problems) summer study at MIT. His prepared statement estimated that SST operations at the fleet levels projected for 1980 to 1985 could cause "something of the order of 5-10,000 additional skin cancer cases per year in just the United States alone," through water vapor in the exhaust reducing stratospheric ozone; he gave "a round-number estimate near 10,000 new cases per year," against about 120,000 annual cases then, and said that the 4 percent ozone reduction figure from a Boeing researcher would imply about 30,000. Rep. Sidney R. Yates stated that McDonald testified at his request, that the statement was prepared with the help of Yates's office, that he had checked McDonald's credentials with National Academy scientists and "without exception they all said he was a very fine scientist," and that he had at first shrunk from the skin cancer theory because "most people would think that this is one of those mad scientists." McFall replied "we are very appreciative for your very fine testimony."⁶ In questioning later in the session Rep. Silvio O. Conte said he had been told McDonald was "an expert on unidentified flying objects, or flying saucers," asked whether McDonald had testified to Congress that New York power failures of the mid-sixties were caused by them, and said "if you come up with a theory, and assuming I oppose the SST and I use you as an expert, it would be thrown against me on the floor of the House." McDonald answered that he had been asked by Rep. Ryan whether there was enough correlation between UFO sightings and power failures to raise a major investigation and had answered "essentially negative but enough of a correlation to be a little bit disturbing"; that after three weeks in the Maxwell Air Force Base archives in Montgomery, Alabama, the contents were "simply astonishing"; and that "the problem of unidentified flying objects is, in my opinion, indeed a very significant and serious scientific problem, the nature of which is very different from what the public and the Congress have been given to believe." Rep. George Mahon asked whether his UFO views had opened a credibility gap in the scientific community, and McDonald said he thought not. Rep. William E. Minshall said that Defense Department witnesses before the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee had "absolutely discounted any possibility, of actual incursion into airspace by people from the outer planets," and McDonald referred to the 1966 hearing before the House Armed Services Committee chaired by L. Mendel Rivers. The words "little green men" attributed to Conte by other writers do not appear in the printed text.⁶ The Joint Economic Committee later reported that the Senate voted on March 24, 1971 to discontinue federal funding for construction of the SST.⁷

Death

McDonald died on June 13, 1971, at the age of 51, according to the American Meteorological Society and Physics Today.²⁵ Battan wrote that his UFO investigation "brought him into conflict with certain scientists and engineers," that "he found few allies in this scientific quest," and that he "was a man of integrity and great courage."² Neither obituary states a cause of death. The Pima County record was not available for this draft.

The Tucson Daily Citizen of Monday, June 14, 1971 reported under the headline "UA Physicist Found Dead In Desert" that McDonald, 51, was found dead on Sunday, June 13, in a desert area north of Tucson, and that the death was "apparently a suicide, according to sheriff's deputies." According to the paper, an autopsy had been performed and no report was immediately available. It quoted Sheriff Waldon V. Burr as saying a note and a .38 revolver were found beside the body and that there was a bullet wound in the head. The paper reported that Frank Flores, of 127 E. Lee Street, said he and his children were hiking about noon on Sunday when they found the body at Canyon del Oro near Ina Road and Interstate 10, and that McDonald reportedly took a cab from a downtown motel to the area. It gave his address as 3461 E. 3rd Street, and stated that he was blinded when he shot himself in the head on April 9, according to police reports, and had begun going to his office for several hours a day only the previous week. University of Arizona president Richard A. Harvill was quoted as calling him an "exceptionally able teacher" and "well-known throughout the United States as a brilliant scholar," and Louis J. Battan, associate director of the Institute, credited him with contributions to cloud physics and weather modification research. The article also summarized his Condon Report opposition and his SST campaign, and described him as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a statement the 1968 hearing biography does not support.⁸

Papers

Michael Swords wrote in 1999 that the James McDonald papers at the University of Arizona Special Collections, then designated MS 328, filled 26 linear feet of case and correspondence files, notes, books and audiotapes, and advised notifying the archivist Roger Myers in advance.⁹ The library's current collection list gives the designation MS 412.¹⁰