Garry Henderson Quotation on Secret Astronaut UFO Sightings.
Dr. Garry C. Henderson has often been quoted in books,articles, and web sites (just do a search under his name to see how many!) about astronaut sightings of UFOs. He is said to be a "top NASA insider", from General Dynamics Corporation, who knows "UFO secrets".
Many years ago, when I first encountered his attributed assertions, I did what
any responsible researcher should have done -- I tracked him down to follow
up on his allegations and see if he could elaborate on them. In the UFO field,
I discovered, nobody else had thought it necessary to take such an
obvious step!
Let me suggest that anybody who still is promoting these counterfeit assertions is phony, and so is everything else in their books and web sites.
The following is the text of a reconstructed-from-notes transcript of our telephone conversation in January 1978.
JO: Dr. Henderson, you've been widely quoted as saying that "all of our astronauts have seen UFOs but have been ordered not to discuss their sightings with anyone," and that "NASA has actual photos of these craft. taken at close range by still and movie camera." Do you recall saying this, and do you believe it?
GH: I never said it and I don't believe it. That was a bad misquotation that has haunted me over the years. For a while I tried to think of what I could do to stop it but I gave up.
JO: Then the quotation attributed to you does not reflect your actual opinions on the subject of UFOs?
GH: Not in the slightest.
JO: How do you suppose the false quotation got started?
GH: I have a good idea. I was visiting a UFO convention in Canada in the late
1960s and was interviewed on a radio talk show. The host was concentrating on
leading questions, trying to make me sound like I was saying something sensational.
Later I heard that he claimed that I had made the
admission `off the air', during a station break, but I just don't recall having
done so -- and he could only have gotten that impression through misunderstanding
me.
JO: The quotation has been reprinted now for many years. Has anyone ever tried to track you down to verify the quotation and ask more questions?
GH: Nobody. You are the first to take the trouble.
JO: Wouldn't you say that authors who rely on dubious material in UFO pulp magazines, without making any effort to verify it, are doing the public a great disservice? Are they honest?
GH: Well, the public is certainly being misinformed, but I don't want
to pass judgment on someone else's motives. I am surprised that anyone believed
that misquotation, though, considering the kinds of publications it appeared
in. And that's why I was never particularly bothered by its circulation.
I
felt that it was too wild to be believed.
JO: Just to satisfy the paranoids, have you ever been under any `pressure' to retract that statement or execute a `coverup'?
GH: Oh no! As I said, until you called, nobody had ever noticed it. I certainly
would not retract something if it were true. But that quotation attributed to
me is entirely false.