Professor Hermann Oberth:
The German rocket expert considered one of the three fathers of the space age. In 1955, Dr. Werner Von Braun  invited him to the U.S. where he worked on rockets with the Army  Ballistic Missile Agency and later NASA: "It is my thesis that flying saucers are real and that they are space ships from another solar system. I think that they possibly are manned by intelligent observers who are members of a race that may have been investigating our Earth for centuries." (Oberth, H., "Flying Saucers Come From A Distant World", The American  Weekly, Oct 24, 1954)

Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, first Director of the CIA (1947-1950):
"Unknown objects are operating under intelligent control...It is imperative that we learn where UFOs come from and what their purpose is." (Source: Maccabee, Bruce, "What The Admiral Knew: UFO, MJ-12 and R. Hillenkoetter," International    UFO Reporter, Nov/Dec., 1986.)

General Lionel M. Chassin, Commanding General of the French Air Forces, and General   Air Defense Coordinator, Allied Air Forces, Central Europe (NATO):
"The number of thoughtful, intelligent, educated people in full possession of their faculties who have 'seen something' and described it grows every day...We can...say categorically that mysterious objects have indeed appeared and continue to appear in the sky that surrounds us... (they) unmistakably suggest a systematic aerial exploration and cannot be the result of chance. It indicates purpose and intelligent action."

Rear Adm. D.S. Fahrney, Ret., former Navy missile chief (circa 1956):
"Reliable reports indicate there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds. They way they change position would indicate their motion is directed."

Captain Ed Ruppelt (1956):
After the Fort Monmouth, NJ, radar sightings (which started on Sept 10, 1951), the Air Force held a meeting at the Pentagon. General Cabell presided over the meeting, and it was attended by his entire staff plus Lieutenant Cummings, Lieutenant Colonel Rosengarten, and a special representative from Republic Aircraft Corporation. The man from Republic supposedly represented a group of top U.S. industrialists and scientists who thought that   there should be a lot more sensible answers coming from the Air Force regarding UFOs.

"Every word of the two-hour meeting was recorded on a wire recorder. The recording was so hot that it was later destroyed, but not before I had heard it several times......it didn't exactly follow the tone of the official Air Force releases--many of the people present at the meeting weren't as convinced that the 'hoax, hallucination, and misidentification' answer was quite as positive as the Grudge Report and subsequent press releases made out."

(1956) Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt (1956):
"The one thing about these briefings that never failed to amaze me, although it happened time and time again, was the interest in UFOs within scientific circles. As soon as the word spread that Project Blue Book was giving official briefings to groups with the proper security clearances, we had no trouble in getting scientists to swap free advice for a briefing. I might add that we briefed only groups who were engaged in government work and who had the proper security clearances solely because we could discuss any government project that might be of help to us in pinning down the UFO. Our briefings weren't just squeezed in either; in many instances we would arrive at a place to find that a whole day had been set aside to talk about UFOs. And never once did I meet anyone who laughed off the whole subject of flying saucers even though publicly these same people had jovially sloughed off the press with answers of 'hallucinations,' 'absurd', or 'a waste of time and money.' They weren't wild-eyed fans but they were certainly interested."

General Lionel M. Chassin, Commanding General of the French Air Forces, and General   Air Defense Coordinator, Allied Air Forces, Central Europe (NATO):
"The number of thoughtful, intelligent, educated people in full possession of their faculties   who have 'seen something' and described it grows every day...We can...say categorically   that mysterious objects have indeed appeared and continue to appear in the sky that   surrounds us... (they) unmistakably suggest a systematic aerial exploration and cannot be the   result of chance. It indicates purpose and intelligent action."

U.S. President Harry S. Truman:  
"I can assure you that flying saucers, given that they exist, are not constructed by any power on earth." (Press Conference, April 4, 1950)-

NASA Information Sheet,   2/1/78:.
U.S. Department of Defense: "REPORTS OF UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS ENTERING   UNITED STATES AIR SPACE ARE OF INTEREST TO THE MILITARY AS A   REGULAR PART OF DEFENSE SURVEILLANCE."  

Francis Ridge:
The UFO situation got so serious in 1952 that a meeting was convened with Air Force officials and the CIA (Robertson Panel).

Captain Ed Ruppelt:
"...and it was up to them to tell us if they (UFOs) were real---some type of   vehicle flying through our atmosphere. If they were real, then they would have   to spacecraft because no one at the meeting gave a second thought to the possibility that the UFOs might be a super secret U.S. aircraft or a Soviet   development. The scientists knew everything that was going on in the U.S. and   they knew that no country in the world had developed their technology far   enough to build such a craft that would perform as the UFOs were reported to   do."

(Ridge: What the records showed and what the Air Force knew, was rejected by the panel).