UFO Article (Blog): “The former Department of Supply, Dr Michael J Duggin, and ANZAAS”

By Keith Basterfield, 9 September 2017

(UFOs – scientific research, Campbelltown,

New South Wales, Australia)

Quote from the article:

“Background

I have previously written a number of times about the former Australian Department of Supply and files which it held on UAP; and the 1971 ANZAAS UAP symposium.

We know from examining previous government files, that there was discussion within the Department of Defence, in May to July 1971, about the RAAF handing over investigation of UAP to the Department of Supply, or at least the Department of Supply taking a look at a limited number of cases per year from a scientific perspective. (For example NAA files series A703 control symbol 554/1/1/30 Part 2, p.164.) What we have never found out is, what area within the Department of Supply had expressed this interest? Does a December 1971 internal Department of Supply memo give us a clue?

Sydney researcher Bill Chalker, included images of an internal Department of Supply memo, on his blog, which was of great interest to me.

In view of this interest, I have transcribed the text of the memo below. I will then provide some comments about the contents, and the broader context.

The memo

This is an internal memorandum to Mr T F C Lawrence, Deputy Secretary, Research and Engineering, Department of Supply, from  C N Gerrard, Radar and Electronic Tracking Group, dated 2 December 1971. The subject was ‘Regarding recent symposium on UFOs.’

3. The general feeling of those present was that there is a residue of sighting reports which indicate that some strange phenomenon exists; and that this warrants scientific investigation.”

http://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-former-department-of-supply-dr.html

Related posts:

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=Dr.+Michael+J.+Duggin

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=ANZAAS

(2.bp.blogspot.com/ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com image)

UFO Article (Blog): “Dr Michael J Duggin’s 1971 symposium paper”

By Keith Basterfield, 1 September 2017

(UFOs – scientific research, Campbelltown,

New South Wales, Australia)

Quote from the article:

“Further to my earlier blog posts about Dr Michael J Duggin’s contribution to Australian UAP research, I have now located a summary of a 1971 talk he gave.

ANZAAS

On 30 October 1971, the South Australian Division of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, held a one day symposium in Adelaide, South Australia, titled ‘The Unidentified Flying Object Problem.’

Courtesy of Peter Horne, of Adelaide, I now have a copy of the ‘Condensed Papers’ from the Symposium.

Dr Duggin presented a paper titled ‘The Analysis of UFO Reports.’ The ‘Condensed Papers’ only contain a summary of the talk, which I present below.”

Dr. Michael J. Duggin, an Australian scientist, was a member of the original ‘invisible college’ that studied UFOs and a senior scientist with the U.S. Air Force Research Labs at Kirtland Air Force Base.

http://ufos-scientificresearch.blogspot.com/2017/09/dr-michael-j-duggins-1971-symposium.html

Related posts:

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=Michael+J.+Duggin

Dr. Michael J. Duggin, Australian Scientist

(U.S. Air Force/theozfiles.blogspot.com photo)

UFO Article (Blog): “Australian UFO Science? An internal personal view from a member of the WRE Radar & Electronic Tracking Group (1971)”

By Bill Chalker, 2 July 2017

(The OZ Files, Sydney, Australia)

Quote from the article:

“The evolution of Defence Science in Australia has from time to time thrown up some interesting intersections with the UFO controversy. In my previous post The Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO), the Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DST), the Sea Fury Encounter and UFOs I provided a link to my earlier research (2007 - 2008) on the JIO involvement and the legacy of Harry Turner. Part of this was also described in my Australian chapter contribution to the UFO History Group book ‘UFOs and Government’ (2012). Both described some of the material that I found in the UFO files of Harry Turner he kindly shared with me:
‘Other omissions in the JIO file released to Keith (Basterfield) may have been due to typical file attribution effects and file ‘borrowings,’ sensitivities about the material or other matters, rather than any inherent substantial content. For example there is a Department of Supply internal memorandum from the Radar and Electronic Group: ‘Regarding Recent Symposium on UFOs’ which discusses the 1971 ANZAAS UFO symposium. Another describes a sighting by crew of an ANL ship off Pipon Island in 1966. Other similarly miscellaneous content may lurk in other agency files and their presence in the papers of a JIO scientist may be just due to a variant on the ‘lightning rod’ principle.’ ”

http://theozfiles.blogspot.com/2017/07/australian-ufo-science-internal.html

Wikipedia article: “Joint Intelligence Organisation (Australia)”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Intelligence_Organisation_(Australia)

Quote from the Wikipedia article:

“The Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO) was an Australian government intelligence agency, responsible for the analysis of defence and foreign intelligence. The foreign intelligence assessment functions of JIO were assumed by the Office of National Assessments (ONA) in 1977 and the JIO was fully replaced by the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO) in 1990. The JIO was staffed by civilian officers of the Department of Defence, foreign service officers of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and service personnel from the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Royal Australian Air Force.[1]

The JIO also maintained the National Assessments Staff (NAS) which supported the National Intelligence Committee (the predecessor to the National Intelligence Coordination Committee) until 1977 when it was assumed by the Office of National Assessments. The NAS was responsible for preparing long–range analytical assessments of international issues.”

Harry Turner, former head of the nuclear scientist section of the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence (DSTI) within the Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO)

(3.bp.blogspot.com/theozfiles.blogspot.com photo)