Donald Keyhoe: UFO Investigator
When you think of UFO investigators there may be a few names that come to mind - John Keel, Jacques Vallée, Graham Hancock…but what about Donald Keyhoe? Donald was once famous for being the first private UFO investigator and the author of the first book published specifically on the topic of UFO.
Donald Keyhoe was born right before the turn of the 20th century in 1897 in Iowa. He traveled to Maryland to graduate from the US Naval Academy and would go on to join the US Marines as a pilot, reaching the rank of Major before retiring. But, it’s after his retirement that his true career really began.
After an aircrash in battle, he was stuck and cooped up recuperating. Though his body may have been under construction, his mind was anything but. He began submitting and getting articles published in Readers Digest and True on military and aviation topics.
In 1949, True reached out to see if he would be interested in investigating the recent UFO mystery, especially given his contacts in the military. He struck out with great success, as many folks were disappointed in the Estimate of the Situation Report that had come out. He believed that the witnesses, who had been demoted or given remote work, were part of a government cover-up of UFOs of epic position. Aliens were real, and the Pentagon knew.
The True article was published in 1950, and would go on to be the most widely read and celebrated article in the magazine’s history. Keyhoe then expanded the article into a full book: The Flying Saucers Are Real, which was published in 1950 and would cement Keyhoe as a central figurehead in the UFO exploration movement.
He didn’t slow down. He investigated countless stories and leads and would go on to publish many more books.
In 1957, he took on the helm of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, which Legenders may recognize as NICAP. The committee noted, “Working with an extremely small and inadequate budget (typically on the order of $10,000-$20,000 a year in public donations), Keyhoe--with the aid of Assistant Director Richard Hall and an underpaid staff supplemented by occasional volunteers--accomplished miracles.“
Membership began to decline in the 1960s, and for the last two decades of his life he wasn’t majorly involved in the UFO community. When he died in 1987, he hadn’t had much public involvement in the UFO world. NICAP would pay tribute to him ending it with, "It's an interesting story waiting for the attention of historians, but it would not have been possible without the intelligent and principled leadership of Major Keyhoe and the hard work conducted in the field by the NICAP Affiliates and Subcommittees."
Thanks to Ted for the blogstonishing suggestion!
UFO investigator Donald Keyhoe (right) interviewed by Mike Wallace. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1930 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. For further explanation, see Commons: Hirtle chart as well as a detailed definition of "publication" for public art.
