He was the last man in the "hot seat". When they left the office and turned out the lights on Project Blue Book, he had been the man in charge from 1963 until 1969.
Born in Mexico, Hector Quintanilla, Jr., came with his family to the United States in the 1920's and his life was a reflection of the both the struggles and achievements of an immigrant. He became a United States Citizen 25 October 1946, in San Antonio, Texas.
He received a physics degree from St. Mary University in 1950. He decided to pursue a military career and was offered a commission of Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force in 1951. He retired as a Lt. Colonel shortly after the project closed down in 1969. He died in an accident in San Antonio in 1998.
He was an earnest, honest, and intelligent man and officer. He attempted to do the best he could in often difficult and challenging circumstances and environments. He was a fine military man to the bone, dedicated, trained, and adapted to the structure found in the United States military system. He sought for answers as well but sometimes the very system he was so dedicated to did not provide the support and answers he deserved. He inherited attitudes, limitations, secrets, and power struggles not of his making but he served well until the closing of the project post the release of what would be known as The Condon Reprot.
"UFOs: An Air Force Dilemma” by Major Hector Quintanilla, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), 1975. Book proposal is located at this LINK: Quintanilla Manuscript.PDF (minotb52ufo.com) and also at Quintanilla Manuscript.PDF (ufocasebook.com).
It is a fascinating read, both for what is left out as much as for what is left in.
In August of 1965 he gave an interview - a lengthy one - with photos that appeared in some newspapers in total. Other newspapers simply truncated parts of the statement. It can after the boondoggle of the Monday, Aug. 2, 1965, press release out of Dayton, Ohio and Wright AFB, home to Project Blue Book, that the numerous reports of UFO's/flying saucers made through the great plains had been caused by people seeing the planet Jupiter or one of several stars (Arcturus, etc.). {Note: if anyone finds a copy of this longer release, please send a copy to this page!}
Most of the country, apparently, heard that and listened no further.
Two astronomers in Oklahoma, however, found themselves asking "Where did the Air Force get its information???" They were quick to point out that - at the time of the sightings in Oklahoma - the named planet and stars were not visible. They were then seen on the opposite side of the globe.
Screech! [insert sounds of breaking glass and tires squealing as the brakes are applied and the Air Force backs up...]. The Oklahoma sightings had not yet made it to the AF desk when the press release had been sent out. THAT explanation referred, said the AF, to the sightings in WYOMING (at F.E. Warren AFB) and NEBRASKA (at the Sioux Army Ammunition Depot). A quick view at an astronomical record indicates that the same situation would apply to WY and NE for the given times. The time variation for the two regions would have been minimal as the planets and stars indicated would have risen back into view AFTER the nighttime reported sightings and in daytime.
Hence the interesting longer version of the interview with Quintanilla that came AFTER that and made slight mention of that faux pa and stressed the planet and stars and temperature inversions to such an extent that articles using information from that release made the same implication. The summer of 1965 sightings over from 8 to 13 states, seen by thousands of people and more than a hundred missile silo military personnel, had been (regardless of location) caused by temperature inversions and misidentifications of the planet Jupiter or one or more stars.
This, despite, indications in documents in PBB that NORAD and the PENTAGON were both notified and being updated that reports were CONSISTENT in shape, format and movement. That there were reports of LANDINGS.
Either, the events of summer 1965, was a mass practice event that run amuck and was covered up OR it was a real, serious, and wide-spread UFO event. The end result was the almost total disappearance from most chronologies of the events of the summer of 1965. The "summer of the saucers", is what Marilyn A. Hudson calls it, and that seems to be the real truth.
Post-Script
Oddly, in the manuscript he wrote of his life and times as last head of the Blue Book project, he has little to say about 1965.
This is interesting since the end of the line statistics he includes at the end of the document infer strongly that the majority of non-astronomical reports were the products of "Hoaxes, Hallucinations, Unreliable Reports and Psychological Causes." Since there are vast instances were it was apparent that the report statistics were as creatively handled as a thief keeping double books, the statistics at closure are suspect. Too many report documents indicate that the primary goal was not investigation but application of a pre-determined answer from a pool of potential choices (astronomical, balloon, aircraft, etc.). Witness statements were ignored, Several sightings from the same location were defined by the one event that best fit the predetermined selections. Many of the consultants used, and the investigating air personnel, never actually investigated. Often those who did reveal some investigation that hinted at something beyond the normal were changed and the summary sheet reflected a predetermined answer and not the questions.
Yet, instead of using those "stats" to show that people were getting a little carried away and that the classifications of those reports proved that argument, he says next to nothing. The truth appears to be that, for whatever reason, the widespread events of 1965 had a muzzle firmly in place.
Post, this year is a massive, multi-front push to close down the Project Blue Book. With so many sightings by credible people, and some incredible events happening, that makes it all the more interesting. As recent events have now shown, the Air Force got of the UFO business, but other parts of the government and the military apparently kept right own working on the topic.
