Opening Letters

A Presidential Promise on UFOs – Right Here in Wisconsin

in 1976 campaign, Jimmy Carter pledged to unveil UFO info

BJ Hollars, illustrated by Sarah Ryan |

In the spring of 1976, Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter – vying to become the Democratic presidential nominee – twice made history in Wisconsin. First, he won a squeaker of a state primary victory over Congressman Mo Udall of Arizona (so close that the Milwaukee Sentinel mistakenly published a headline declaring Udall the winner). And second, a week before that primary, while answering questions at a March 31 news conference at the Appleton Airport, he informed reporters that upon being elected president, he would fight to release “every piece of information” about UFOs.

Yes, UFOs – of the “unidentified flying object” variety.

It seemed an odd topic to insert into the political sphere so close to a pivotal primary. But Carter had been asked, so he’d answered. 

You never know what might tip an election, but I like to think that Carter’s “the truth is out there” message rallied Wisconsin’s UFO-faithful to take their eyes off the skies just long enough to cast their vital votes. 

The state’s UFO-faithful, I’ll add, are not an insignificant share of the population. In addition to being the only state that claims to have three UFO capitals, Wisconsin was also the publishing home of the pulp magazine Flying Saucers, which, from 1957 until 1976, provided monthly updates on all the strangeness in the skies.

A week before that primary, while answering questions at a March 31 news conference at the Appleton Airport, Jimmy Carter informed reporters that upon being elected president, he would fight to release “every piece of information” about UFOs.

For Wisconsin’s many saucer-loving citizens, the peanut farmer from Plains may have seemed their last great hope. Carter’s “historic declaration” in Appleton (as the UFO Education Center proclaimed it) was one reason to trust him on the topic. The other reason was that Carter had seen a UFO himself.

Standing outside the Lion’s Club in Leary, Georgia, in January 1969, Carter (then a state senator) and nearly a dozen witnesses spotted a color-shifting giant orb-like object zipping across the sky. (Carter later described it, in perfect peanut farmer parlance, as “the darndest thing I’ve ever seen.”)

Not only was he comfortable talking about his unexplained sighting, but in 1973 – while governor – he filed an official report with the International UFO Bureau, and in doing so, did much to destigmatize the subject.    

I write this on the morning following President Jimmy Carter’s death, fully aware that his legacy has little to do with some off-handed remark at the Appleton Airport. A better article would note his “century of service,” his “passion for peace,” and how his unyielding faith in America made better Americans of us all.

However, Carter’s long and winding journey through the American dream is most compelling to me: His ascendence from peanut farmer to president, then back to private citizen, all within a single lifetime.

I have a special relationship with Jimmy Carter. His audiobooks (read by the author) have put me to sleep more nights than I can count. His sweet, Southern lilt beats even a baby’s swaddle, bringing good-natured charm to my ears at the end of the longest days. In all those books, Carter only briefly mentions his UFO sighting and, if memory serves, offers no reference to his “historic declaration” at the Appleton Airport. Frankly, he’s got other stories to tell.

As for fulfilling his promise to release “every piece of information” on UFOs, Carter fell short. Candidate Carter had seen no problem with such releases, but President Carter (upon feeling the full weight of the office, no doubt) broke his promise outright, noting that any such disclosures would have “defense implications” for America’s national security interests.

In this way, one-term president Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer from Plains, put country over galaxy.

Even though it cost him the UFO vote.