Gerald Ford

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (1913–2006) was an American politician and the 38th President of the United States. In the 1960s, as a U.S. Congressman from Michigan and House Minority Leader, Ford became a prominent advocate for congressional investigation of UFO phenomena. Following widely reported UFO sightings in southern Michigan in 1966, which the Air Force attributed to swamp gas, Ford called for a formal Congressional investigation, criticizing the Air Force's explanation as inadequate. He led efforts to examine the Air Force's Project Blue Book program and its methods of investigating UFO reports. Additionally, Ford himself reported a UFO sighting while piloting a Cessna Citation near Bakersfield, California in 1974, making him one of few U.S. presidents with documented UFO encounter experiences.