The Hawk Researcher

History

Harry R. Siebert and Steven R. Warner founded the Hawk Research Society in September 1961, published their first bulletin in October of that year, and within twelve months had built a correspondence network stretching from Pomona, California to the offices of Flying Saucer Review in London. They were teenagers. Siebert served as President and Editor, Warner as Vice President (at 531 Dupont Street, Pomona), and David J. Thomas joined as Sub-Editor. The society operated from 1457 Kenwood Drive, Pomona, California, and its publications were mimeographed on borrowed school equipment until that arrangement collapsed when other students formed an "Anti-UFO Committee" and the school banned unauthorised use of the machine.

The collection includes both the Board of Advisors Bulletin (an internal newsletter sent to the society's advisory network) and issues of the main publication, The Hawk Researcher. The Bulletin solicited votes on society decisions, requested articles, and discussed organisational business. The Hawk Researcher carried longer articles, letters, and reprints. Both were typed by Siebert on a typewriter he shared with his cat, Satan, who walked across the keys, raked stencils into unintended patterns, and chewed on the tab bar during production sessions.

The editorial network for a small Pomona publication was remarkably wide. Al Greenfield wrote from R.O.A.P. (1911 W. Arcadia, Hollywood, Florida) announcing that the British UFO Association had formed, with G.N.P. Stephenson as Secretary (12 Dorset Road, Cheam, Sutton, England), and described it as a centrally located bureau to collect, coordinate, and investigate reports from all UFO societies in the British Isles. Fletcher King, also of R.O.A.P., wrote with Christmas greetings and asked about a rumoured Southern California location with more UFO landing reports than anywhere else in the country. The society also reviewed Beverlee Houle's book "Your Own Hind Wheels" (Box 3176, Pomona), a religious tract on simplifying one's relationship with God, which Siebert recommended despite being "far from religious" himself.

The contactee debate ran through the publication. Issue 1 carried a lengthy defence of contactees by an author credited to R.O.A.P., arguing that military men had visited the California office "with tears in their eyes" relaying encounters, and that Forces come into play to discredit contactees before they can properly defend their experience. The author claimed personal contact with a being from Venus and had submitted to a lie detector test. Siebert and Warner had themselves passed through an Adamski phase before the Saucer News expose edition disillusioned them, as Siebert recounted candidly in the anniversary issue. Yet they continued publishing contactee material alongside critical investigations, hosting both sides of the argument in their pages.

The society considered hosting a convention in Pomona to coincide with Van Tassel's Giant Rock Spacecraft Convention, planned to sell sample issues of Saucer News and Saucerian Bulletin on the stands, and attempted to broker a written debate between James Moseley and Gray Barker, who did not get along. Siebert described himself as liking both men and wanting to get their dispute into the open.