Summary
U.S. Senator from Arizona for over three decades, Major General in the USAF Reserve, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the 1964 Republican presidential nominee. Goldwater is the most institutionally credentialed political figure to go on record publicly stating that the U.S. government held classified UAP materials and denied him access. He documented repeated attempts to access what he called the 'Blue Room' at Wright-Patterson AFB and was personally rebuffed by General Curtis LeMay, the USAF Chief of Staff, who 'got madder than hell' when asked about it. The National Archives holds 143 pages of his UAP-related correspondence spanning the 1970s through the 1990s, making him a uniquely documented political figure in the UAP disclosure history.
Roles
- -U.S. Senator, Arizona (1953-1965, 1969-1987)
- -Major General, U.S. Air Force Reserve (ret.)
- -Chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee (1985-1986)
- -Member, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
- -Republican Presidential Nominee (1964)
Organizations
Education
- -University of Arizona (attended 1928-1929; left after father's death to manage the family business)
- -Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Arizona (1961)
Early Career
- -Joined the U.S. Army Air Forces as a flight instructor in 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor; qualified as a pilot in military aircraft
- -Served in the China-Burma-India theater during WWII; ferried aircraft across the North Atlantic route
- -Helped modernize the Arizona Air National Guard after WWII; eventually qualified in over 165 aircraft types across his military career
- -Entered politics by winning a seat on the Phoenix City Council in 1949; elected to the U.S. Senate in 1952