Hector Quintanilla
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Hector Quintanilla Jr. (May 7, 1923 – May 18, 1998) was a
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
(USAF) Lieutenant Colonel, best known as the last chief officer of
Project Blue Book Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Fo ...
, the USAF's official
unidentified flying object An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...
investigative arm.


Biography

Quintanilla was born in
Monterrey Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...
,
Nuevo León Nuevo León, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo León, is a Administrative divisions of Mexico, state in northeastern Mexico. The state borders the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí, San Luis ...
, Mexico and immigrated to the United States at age six with his parents and three brothers in 1929. He and his family crossed the
Gateway to the Americas International Bridge The Gateway to the Americas International Bridge is one of four vehicular international bridges located in the cities of Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, that connect the United States and Mexico over the Rio Grande (Río Bravo). ...
in
Laredo, Texas Laredo ( ; ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Webb County, Texas, Webb County, on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Founded in 1755, Laredo grew from a villag ...
. His family made their home in the west side of
San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...
around the Laredo and Martin street neighborhoods; the family could only afford a $1.25 a week shack with a dirt floor. Hector and his brothers did not mind, because they mostly wore their shoes on Sundays to go to church. At age seven, he was selling newspapers for the ''
San Antonio Express The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas, founded in 1865. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the stat ...
'' and '' San Antonio Light'', mornings and evenings, around the Baptist Medical Hospital area. Quintanilla constructed his own shine box and offered a shoe shine service along with the newspapers, due to the reluctance of some customers to spend two cents for a newspaper during the hard economic times of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. He would rise at 4:30 a.m. to prepare for his paper route. Quintanilla was a student at Hawthorne Junior High School and graduated from G.W. Brackenridge High School in
San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
in 1942. A friend later helped him get a part-time job with the U.S. Post Office. He was enrolled in
St. Mary's University, Texas St. Mary's University is a private Catholic university in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Founded by the Society of Mary (Marianists) in 1852, St. Mary's is the oldest Catholic university in Texas and the American Southwest. With a student p ...
as a
freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...
when he received his
draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...
notice. He was drafted in 1943 and honorably discharged in 1945. Quintanilla served in the South Pacific Theater in the 13th Air Force, 72nd Squadron, as a bombardier. Quintanilla received a physics degree from St. Mary's University in 1950. He decided to pursue a military career and was offered a commission of Second Lieutenant in the
U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...
in 1951. In 1954 he was a 1st Lt, in the USAF Security Service 6910th Security Group in Landsberg, Bavaria. He was in charge of a Radio Traffic Analysis Group. His wife, Eleanor, joined him on this tour. His troops had been trained in San Antonio and had enjoyed Mexican food. They recalled that his beautiful wife invited them to a Mexican Christmas dinner in 1954. In 1960, Quintanilla was stationed at
Griffiss Air Force Base Griffiss International Airport is a public airport in the northeastern United States, located east of the central business district of Rome, a city in Oneida County, New York. Publicly-owned by the county, the airport is located on the form ...
in Rome, New York. In August 1963, Quintanilla was made chief of
Project Blue Book Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Fo ...
, a post he held until the study's termination in January 1970. Quintanilla succeeded Lieutenant Colonel Robert Friend. He was selected to be the next Project Blue Book Officer by Colonel Eric T. de Jonckheere, who explained to Quintanilla that he was looking to fill the position with a man with a degree in physics, with maturity, drive, and a man who was cool under pressure; Quintanilla shook his head and felt he only met the physics degree requirement. Colonel Joncheere told Quintanilla to take the job for a few weeks and report back to him. Quintanilla felt he was offered the job due to his reluctance to take several other job offers in the escalating
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. Project Blue Book left a legacy of over 12,000 reported UFOs investigated of which 30 percent or over 4,000 cases, were classified as unknown. Lieutenant Colonel Quintanilla retired from the Air Force after Project Blue Book was closed. Sometime afterwards, he was injured in a golf cart accident, sustaining a head injury that affected his health in later years. He died May 18, 1998, in
San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
,
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
. Quintanilla left behind six children — Gene, Tessie, Karl, Nancy, Diane, and Bob — and several grandchildren. Project Blue Book was often harshly criticized by those who argued it was not properly investigating UFO reports and was prone to improbable and/or untested ''
post hoc ''Post hoc'' (sometimes written as ''post-hoc'') is a Latin phrase, meaning "after this" or "after the event". ''Post hoc'' may refer to: * ''Post hoc'' analysis or ''post hoc'' test, statistical analyses that were not specified before the data w ...
'' explanations. After Blue Book folded, Quintanilla wrote a memoir,UFO’S: An Air Force Dilemma
https://archive.org/details/ufos-an-air-force-dilemma unpublished during his life and publicized in the 1990s by the
National Institute for Discovery Science The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDSci) was a privately financed research organization based in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, and operated from 1995 to 2004. It was founded in 1995 by real-estate developer Robert Bigelow ...
, which explained Quintanilla's perspective on Blue Book and UFOs.


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quintanilla, Hector 1923 births 1996 deaths United States Air Force officers Mexican emigrants to the United States Brackenridge High School alumni St. Mary's University, Texas alumni