Barry Morris Goldwater served as a Republican US Senator from Arizona in two periods: 1953 to 1965 and 1969 to 1987. He was the Republican presidential nominee in 1964 and chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1985 to 1987.
Goldwater publicly described being denied access in the early 1960s to a locked facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base known as the Blue Room, where UFO-related materials were rumored to be stored. He repeated the account in letters, interviews, and a 1988 radio appearance.
- US Senator from Arizona, 1953–1965 and 1969–1987; chaired Senate Armed Services Committee 1985–1987.
- Major General, US Air Force Reserve; retired 1967 after 37 years service.
- Asked General Curtis LeMay in the early 1960s for access to the Blue Room at Wright-Patterson AFB and was refused.
- Confirmed the denial on Larry King radio show October 13, 1988, and in multiple letters through the 1970s and 1980s.
- Died May 29, 1998, in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
- United StatesSenator and presidential candidate
- United States SenateSenator from Arizona, 1953–1987
- United States Air ForceMajor General, Reserve; 37 years service
- Wright-Patterson Air Force BaseSite of denied Blue Room access request
- Republican PartyPresidential nominee 1964
- Presidential Medal of FreedomAwarded 1986
Background
Barry Morris Goldwater was born January 1, 1909, in Phoenix, Arizona. He attended Phoenix public schools and Staunton Military Academy, then spent one year at the University of Arizona in 1928. He left college to join the family mercantile business, Goldwater's department store, where he worked from 1929 onward and later became president from 1937 to 1953.
Goldwater entered the US Army Air Corps in August 1941 and served in the Asiatic Theater in India during World War II. He was discharged in November 1945 as a lieutenant colonel and rated pilot. After the war he organized the Arizona National Guard from 1945 to 1952. He rose to brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve in 1959 and major general in 1962 before retiring in 1967 after 37 years of service.
Goldwater entered elected office as a member of the Phoenix City Council from 1949 to 1952. In 1952 he won election to the US Senate as a Republican from Arizona, defeating incumbent Democrat Ernest McFarland. He was reelected in 1958 and served until January 1965, when he did not seek reelection after running for president.
In 1964 Goldwater secured the Republican presidential nomination but lost to Lyndon B. Johnson in a landslide, carrying only six states. He returned to the Senate after winning election in 1968 and was reelected in 1974 and 1980, serving until January 1987. During his second tenure he chaired the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 1981 to 1985 and the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1985 to 1987.
Goldwater had a long interest in UFOs. As early as 1957 he wrote to constituents expressing belief that there was substance to the subject. In the early 1960s, while a senator and friend of Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay, he requested access to a locked facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base known as the Blue Room, rumored to hold UFO evidence and materials.
LeMay refused the request in strong terms, telling Goldwater the matter was above both their clearances and instructing him never to raise the subject again. Goldwater later described the exchange in letters to constituents and researchers, including a March 28, 1975 letter stating he had been denied access to the building at Wright-Patterson where Air Force UFO information was stored and that it remained classified above top secret.
Goldwater reiterated the account in an October 13, 1988 appearance on the Larry King radio show. He confirmed he had asked LeMay to enter the room and received an emphatic refusal. He stated he believed the government was withholding UFO information but did not know the contents of the Blue Room.
Goldwater received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on March 12, 1986. He retired from the Senate in 1987 and did not seek reelection in 1986. His public statements on the Blue Room denial became one of the earliest accounts from a sitting US senator of being blocked from UFO-related access at a military installation.
Goldwater died of natural causes on May 29, 1998, at his home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, at age 89. He had suffered a stroke in late 1996. His ashes were interred at Episcopal Christ Church of the Ascension in Paradise Valley.
Legacy
Barry Goldwater died May 29, 1998, in Paradise Valley, Arizona. A statue of him stands in National Statuary Hall at the US Capitol, and the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship supports students in science, mathematics, and engineering.
Last updated 25 October 2026