"What about the Chiles-Whitted case?" I asked. "You were quoted as saying they saw a meteor--a bolide that exploded in a shower of sparks."

"That"s right," said Boggs.

"And Gorman was chasing a lighted balloon?"

Again the Intelligence major nodded. I pointed, out that all three of the cases mentioned had been listed as unidentified in the April report.

"They"d had those cases for months," I said. "What new facts did they learn?"

Boggs said calmly, "They just made a final a.n.a.lysis, and those were the answers."

We looked at each other a moment. Major Boggs patiently waited. I began to realize how a lawyer must feel with an imperturbable witness.

And Boggs"s unfailing courtesy began to make me embarra.s.sed.

"Major," I said, "I hope you"ll realize this is not a personal matter.

As an Intelligence officer, if you"re told to give certain answers--"

He smiled for the first time. "That"s all right--but I"m

{p. 149}

not hiding a thing. There"s just no such thing as a flying saucer, so far as we"ve found out."

"We"ve been told," I said, "that Project "Saucer" isn"t closed--that you just changed its code name."

"That"s not so," Boggs said emphatically. "The contracts are ended, and all personnel transferred to other duty."

"Then the announcement wasn"t caused by True"s article?"

Both General Smith and Major Jesse Stay shook their heads quickly.

Boggs leaned forward, eyeing me earnestly.

"As a matter of fact, we"d finished the investigation months ago--around the end of August, or early in September. We just hadn"t got around to announcing it."

"Last October," I said, "I was told the investigation was still going on. They said there were no new answers to the cases just mentioned."

"The Press Branch hadn"t been informed yet," Boggs explained simply.

"It seems very strange to me," I said. "In April, the Air Force called for vigilance by the civilian population. It said the project was young, much of its work still under way."

Jesse Stay interrupted before Boggs could reply.

"Don, the Press Branch will have to take the blame for that. The report wasn"t carefully checked. There were several loose statements in it."

This was an incredible statement. I was sure Jesse knew it.

"But the case reports you quoted came from Wright Field. As of April twenty-seventh, 1949, all the major cases were officially unsolved.

Then in August or early September, the whole thing"s cleaned up, from what Major Boggs says. That"s pretty hard to believe."

No one answered that one. Major Boggs was waiting politely for the next question. I picked up my list. The rest of the interview was in straight question-and-answer style:

Q. Do you know about the White Sands sightings in April 1948? The ones Commander R. B. McLaughlin has written up?

{p. 150}

A. Yes, we checked the reports. We just don"t believe them.

Q. One of the witnesses was Charles B. Moore, the director of the Navy cosmic-ray project at Minneapolis, He"s considered a very reputable engineer. Did you know he confirms the first report--the one about the saucer 56 miles up, at a speed of eighteen thousand miles per hour.

A. Yes, I knew about him. We think he was mistaken, like the others.

Q. Mr. Moore says it was absolutely sure it was not hallucination. He says it should be carefully investigated.

A. We did investigate. We just don"t believe they saw anything.

Q. Could I see the complete file on that case? Also on Mantell, Gorman, and the Eastern Airlines cases?

A. That"s out of my province.

Q. If Project "Saucer" is ended, then all the files should be opened.

A. Well, the summaries have been cleared, and you can see them.

Q. No, I mean the actual files. Is there any reason I shouldn"t see them?

A. There"d be a lot of material to search through. Each case has a separate book, and some of them are pretty bulky.

Q. There were 722 cases in all, weren"t there?

A. No, nowhere near that.

Q. Then 375 is the total figure--I mean the number of cases Project "Saucer" listed?

A. There were a few more--something over four hundred. I don"t know the exact figure.

Q. I"ve been told that Project "Saucer" had the Air Force put out a special order for pilots to chase flying saucers. Is that right?

A. Yes, that"s right.

Q. Did that include National Guard pilots?

A. Yes, it did. When the project first started checking on saucers we were naturally anxious to get hold of one of the things. We told the pilots to do practically anything in reason, even if they had to grab one by the tail.

Q. Were any of those planes armed?

{p. 151}

A. Only if they happened to have guns for some other mission, like gunnery practice.