"The lights are usually seen singly--very few formations reported.
They seem to have the same speed, acceleration, and ability to maneuver. In several cases, they have been able to evade Air Force planes in night encounters."
Going over the cases, I realized that Purdy and his staff had dug up at least fifty reports that had not appeared in the papers. (A few of these proved incorrect, but a check with the Air Force case reports released on December 30, 1949, showed that True"s files contained all the important items.) These cases included sightings at eleven Air Force bases and fourteen American airports, reports from ships at sea, and a score of encounters by airline and private pilots.
Witnesses included Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force officers; state and city police; F.B.I. agents; weather observers, shipmasters, astronomers, and thousands of good solid American citizens. I learned later that many witnesses had been investigated by the F.B.I. to weed out crackpot reports.
I ended up badly puzzled. The evidence was more impressive than I had suspected. It was plain that many
{p. 29}
reports had been entirely suppressed, or at least kept out of the papers. There was something ominous about it. No matter what the answer, it was serious enough to be kept carefully hidden.
If it were a Soviet missile, I thought, G.o.d help us. They"d scooped up a lot of n.a.z.i scientists and war secrets. And the Germans had been far ahead of us on guided missiles. But why would they give us a two-year warning, testing the things openly over America? It didn"t make sense.
{p. 30}
CHAPTER IV
I WENT to the Pentagon the next morning. I didn"t expect to learn much, but I wanted to make sure we weren"t tangling with security.
I"d worked with Al Scholin and Orville Splitt, in the magazine section of Public Relations, and I thought they"d tell me as much as anyone.
When I walked in, I sprang it on them cold.
"What"s the chance of seeing your Project "Saucer" files?"
Al Scholin took it more or less dead-pan. Splitt looked at me a moment and then grinned.
"Don"t tell me you believe the things are real?"
"Maybe," I said. "How about clearing me with Project "Saucer"?"
Al shook his head. "It"s still cla.s.sified secret."
""Look, Don," said Splitt, "why do you want to fool with that saucer business? There"s nothing to it."
""That"s a big change from what the Air Force was saying; in 1947," I told him.
He shrugged that off. "The Air Force has spent two years checking into it. Everybody from Symington down will tell you the saucers are bunk."
"That"s not what Project "Saucer" says in that April report."
"That report was made up a long time ago," said Splitt. "They just got around to releasing it."
"Then they"ve got all the answers now?"
"They know there"s nothing to it," Splitt repeated.
"In that case," I said, "Project "Saucer" shouldn"t object to my seeing their files and pictures."
"What pictures?"
"That one taken at Harmon Field, Newfoundland, for a starter."
"Oh, that thing," said Splitt. "It wasn"t anything--just a shadow on a cloud. Somebody"s been kidding you."
"If it"s just a cloud shadow, why can"t I see it?"
Splitt was getting a little nettled.
{p. 31}
"Look, you know how long it takes to decla.s.sify stuff. They just haven"t got around to it. Take my word for it, the flying saucers are bunk. I went around with Sid Shallett on some of his interviews. What he"s got in the Post is the absolute gospel."
"It"s funny about that April twenty-seventh report," I said, "the way it contradicts the Post."
"I tell you that was an old report--"
"I wouldn"t say that," Al Scholin put in. "The Air Force doesn"t claim it has all the answers. But they"ve proved a lot of the reports were hoaxes or mistakes."
"Just the same," I said, "the Air Force is on record, as of April twenty-seventh, that it"s serious enough for everybody to be vigilant.
And they admit most of the things, in the important cases, are still unidentified. Including the saucer Mantell was chasing."
"That business at G.o.dman Field was some kind of hallucination,"
insisted Splitt.
"I suppose all those pilots and G.o.dman Field officers were hypnotized?
Not to mention several thousand people at Madisonville and Fort Knox?"
"Take it easy, you guys," said Al Scholin. "You"ve both got a right to your opinions."
"Oh, sure," said Splitt. He looked at me, with his grin back. "I don"t care if you think they"re men from Mars."
"Let"s not go off the deep end," I said. "Tell me this: Did Shallett get to see any secret files at Wright Field?"
"Absolutely not."
"Then he had to take the Air Force word for everything?"
"Not entirely. We set up some interviews for him."
"One more thing--and don"t get mad. If it"s all bunk, why haven"t they closed Project "Saucer"?"
"How do I know? Probably no one wants to take the responsibility."
"Then somebody high up must not think it"s bunk," I said.
Splitt laughed. "Have it your own way."