Part 3 (2/2)

Ten minutes before this several other officers and airmen had seen three objects They were similar except they hadin a westerly direction

Two hours later a crew of technicians on Rogers Dry Lake, adjacent to Muroc Air Base, observed another UFO Their report went as follows:

On the 8 July 1947 at 11:50 ere sitting in an observation truck located in Area 3, Rogers Dry Lake We were gazing upward toward a for at 20,000 feet

They were preparing to carry out a seat-ejection experiment We observed a round object, white aluminum color, which at first resembled a parachute canopy Our first impression was that a premature ejection of the seat and dummy had occurred but this was not the case The object was lower than 20,000 feet, and was falling at three times the rate observed for the test parachute, which ejected thirty seconds after we first saw the object As the object fell it drifted slightly north of due west against the prevailing wind The speed, horizontal motion, could not be determined, but it appeared to be slower than the maximum velocity F-80 aircraft

As this object descended through a low enough level to permit observation of its lateral silhouette, it presented a distinct oval- shaped outline, with two projections on the upper surface which ht have been thick fins or nobs These crossed each other at intervals, suggesting either rotation or oscillation of slow type

No sine noise, or other plausible or visible means of propulsion were noted The color was silver, rese an aluminum-painted fabric, and did not appear as dense as a parachute canopy

When the object dropped to a level such that it came into line of vision of the mountain tops, it was lost to the vision of the observers

It is estiht about 90 seconds Of the five people sitting in the observation truck, four observed this object

The following is our opinion about this object:

It was man-made, as evidenced by the outline and functional appearance

Seeing this was not a hallucination or other fancies of sense

Exactly four hours later the pilot of an F-51 was flying at 20,000 feet about 40 hted a ”flat object of a light-reflecting nature” He reported that it had no vertical fin or wings When he first saw it, the object was above him and he tried to clih All air bases in the area were contacted but they had no aircraft in the area

By the end of July 1947 the UFO security lid was down tight The few members of the press who did inquire about what the Air Force was doing got the saet today if you inquired about the number of thermonuclear weapons stock-piled in the US's ato officers in the Pentagon, knehat the people in the barbed-wire enclosed Quonset huts that housed the Air Technical Intelligence Center were thinking or doing

The memos and correspondence that Project Blue Book inherited fro saucer era

These memos and pieces of correspondence showed that the UFO situation was considered to be serious; in fact, very serious The paper work of that period also indicated the confusion that surrounded the investigation; confusion almost to the point of panic

The brass wanted an answer, quickly, and people were taking off in all directions Everyone's theory was as good as the next and each person with any weight at ATIC was plugging and investigating his own theory The ideas as to the origin of the UFO's fell into two ory the Russians led, with the US Navy and their XF-5-U-1, the ”Flying Flapjack,” pulling a not too close second The desire to cover all leads was graphically pointed up to be a personal handwritten note I found in a file It was froence specialist It said, ”Are you positive that the Navy junked the XF-5- U-1 project?” The non-earthly category ran the ga interplanetary craft about the same distance the Navy was behind the Russians

This confused speculating lasted only a feeeks Then the investigation narrowed down to the Soviets and took off on a much more methodical course of action

When World War II ended, the Geruided missiles under development The es but they were the only known craft that could even approach the performance of the objects reported by UFO observers Like the Allies, after World War II the Soviets had obtained complete sets of data on the latest German developments This, coupled with ru the Gerree of alarm As more UFO's were observed near the Air Force's Muroc Test Center, the Ar Ground, and atomic bomb plants, ATIC's efforts becaents in Gerress had been made on the various German projects

The last possibility, of course, was that the Soviets had discovered soive saucer perfor the United States for data on the Gerents in Ger out the data they had been asked for, UFO reports continued to flood the country The Pacific Northwest still led with thea few flying saucers

At first there was no co-ordinated effort to collect data on the UFO reports Leads would come froence agencies outside of ATIC were hesitant to investigate on their own initiative because, as is so typical of the military, they lacked specific orders When no orders were forthco, they took this to mean that thethis placid attitude changed, and changed drastically Classified orders cas Get every detail and send it direct to ATIC at Wright Field The order carried no explanation as to why the information anted This lack of an explanation and the fact that the inforence group within Air Force Headquarters stirred the ier ence people in the field who had previously been free with opinions now cla

Early statements to the press, which shaped the opinion of the public, didn't reduce the confusion factor While ATIC was grih-placed officials” were officially chuckling at the mention of UFO's

In July 1947 an International News Service wire story quoted the public relations officer at Wright Field as saying, ”So far we haven't found anything to confiruided s are now, they appear to be either a phenoination”

A feeeks later a lieutenant colonel as assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Fourth Air Force idely quoted as saying, ”There is no basis for belief in flying saucers in the Taco in the area of Tacoton], or any other area”

The ”experts,” in their stories of saucer lore, have said that these brush-offs of the UFO sightings were intentional s confusion This is not true; it was merely a lack of coordination But had the Air Force tried to throw up a screen of confusion, they couldn't have done a better job