Part 19 (1/2)

When I arrived at Dayton, newspaper down the door

The official answer to the _Life_ article was released through the Office of Public Inforon: ”The article is factual, but _Life's_ conclusions are their own” In answer to any questions about the article's being Air Force-inspired, my weasel- worded ansas that we had furnished _Life_ with sos

My ansas purposely weasel-worded because I knew that the Air Force had unofficially inspired the _Life_ article The ” on ”they are” was the personal opinion of several very high-ranking officers in the Pentagon--so high that their personal opinion was aleneral, had passed his opinions on to Bob Ginna

Oddly enough, the _Life_ article did not cause a flood of reports

The day after the article appeared we got nine sightings, which was unusual, but the next day they dropped off again

The number of reports did take a sharp rise a few days later, however The cause was the distribution of an order that completed the transformation of the UFO from a bastard son to the family heir

The piece of paper that iti Objects The letter, which was duly signed and sealed by the Secretary of the Air Force, in essence stated that UFO's were not a joke, that the Air Force wasa serious study of the problem, and that Project Blue Book was responsible for the study The letter stated that the commander of every Air Force installation was responsible for forwarding all UFO reports to ATIC by wire, with a copy to the Pentagon Then a more detailed report would be sent by airave Project Blue Book the authority to directly contact any Air Force unit in the United States without going through any chain of coave our project a lot of prestige

The new reporting procedures established by the Air Force letter greatly aided our investigation because it allowed us to start investigating the better reports before they cooled off But it also had its disadvantages It authorized the sender to use whatever priority he thought the s are slow in the e is not one of thee center, it is delivered to the addressee i UFO's seeht and 4:00AM I was considered the addressee on all UFO reports To coes were usually classified and I would have to go out to the air base and personally sign for thee came in about 4:30AM on May 8, 1952 It was from a CAA radio station in Jacksonville, Florida, and had been forwarded over the Flight Service teletype net I received the usual telephone call froot dressed, and I went out and picked up the ht man in the teletype room said, ”This is a lulu, Captain”

It was a lulu About one o'clock thatsouth toward Puerto Rico A few hours after it had left New York City it was out over the Atlantic Ocean, about 600at 8,000 feet It was a pitch-black night; a high overcast even cut out the glow from the stars The pilot and copilot were awake but really weren't concentrating on looking for other aircraft because they had just passed into the San Juan Oceanic Control Area and they had been advised by radio that there were no other airplanes in the area The copilot was turning around to look at nuht up ahead It looked like the taillight of another airplane He watched it closely for a few seconds since no other airplanes were supposed to be in the area He glanced out at nuine for a few seconds, looked back, and he saw that the light was in about the same position as when he'd first seen it Then he looked down at the prop controls, synchronized the engines, and looked up again In the few seconds that he had glanced away froht so that it was now directly ahead of the DC-4, and it had increased in size The copilot reached over and slapped the pilot on the shoulder and pointed Just at that instant the light began to get bigger and bigger until it was ”ten tiht of an airplane” It continued to close in and with a flash it streaked by the DC-4's left wing Before the crew could react and say anything, two more smaller balls of fire flashed by Both pilots later said that they sat in their seats for several seconds with sweat trickling down their backs

It was one of these two pilots who later said, ”Were you ever traveling along the highway about 70suddenly swerve over into your lane and then cut back so that you justyou get when it's all over? That's just the e felt”

As soon as the crew recovered from the shock, the pilot picked up his mike, called Jacksonville Radio, and told them about the incident Minutes later we had the report The next afternoon Lieutenant Kerry Rothstien, who had replaced Lieutenant Metscher on the project, was on his way to New York to meet the pilots when they returned from Puerto Rico

When Kerry talked to the two pilots, they couldn't add a great deal to their original story Their final comment was the one we all had heard sosaucers were crazy, but now I don't know”

When Lieutenant Rothstien returned to Dayton he triple-checked with the CAA for aircraft in the area--but there were none Could there have been airplanes in the area that CAA didn't know about? The ansas almost a flat ”No” No one would fly 600 ot into trouble or went down, the Coast Guard or Air Rescue Service would have no idea where to look

Kerry was given the sa

The last possibility was that the UFO's were meteors, but several points in the pilots' story ruled these out First, there was a solid overcast at about 18,000 feet No ht and level below 18,000 feet Second, on only rare occasions havethree in trail The chances of seeing such a phenouessed that some kind of an atmospheric phenomenon can form a ”wall of air” ahead of an airplane that will act as ahts This could be true in soht to reflect There are no lights on an airplane that even approach being ”ten tiht”

What was it? I know a colonel who says it was the sa that the two Eastern Airlines' pilots, Clarence Chiles and John Whitted, saw near Montgomery, Alabama, on July 24, 1948, and he thinks that Chiles and Whitted saw a spaceshi+p

Reports for the h These were all reports that came from military installations In addition, we received possibly two hundred letters reporting UFO's, but ere so busy all we could do was file them for future reference

In May 1952 I'd been out to George AFB in California investigating a series of sightings and was on ht to Dayton because the weather was bad all the way I didn't want to rounded, because I had faithfully proht that I returned to Dayton I'd called her fro in, and she had found a baby sitter and had dinner reservations I hadn't been home more than about two days a week for the past threeout for the evening

I reached Dayton about ht out to the base

When I arrived at the office,note on et in”

I called Colonel Dunn; then I called my wife and told her to cancel the baby sitter, cancel the dinner reservations, and pack ton

While I'd been in California, Colonel Dunn had received a call frohts before, one of the top people in the Central Intelligence Agency was having a lawn party at his hoinia A nues were in attendance and they had seen a flying saucer The report had been passed down to Air Force intelligence, and due to the quality of the brass involved, it was ”suggested” that I get to Washi+ngton on the double and talk to the host of the party

I was at his office before 5:00PM and got his report