The Flying Saucers are Real | Page 8

the first sighting."
"You've got contacts in Washington," Purdy went on. "Start at the
Pentagon first. They know we're working on it. Sam Boal, the first man
on this job, was down there for a day or two."
"What did he find out?"
"Symington told him the saucers were bunk. Secretary Johnson
admitted they had some pictures--we'd heard about a secret photograph
taken at Harmon Field, Newfoundland. The tip said this saucer scared
hell out of some pilots and Air Force men up there.
"A major took Boal to some Air Force colonel and Boal asked to see
the pictures. The colonel said they didn't have any. He turned red when
the major said Symington had told Boal about the pictures."
"Did Boal get to see them?" I said.

"No," grunted Purdy, "and I'll bet twenty bucks you won't, either. But
try, anyway. And check on a rumor that they've tracked some disks
with radar. One case was supposed to be at an Air Force base in Japan."
As I was leaving, Purdy gave me a summary of sighting reports.
"Some of these were published, some we dug up ourselves," he said.
"We got some confidential stuff from
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airline pilots. It's pretty obvious the Air Force has tried to keep them
quiet."
"All right," I said. "I'll get started. Maybe things aren't sewed up so
tightly, now this report is out."
"We've found out some things about Project 'Saucer,' said Purdy.
"Whether it's a cover-up or a real investigation, there's a lot of
hush-hush business to it. They've got astronomers and astrophysicists
working for them, also rocket expects, technical analysts, and Air Force
Special Intelligence. We've been told they can call on any government
agency for help--and I know they're using the F.B.I."
It was building up bigger than I had thought.
"If national security is involved," I told Purdy, "they can shut us up in a
hurry."
"If they tell me so, O.K.," said Purdy. He added grimly, "But I think
they're making a bad mistake. They probably think they're doing what's
right. But the truth might come out the wrong way."
"It is possible," I thought, "that the saucers belong to Russia."
"If it turns out to be a Soviet missile, count me out," I said. "We'd have
the Pentagon and the F.B.I. on our necks."
"All right, if that's the answer." He chuckled. "But you may be in for a

jolt."
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CHAPTER III
JUST THE idea of gigantic flying disks was incredible enough. It was
almost as hard to believe that such missiles could have been developed
without something leaking out. Yet we had produced the A-bomb in
comparative secrecy, and I knew we were working on long-range
guided missiles. There was already a plan for a three-thousand-mile test
range. Our supersonic planes had hit around two thousand miles an
hour. Our two-stage rockets had gone over two hundred miles high,
according to reports. If an atomic engine had been secretly developed,
it could explain the speed and range of the saucers.
But I kept coming back to Mantell's death and the Air Force orders for
pilots to chase the saucers. If the disks were American missiles, that
didn't jibe.
When I reached the lobby, I found it was ten after four. I caught a taxi
and made the Congressional Limited with just one minute to spare. In
the club car, I settled down to look at Purdy's summary.
Skipping through the pages, I saw several familiar cases. Here and
there, Purdy had scrawled brief comments or suggestions. Beside the
Eastern Airline report of a double-decked saucer, he had written:
"Check rumor same type seen over Holland about this date. Also,
similar Philippine Islands report--date unknown."
I went back to the beginning. The first case listed was that of Kenneth
Arnold, a Boise businessman, who had set off the saucer scare. Arnold
was flying his private plane from Chehalis to Yakima, Washington,
when he saw a bright flash on his wing.
Looking toward Mount Rainier, he saw nine gleaming disks outlined
against the snow, each one about the size of a C-54.

"They flew close to the mountaintops, in a diagonal chainlike line," he
said later. "It was as if they were linked together."
The disks appeared to be twenty to twenty-five miles
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away, he said, and moving at fantastic speed. Arnold's estimate was
twelve hundred miles an hour.
"I watched them about three minutes," he said. "They were swerving in
and out around the high mountain peaks. They were flat, like a pie pan,
and so shiny they reflected the sun like a mirror. I never saw anything
so fast."
The date was June 24, 1947.
On this same day there was another saucer report. which received very
little notice. A Portland prospector