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Chapter IX Three days after my meeting with Steve Barrett, I was on a Mainliner 300, starting a new phase of the saucer investigation. By the time I returned, I hoped to know the truth about Project “Saucer.” As the ship droned westward, fourteen thousand feet above the Alleghenies, I thought of what Steve had told me. I believed, that he had told me about the radar tracking. And I was fairly sure he believed the Air Institute story. But I wasn’t so certain the story itself was true. It would hardly be a gag; Steve wasn’t easily taken in. It was more likely that one Institute officer, or perhaps several, believed the saucers were space craft and aired their personal opinions. The Institute […] Read More

Chapter VIII Next morning, in the broad light of day, the idea of space visitors somehow had lost its menace. If the disks were space ships, at least they had shown no sign of hostility, so far as I knew. Of course, there was Mantell; but if he had been downed by some weapon on the disk, it could have been self-defense. In most cases, the saucers retreated at the first sign of pursuit. My mind was still reluctant to accept the space-travel answer, in spite of the old reports. But I kept thinking of the famous aircraft designer who thought the disks were space craft; the airline pilots Purdy had mentioned; Blake’s copilot, Chuck. Now that I recalled it, Blake had been more […] Read More

Chapter VII It was dark when the airliner limousine reached La Guardia Field. I had intended taking an earlier plane but DuBarry persuaded me to stay over for dinner. We dropped into the Algonquin, next door to True’s office building. Halfway through dinner, I asked John what he thought of the space-travel answer. “Oh, it’s possible,” he said cautiously. “The time and space angles make it hard to take, but if we’re planning to explore space within fifty years, there’s no reason some other planet people couldn’t do it. Of course, if they’ve been observing us for over a century, as those old sightings seem to indicate, they must be far ahead of us, at least in technical progress. Later on, he said thoughtfully, […] Read More

Chapter VI Shortly after my talk with Steele, I flew to the Coast. For three weeks I investigated sightings that had been reported by airline and private pilots and other competent witnesses. At first, the airline pilots were reluctant to talk. Most of them remembered the ridicule that had followed published accounts by other airline men. One pilot told me he had been ordered to keep still about his experience – whether by the company or the Air Force, he would not say. But most of them finally agreed to talk, if I kept their names out of print. One airline captain – I’ll call him Blake – had encountered a saucer at night. He and his copilot had sighted the object, gleaming in […] Read More

Chapter V For more than two weeks, I checked on the Godman Field tragedy. One fact stood out at the start: The death of Mantell had had a profound effect on many in the Air Force. A dozen times I was told: “I thought the saucers were a joke – until Mantell was killed chasing that thing at Fort Knox.” Many ranking officers who had laughed at the saucer scare stopped scoffing. One of these was General Sory Smith, now Deputy Director of Air Force Public Relations. Later in my investigation, General Smith told me: “It was the Mantell case that got me. I knew Tommy Mantell very well – also Colonel Hix, the C.O. at Godman. I knew they were both intelligent men […] Read More

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 classified secret.” “Look, Don,” said Splitt, “why do you want to […] Read More

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 […] Read More

Chapter II It has been over two years since the puzzling death of Captain Thomas Mantell. Mantell died mysteriously in the skies south of Fort Knox. But before his radio went silent, he sent a strange message to Godman Air Force Base. The men who heard it will never forget it. It was January 7, 1948. Crowded into the Godman Field Tower, a group of Air Force officers stared up at the afternoon sky. For just an instant, something gleamed through the broken clouds south of the base. High above the field, three P-51 fighters climbed with swift urgency. Heading south, they quickly vanished. The clock in the tower read 2:45. Colonel Guy Hix, the C.O., slowly put down his binoculars. If the thing […] Read More

Chapter I It was a strange assignment. I picked up the telegram from my desk and read it a third time. NEW YORK, N.Y., MAY 9, 1949 HAVE BEEN INVESTIGATING FLYING SAUCER MYSTERY. FIRST TIP HINTED GIGANTIC HOAX TO COVER UP OFFICIAL SECRET. BELIEVE IT MAY HAVE BEEN PLANTED TO HIDE REAL ANSWER. LOOKS LIKE TERRIFIC STORY. CAN YOU TAKE OVER WASHINGTON END? KEN W. PURDY, EDITOR, TRUE MAGAZINE I glanced out at the Potomac, recalling the first saucer story. As a pilot, I’d been skeptical of flying disks. Then reports had begun to pour in from Air Force and airline pilots. Apparently alarmed, the Air Force had ordered fighters to pursue the fast-flying saucers. In one mysterious chase, a pilot had been killed, […] Read More