o comment to make on McLaughlin's story. People
at ATIC just shrugged and smiled as they walked by the remains of
Project Grudge, and continued to "process UFO reports through regular
intelligence channels."

In early 1950 the UFO's moved down to Mexico. The newspapers were
full of reports. Tourists were bringing back more saucer stories than
hand-tooled, genuine leather purses. _Time_ reported that pickpockets
were doing a fabulous business working the sky-gazing crowds that
gathered when a _plativolo_ was seen. Mexico's Department of National
Defense reported that there had been some good reports but that the
stories of finding crashed saucers weren't true.

On March 8 one of the best UFO sightings of 1950 took place right
over ATIC.

About midmorning on this date a TWA airliner was coming in to land
at the Dayton Municipal Airport. As the pilot circled to get into the
traffic pattern, he and his copilot saw a bright light hovering off
to the southeast. The pilot called the tower operators at the airport
to tell them about the light, but before he could say anything, the
tower operators told him they were looking at it too. They had called
the operations office of the Ohio Air National Guard, which was
located at the airport, and while the tower operators were talking,
an Air Guard pilot was running toward an F-51, dragging his
parachute, helmet, and oxygen mask.

I knew the pilot, and he later told me, "I wanted to find out once
and for all what these screwy flying saucer reports were all about."

While the F-51 was warming up, the tower operators called ATIC and
told them about the UFO and where to look to see it. The people at
ATIC rushed out and there it was--an extremely bright light, much
brighter and larger than a star. Whatever it was, it was high because
every once in a while it would be blanked out by the thick, high,
scattered clouds that were in the area. While the group of people
were standing in front of ATIC watching the light, somebody ran in
and called the radar lab at Wright Field to see if they had any radar
"on the air." The people in the lab said that they didn't have, but
they could get operational in a hurry. They said they would search
southeast of the field with their radar and suggested that ATIC send
some people over. By the time the ATIC people arrived at the radar
lab the radar was on the air and had a target in the same position as
the light that everyone was looking at. The radar w