spaper reporter, radio and TV newscaster, comedian, and man on the
street. Some of the comments weren't complimentary, but as Theorem I
of the publicity racket goes, "It doesn't make any difference what's
said as long as the name's spelled right."

Early in April the publication that is highly revered by so many,
_U.S._ _News_ _and_ _World_ _Report_, threw in their lot. The UFO's
belonged to the Navy. Up popped the old non-flying XF-5-U again.

Events drifted back to normal when Edward R. Murrow made UFO's the
subject of one of his TV documentaries. He took his viewers around
the U.S., talked to Kenneth Arnold, of original UFO fame, by phone
and got the story of Captain Mantell's death from a reporter "who was
there." Sandwiched in between accounts of actual UFO sightings were
the pro and con opinions of top Washington brass, scientists, and the
man on the street.

Even the staid New York _Times_, which had until now stayed out of
UFO controversy, broke down and ran an editorial entitled, "Those
Flying Saucers--Are They or Aren't They?"

All of this activity did little to shock the military out of their
dogma. They admitted that the UFO investigation really hadn't been
discontinued. "Any substantial reports of any unusual aerial
phenomena would be processed through normal intelligence channels,"
they told the press.

Ever since July 4, 1947, ten days after the first flying saucer
report, airline pilots had been reporting that they had seen UFO's.
But the reports weren't frequent--maybe one every few months. In the
spring of 1950 this changed, however, and the airline pilots began to
make more and more reports--good reports. The reports went to ATIC
but they didn't receive much attention. In a few instances there was
a semblance of an investigation but it was halfhearted. The reports
reached the newspapers too, and here they received a great deal more
attention. The reports were investigated, and the stories checked and
rechecked. When airline crews began to turn in one UFO report after
another, it was difficult to believe the old "hoax, hallucination,
and misidentification of known objects" routine. In April, May, and
June of 1950 there were over thirty-five good reports from airline
crews.

One of these was a report from a Chicago and Southern crew who were
flying a DC-3 from Memphis to Little Rock, Arkansas, on the night of
March 31. It was an exceptionally clear night, no clouds or haze, a
wonderful night to