e_ was thinking about doing a
feature article. The writer had gone to the Office of Public
Information in the Pentagon and had inquired about the current status
of Project Grudge. To accommodate the writer, the OPI had sent a wire
out to ATIC: What is the status of Project Grudge?

Back went a snappy reply: Everything is under control; each new
report is being thoroughly analyzed by our experts; our vast files of
reports are in tiptop shape; and in general things are hunky-dunky.
All UFO reports are hoaxes, hallucinations, and the misidentification
of known objects.

Another wire from Washington: Fine, Mr. Bob Ginna of _Life_ is
leaving for Dayton. He wants to check some reports.

Bedlam in the raw.

Other magazines had printed UFO stories, and other reporters had
visited ATIC, but they had always stayed in the offices of the top
brass. For some reason the name _Life_, the prospects of a feature
story, and the feeling that this Bob Ginna was going to ask questions
caused sweat to flow at ATIC.

Ginna arrived and the ATIC UFO "expert" talked to him. Ginna later
told me about the meeting. He had a long list of questions about
reports that had been made over the past four years and every time he
asked a question, the "expert" would go tearing out of the room to
try to find the file that had the answer. I remember that day people
spent a lot of time ripping open bundles of files and pawing through
them like a bunch of gophers. Many times, "I'm sorry, that's
classified," got ATIC out of a tight spot.

Ginna, I can assure you, was not at all impressed by the
"efficiently operating UFO project." People weren't buying the hoax,
hallucination, and misidentification stories quite as readily as the
Air Force believed.

Where it started or who started it I don't know, but about two
months after the visit from _Life's_ representative the official
interest in UFO's began to pick up. Lieutenant Jerry Cummings, who
had recently been recalled to active duty, took over the project.

Lieutenant Cummings is the type of person who when given a job to do
does it. In a few weeks the operation of the UFO project had improved
considerably. But the project was still operating under political,
economic, and manpower difficulties. Cummings' desk was right across
from mine, so I began to get a UFO indoctrination via bull sessions.
Whenever Jerry found a good report in the pile--and all he had to
start with was a pile of papers and files-