hat Project Blue
Book subscribe to a newspaper clipping service. Such a service could
provide several things. First, it would show us exactly how much
publicity the UFO's were getting and what was being said, and it
would give us the feel of the situation. Then it would also provide a
lot of data for our files. In many cases the newspapers got reports
that didn't go to the Air Force. Newspaper reporters rival any
intelligence officer when it comes to digging up facts, and there was
always the possibility that they would uncover and print something
we'd missed. This was especially true in the few cases of hoaxes that
always accompany UFO publicity. Last, it would provide us with
material on which to base a study of the effect of newspaper
publicity upon the number and type of UFO reports.

Colonel Dunn liked the idea of the clipping service, and it went
into effect soon after the first publicity had appeared. Every three
or four days we would get an envelope full of clippings. In March the
clipping service was sending the clippings to us in letter-sized
envelopes. The envelopes were thin--maybe there would be a dozen or
so clippings in each one. Then they began to get thicker and thicker,
until the people who were doing the clipping switched to using manila
envelopes. Then the manila envelopes began to get thicker and
thicker. By May we were up to old shoe boxes. The majority of the
newspaper stories in the shoe boxes were based on material that had
come from ATIC.

All of these inquiries from the press were adding to Blue Book's
work load and to my problems. Normally a military unit such as ATIC
has its own public information officer, but we had none so I was it.
I was being quoted quite freely in the press and was repeatedly being
snarled at by someone in the Pentagon. It was almost a daily
occurrence to have people from the "puzzle palace" call and
indignantly ask, "Why did you tell them that?" They usually referred
to some bit of information that somebody didn't think should have
been released. I finally gave up and complained to Colonel Dunn. I
suggested that any contacts with the press be made through the Office
of Public Information in the Pentagon. These people were trained and
paid to do this job; I wasn't. Colonel Dunn heartily agreed because
every time I got chewed out he at least got a dirty look.

Colonel Dunn called General Samford's office and they brought in
General Sory Smith of the Department of Def