ther targets on the scope too, he said, but these were
common to the Washington area and the controllers were paying no
attention to them.

And this something solid could poke along at 100 miles an hour or
outdistance a jet, I thought to myself.

I didn't ask Dewey any more because he'd been up all night and
wanted to get to bed.

Monday morning Major Ed Gregory, another intelligence officer at
ATIC, and I left for Washington, but our flight was delayed in Dayton
so we didn't arrive until late afternoon. On the way through the
terminal building to get a cab downtown, I picked up the evening
papers. Every headline was about the UFO's:

FIERY OBJECTS OUTRUN JETS OVER CAPITAL--INVESTIGATION VEILED IN
SECRECY FOLLOWING VAIN CHASE

JETS ALERTED FOR SAUCERS--INTERCEPTORS CHASE LIGHTS IN D.C. SKIES

EXPERT HERE TO PUSH STUDY AS OBJECTS IN SKIES REPORTED AGAIN

I jokingly commented about wondering who the expert was. In a half
hour I found out--I was. When Major Gregory and I walked into the
lobby of the Roger Smith Hotel to check in, reporters and
photographers rose from the easy chairs and divans like a covey of
quail. They wanted my secrets, but I wasn't going to tell nor would I
pose for pictures while I wasn't telling anything. Newspaper
reporters are a determined lot, but Greg ran interference and we
reached the elevator without even a "no comment."

The next day was one of confusion. After the first Washington
sighting the prevailing air in the section of the Pentagon's fourth
floor, which is occupied by Air Force Intelligence, could be
described as excitement, but this day it was confusion. There was a
maximum of talk and a minimum of action. Everyone agreed that both
sightings should be thoroughly investigated, but nobody did anything.
Major Fournet and I spent the entire morning "just leaving" for
somewhere to investigate "something." Every time we would start to
leave, something more pressing would come up.

About 10:00A.M. the President's air aide, Brigadier General Landry,
called intelligence at President Truman's request to find out what
was going on. Somehow I got the call. I told General Landry that the
radar target could have been caused by weather but that we had no
proof.

To add to the already confused situation, new UFO reports were
coming in hourly. We kept them quiet mainly because we weren't able
to investigate them right away, or even confirm the facts. And we
wanted to confirm the facts b