onfused by some
unusual formation of ground lights, a meteor, or a star, but airline
pilots have flown thousands of hours or they wouldn't be sitting in
the left seat of an airliner, and they should be familiar with a host
of unusual sights.

One afternoon in February 1953 I had an opportunity to further my
study of UFO sightings by airline pilots. I had been out at Air
Defense Command Headquarters in Colorado Springs and was flying back
East on a United Airlines DC-6. There weren't many passengers on the
airplane that afternoon but, as usual, the captain came strolling
back through the cabin to chat. When he got to me he sat down in the
next seat. We talked a few minutes; then I asked him what he knew
about flying saucers. He sort of laughed and said that a dozen people
a week asked that question, but when I told him who I was and why I
was interested, his attitude changed. He said that he'd never seen a
UFO but he knew a lot of pilots on United who had. One man, he told
me, had seen one several years ago. He'd reported it but he had been
sloughed off like the rest. But he was so convinced that he'd seen
something unusual that he'd gone out and bought a Leica camera with a
105-mm. telephoto lens, learned how to use it, and now he carried it
religiously during his flights.

There was a lull in the conversation, then the captain said, "Do you
really want to get an opinion about flying saucers?"

I said I did.

"O.K.," I remember his saying, "how much of a layover do you have in
Chicago?"

I had about two hours.

"All right, as soon as we get to Chicago I'll meet you at
Caffarello's, across the street from the terminal building. I'll see
who else is in and I'll bring them along."

I thanked him and he went back up front.

I waited around the bar at Caffarello's for an hour. I'd just about
decided that he wasn't going to make it and that I'd better get back
to catch my flight to Dayton when he and three other pilots came in.
We got a big booth in the coffee shop because he'd called three more
off-duty pilots who lived in Chicago and they were coming over too. I
don't remember any of the men's names because I didn't make any
attempt to. This was just an informal bull session and not an
official interrogation, but I really got the scoop on what airline
pilots think about UFO's.

First of all they didn't pull any punches about what they thought
about the Air Force and its investigation of UFO reports. One of the