lege tests. Both the tests and the
project had an abundance of equally confusing questions.

Project Blue Book had been made a separate group because of the
steadily increasing number of reports we were receiving. The average
had jumped from about ten a month to twenty a month since December
1951. In March of 1952 the reports slacked off a little, but April
was a big month. In April we received ninety-nine reports.

On April 1, Colonel S. H. Kirkland and I went to Los Angeles on
business. Before we left ATIC we had made arrangements to attend a
meeting of the Civilian Saucer Investigators, a now defunct
organization that was very active in 1952.

They turned out to be a well-meaning but Don Quixote-type group of
individuals. As soon as they outlined their plans for attempting to
solve the UFO riddle, it was obvious that they would fail. Project
Blue Book had the entire Air Force, money, and enthusiasm behind it
and we weren't getting any answers yet. All this group had was the
enthusiasm.

The highlight of the evening wasn't the Civilian Saucer
Investigators, however; it was getting a chance to read Ginna's UFO
article in an advance copy of _Life_ magazine that the organization
had obtained--the article written from the material Bob Ginna had
been researching for over a year. Colonel Kirkwood took one long look
at the article, sidled up to me, and said, "We'd better get back to
Dayton quick; you're going to be busy." The next morning at dawn I
was sound asleep on a United Airlines DC-6, Dayton-bound.

The _Life_ article undoubtedly threw a harder punch at the American
public than any other UFO article ever written. The title alone,
"Have We Visitors from Outer Space?" was enough. Other very reputable
magazines, such as True, had said it before, but coming from _Life_,
it was different. _Life_ didn't say that the UFO's were from outer
space; it just said maybe. But to back up this "maybe," it had quotes
from some famous people. Dr. Walther Riedel, who played an important
part in the development of the German V-2 missile and is presently
the director of rocket engine research for North American Aviation
Corporation, said he believed that the UFO's were from outer space.
Dr. Maurice Biot, one of the world's leading aerodynamicists, backed
him up.

But the most important thing about the _Life_ article was the
question in the minds of so many readers: "Why was it written?"
_Life_ doesn't go blasting off on flights of