elt that the "jury" was
definitely prejudiced-- afraid to stick their necks out. They could
see no reason to continue to assume that the UFO's weren't
interplanetary vehicles.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

What Are UFO's?

While the scientists were in Washington, D.C., pondering over the
UFO, the UFO's weren't just sitting idly by waiting to find out what
they were--they were out doing a little "lobbying" for the cause--
keeping the interest stirred up.

And they were doing a good job, too.

It was just a few minutes before midnight on January 28, 1953, when
a message flashed into Wright-Patterson for Project Blue Book. It was
sent "Operational Immediate," so it had priority handling; I was
reading it by 12:30A.M. A pilot had chased a UFO.

The report didn't have many details but it did sound good. It gave
the pilot's name and said that he could be reached at Moody AFB. I
put in a long-distance call, found the pilot, and flipped on my
recorder so that I could get his story word for word.

He told me that he had been flying an F-86 on a "round-robin"
navigation flight from Moody AFB to Lawson AFB to Robins AFB, then
back to Moody--all in Georgia. At exactly nine thirty-five he was at
6,000 feet, heading toward Lawson AFB on the first leg of his flight.
He remembered that he had just looked down and had seen the lights of
Albany, Georgia; then he'd looked up again and seen this bright white
light at "ten o'clock high." It was an unusually bright light, and he
said that he thought this was why it was so noticeable among the
stars. He flew on for a few minutes watching it as he passed over
Albany. He decided that it must be an extremely bright star or
another airplane--except it just didn't look right. It had too much
of a definitely circular shape.

It was a nice night to fly and he had to get in so much time anyway,
so he thought he'd try to get a little closer to it. If it was an
airplane, chances were he could close in and if it was a star, he
should be able to climb up to 30,000 feet and the light shouldn't
change its relative position. He checked his oxygen supply, increased
the r.p.m. of the engine, and started to climb. In three or four
minutes it was obvious that he was getting above the light, and he
watched it; it had moved in relation to the stars. It must be an
airplane then, he'd decided--an airplane so far away that he couldn't
see its red and green wing tip lights.

Since he'd gone this far, he decid