They write the UFO
scrambles off as training cost. Each pilot has to get so much flying
time and simulating intercepts against an unidentified light is more
interesting than merely "burning holes in the air."

If appropriations are ever cut to the point where training must be
curtailed, and Heaven forbid, there will be no more scrambles after
flying saucers.

And the colonel who told me this was emphatic.

The year 1957 was heralded in by a startling announcement which
ended a long dry spell of UFO news.

At a press conference in Washington, D.C., Retired Admiral Delmer S.
Fahrney made a statement. Newspapers across the country carried it
complete, or in part, and people read the statement with interest
because Admiral Fahrney is well known as a sensible and knowledgeable
man. He had fought for and built up the Navy's guided missile program
back in the days when people who talked of ballistic missiles and
satellites _had_ to fight for their beliefs.

First, Admiral Fahrney announced that a non-profit organization, the
National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) had
been established to investigate UFO reports. He would be chairman of
the board of governors and his board would consist of such potent
names as:

Retired Vice Admiral R. H. Hillenkoetter, for two years the director
of the supersecret Central Intelligence Agency.

Retired Lieutenant General P. A. del Valle, ex-commanding general of
the famous First Marine Division.

Retired Rear Admiral Herbert B. Knowles, noted submariner of World
War II.

Then Admiral Fahrney read a statement regarding the policies of
NICAP. It was as follows:

"Reliable reports indicate that there are objects coming into our
atmosphere at very high speeds . . . No agency in this country or
Russia is able to duplicate at this time the speeds and accelerations
which radars and observers indicate these flying objects are able to
achieve.

"There are signs that an intelligence directs these objects because
of the way they fly. The way they change position in formations would
indicate that their motion is directed. The Air Force is collecting
factual data on which to base an opinion, but time is required to
sift and correlate the material.

"As long as such unidentified objects continue to navigate through
the earth's atmosphere, there is an urgent need to know the facts.
Many observers have ceased to report their findings to the Air Force
because of the seem