ing frustration--that is, all information going
in, and none coming out. It is in this area that NICAP may find its
greatest mission.

"We are in a position to screen independently all UFO information
coming in from our filter groups.

"General Albert C. Wedemeyer will serve the Committee as Evaluations
Adviser and complete analyses will be arranged through leading
scientists. After careful evaluation, we shall release our findings
to the public."

Donald Keyhoe, a retired Marine Corps Major, and author of three top
seller UFO books, was appointed director. The mere fact that another
civilian UFO investigative group was being born was neither news nor
UFO history because since 1947 well over a hundred such organizations
had been formed. Many still exist; many flopped. But none deserve the
niche in UFO history that does NICAP. NICAP had power and it raised a
storm that took months to calm down.

NICAP got off to a fast start. Dues were pegged at $7.50 a year,
which included a subscription to the very interesting magazine _The_
_UFO_ _Investigator_, and the operation went into high gear.

With such names as Fahrney, Wedemeyer, Hillenkoetter, Del Valle and
Knowles for prestige, and Keyhoe for intrigue, saucer fans all over
the United States packaged up their seven-fifty and mailed it to
headquarters. Each, in turn, became a "listening post" and an
"investigator."

Keyhoe set up a Panel of Special Advisors, all saucer fans, to
"impartially evaluate" the UFO reports ferreted out by the "listening
posts," based on facts uncovered by the "investigators."

Even though the "leading scientists" Fahrney mentioned in his
statement never materialized NICAP was cocked, primed, and ready.

To get things off to a gala start Keyhoe, as director of NICAP,
wrote to the Air Force and set out NICAP's Eight Point Plan. In
essence this plan suggested (some say demanded) that the Air Force
let NICAP ride herd on Project Blue Book.

First of all, NICAP wanted its Panel of Special Advisors to review
and concur with all of the conclusions on the thousands of UFO
reports that the Air Force had in its files.

This went over like a worm in the punch bowl.

First of all, the Air Force didn't feel it was necessary to review
its files. Secondly, they knew NICAP. If every balloon, planet,
airplane, and bird that caused a UFO report hadn't been captured and
a signed confession wrung out, the UFO would be a visitor from outer
space.