affected two photographers
at Mount Palomar. They were fired for playing practical jokes on the
astronomers. Additional exposures of other newfound objects were made.
Again the plates were returned; this time with three little old cars
parading proudly across the heavens as though they truly belonged among
the stars.

The night the Russian protest crossed trails with the Palomar report,
Washington looked like a kid with chicken pox, as dozens of spotty
yellow windows marked midnight meetings of the nation's greatest minds.
The military denied responsibility for cars older than 1942. Civil
aviation proved they had no projects involving motor vehicles. Central
Intelligence swore on their classification manual they were not dropping
junk over Cuba in an attempt to hit Castro. Disgusted, the President
established a civilian commission which soon located three more reports.

Two were from fliers. The pilot of Flight 26, New York to Los Angeles,
had two weeks before reported a strange object rising over Southern
California about ten the evening of April 3rd. A week after this report,
a private pilot on his way from Las Vegas claimed seeing an old car
flying over Los Angeles. His statement was ignored, as he was arrested
later while trying to drink himself silly because no one believed his
story.

Fortunately, at the approximate times both pilots claimed sighting
unknown objects, radar at Los Angeles International recorded something
rising from earth's surface into the stratosphere. Within hours after
the three reports met, in the President's commission's office, mobile
radar was spotted on Southern California hilltops in twenty-four-hour
watches for unscheduled flights not involving aircraft.

Number Seven, stationed in the Mount Wilson television tower parking
lot, caught one first. "Hey fellows," came his excited voice, "check 124
degrees, vector 62 now ... rising ... 124 degrees ... vector 66 ...
rising--"

_Nine_ and _Four_ caught it moments later. Then _Three_, Army long-range
radar, picked it up. "O.K., we're on. It's still rising ... leaving the
atmosphere ... gone. Anyone else catch it?" Negative responses came from
all but _Seven_, _Nine_ and _Four_. So well spread were they, that
within minutes headquarters had laid four lines over Southern
California. They crossed where the unsuspecting community of Fullerton
was more or less sound asleep, totally unaware of the making of history
in its back yard.