knowing category are constantly dwindling. One by one these people
drop out, starting with the instant they see their first UFO.

Some weeks after the first UFO was seen on June 24, 1947, the Air
Force established a project to investigate and analyze all UFO
reports. The attitude toward this task varied from a state of near
panic, early in the life of the project, to that of complete contempt
for anyone who even mentioned the words "flying saucer."

This contemptuous attitude toward "flying saucer nuts" prevailed
from mid-1949 to mid-1950. During that interval many of the people
who were, or had been, associated with the project believed that the
public was suffering from "war nerves."

Early in 1950 the project, for all practical purposes, was closed
out; at least it rated only minimum effort. Those in power now
reasoned that if you didn't mention the words "flying saucers" the
people would forget them and the saucers would go away. But this
reasoning was false, for instead of vanishing, the UFO reports got
better and better.

Airline pilots, military pilots, generals, scientists, and dozens of
other people were reporting UFO's, and in greater detail than in
reports of the past. Radars, which were being built for air defense,
began to pick up some very unusual targets, thus lending technical
corroboration to the unsubstantiated claims of human observers.

As a result of the continuing accumulation of more impressive UFO
reports, official interest stirred. Early in 1951 verbal orders came
down from Major General Charles P. Cabell, then Director of