atomic arsenal. No one, outside of a few high-ranking officers in the
Pentagon, knew what the people in the barbed-wire enclosed Quonset
huts that housed the Air Technical Intelligence Center were thinking
or doing.

The memos and correspondence that Project Blue Book inherited from
the old UFO projects told the story of the early flying saucer era.
These memos and pieces of correspondence showed that the UFO
situation was considered to be serious; in fact, very serious. The
paper work of that period also indicated the confusion that
surrounded the investigation; confusion almost to the point of panic.
The brass wanted an answer, quickly, and people were taking off in
all directions. Everyone's theory was as good as the next and each
person with any weight at ATIC was plugging and investigating his own
theory. The ideas as to the origin of the UFO's fell into two main
categories, earthly and non-earthly. In the earthly category the
Russians led, with the U.S. Navy and their XF-5-U-1, the "Flying
Flapjack," pulling a not too close second. The desire to cover all
leads was graphically pointed up to be a personal handwritten note I
found in a file. It was from ATIC's chief to a civilian intelligence
specialist. It said, "Are you positive that the Navy junked the XF-5-
U-1 project?" The non-earthly category ran the gamut of theories,
with space animals trailing interplanetary craft about the same
distance the Navy was behind the Russians.

This confused speculating lasted only a few weeks. Then the
investigation narrowed down to the Soviets and took off on a much
more methodical course of action.

When World War II ended, the Germans had several radical types of