was some weird experimental craft or a guided missile, then whose was
it? Air Force officers had repeatedly told me they had no such device.
General Carl Touhy Spaatz, former Air Force chief, had publicly
insisted that no such weapon had been developed in his regime.
Secretary Symington and General Hoyt Vandenberg,

{p. 44}

present Air Force chief, had been equally emphatic. Of course,
official denials could be expected if it were a top-level secret. But
if it were a secret device, would it be tested so publicly that
thousands would see it?

If it were an Air Force device, then I could see only one answer for
the Godman Field incident: The thing was such a closely guarded secret
that even Colonel Hix hadn't known. That would mean that most or all
Air Force Base C.O.'s were also in ignorance of the secret device.

Could it be a Navy experiment, kept secret from the Air Force?

I did a little checking.

Admiral Calvin Bolster, chief of aeronautics research experimental
craft, was an Annapolis classmate of mine. So was Captain Delmer S.
Fahrney, head of the Navy guided-missile program. Fahrney was at Point
Mugu, missile-testing base in California, and I wasn't able to see
him. But I knew him as a careful, conscientious officer; I can't
believe he would let such a device, piloted or not, hover over an Air
Force base with no warning to its C.O.