“The Press Branch hadn’t been informed yet,” Boggs explained simply.
“It seems very strange to me,” I said. “In April, the Air Force called for vigilance by the civilian population. It said the project was young, much of its work still under way.”
Jesse Stay interrupted before Boggs could reply.
“Don, the Press Branch will have to take the blame for that. The report wasn’t carefully checked. There were several loose statements in it.”
This was an incredible statement. I was sure Jesse knew it.
“But the case reports you quoted came from Wright Field. As of April twenty-seventh, 1949, all the major cases were officially unsolved. Then in August or early September, the whole thing’s cleaned up, from what Major Boggs says. That’s pretty hard to believe.”
No one answered that one. Major Boggs was waiting politely for the next question. I picked up my list. The rest of the interview was in straight question-and-answer style:
Q. Do you know about the White Sands sightings in April 1948? The ones Commander R. B. McLaughlin has written up?
A. Yes, we checked the reports. We just don’t believe them.
Q. One of the witnesses was Charles B. Moore, the director of the Navy cosmic-ray project at Minneapolis, He’s considered a very reputable engineer. Did you know he confirms the first report—the one about the saucer 56 miles up, at a speed of eighteen thousand miles per hour.