CIA infiltration aside, it is not surprising navy men predominated within NICAP, although other military personnel also provided input. In retrospect, this seems logical. By the late 1950s, the navy was the only military branch without a UFO secrecy directive, insofar as Keyhoe could determine. Proud navy personnel resented the heavy-handed manner typical of air force investigators. When the board of governors met to decide NICAP’s fate after Townsend Brown’s resignation, much discussion centered on how to confront the air force. Army Colonel and physicist Robert Emerson wanted to avoid a fight. Fahrney agreed, but added, “I’m sure many of them don’t like the [secrecy] policy.” This is not to say that NICAP had no support from air force officers; quite a few who dissented from air force policy provided what help they could. But the navy had developed a history of dissenting from the air force’s management of the UFO problem. Very likely, this was part of the navy’s larger struggle for self-assertion during the still-newly unified military of the 1950s. (The famous “Revolt of the Admirals” of the late 1940s was a fresh memory—when the navy outspokenly pressed for a supercarrier with nuclear capability, challenging the air force’s claim to have sole possession of The Bomb.)
NICAP’s inception came at a time of unquestioned air force dominance over the issue of UFOs. An air force fact sheet of the time claimed a mere 3 percent unexplained ratio, and Blue Book briefings were public relations exercises. Other services participated in clamping down on UFO information. On January 31, 1957, U.S. Army Order number 30-13, “Sightings of Unconventional Aircraft,” stipulated that personnel involved in sightings would “not discuss or disseminate such information to persons or agencies other than their superior officer(s) and other personnel authorized by the Acting Chief of Staff, G-2, this headquarters.” The situation appeared to be fairly well in hand, and the presence of NICAP threatened to disrupt it.2
It happened on January 16, when Admiral Fahrney (who had become chairman of the organization after Brown’s resignation) gave a press conference to announce the group’s formation. “Reliable reports,” he said, “indicate there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds and controlled by thinking intelligences.” Many citizens, he continued, had stopped reporting UFOs to the air force because of frustration over the policy. Press coverage was good, and NICAP quickly developed a network comprised of hundreds of people throughout the U.S.3
Privately, military personnel may have been interested in working in some capacity with NICAP. In late March 1957, Stringfield told Keyhoe that he was working secretly with the Columbus, Ohio, Air Filter Center at the request (and expense) of the air force. Stringfield said the officers were “dead serious” about getting UFO reports and wanted sightings “relayed immediately—even if it’s 3 A.M.” Stringfield believed the air force would “give a lot to get NICAP’s reports,” if Keyhoe would do it privately. Keyhoe rejected the idea, but NICAP did offer the air force its cooperation in investigating and solving the UFO riddle. The problem was that NICAP’s eight-point plan was a genuine attempt to get to the bottom of the UFO question, something the Air Force clearly was not interested in doing—at least not in conjunction with NICAP.4
Publicly, the Pentagon quickly moved to discredit NICAP. In early April, the air force launched a press attack against NICAP and UFOs. Brig. Gen. Arno Leuhman, director of air force information, told the press that flying saucers were a dead issue:
Our Intelligence checks out everything. The funny reflections you see at night, the lights from the rear end of jets, the meteorological balloons, everything including the hoaxes. There’s no valid evidence that there are flying saucers.
An unnamed air force spokesman at that time also ridiculed NICAP as an “upstart organization” and insisted that the air force had explained all but 3 percent of sightings. The same month, however—on April 8, 1957—Maj. Gen. Joe Kelly, air force director of legislative liaison, answered a question from Representative (later Senator) Lee Metcalf of Montana. Kelly denied that the air force muzzled pilots or concealed UFO reports. “Answers are provided on any unidentified flying objects,” wrote Kelly, “which have attracted national attention.” Surprisingly, Kelly admitted that air force interceptors still pursued unidentified flying objects “as a matter of security to this country and to determine the technical aspects involved.” He quickly added that flying objects had so far “imposed no threat” to U.S. security.5
