Ancillary Mercy полностью

Meanwhile, ATIC sought in vain to transfer the UFO problem to such places as the Pentagon Information Office, SAFOI, NASA, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Brookings Institution. Maj. Lawrence Tacker remained the air force’s main public representative on UFOs, and he seemed to become more sour each year. In 1960, Tacker released a book, Flying Saucers and the U.S. Air Force, a straight promotion of the air force line. He toured the country, appeared on radio and television, and took shots at Keyhoe and NICAP.¹¹⁶

Tacker was never anything more than an air force front man, paid and ordered to be a mouthpiece. The people within the air force generally knew better than to believe his statements, and certainly this applied to Blue Book staff. According to Richard Hall, a former Blue Book chief (Robert Friend?) told him that during the late 1950s and early 1960s time-gun camera films of UFOs were being “routinely” obtained during jet interceptor chases and sent to the CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) for analysis. The individual also stated that “none of the... analysis data in these cases has been released, nor has the existence of these films ever been acknowledged.” Although no one said anything about the role of the newly formed NRO, may we at least acknowledge that it was ideally suited for contributing in this area?¹¹⁷

On February 27, 1960, Roscoe Hillenkoetter released to the media copies of the air force directive of the previous December about “serious business.” He also made a public statement on UFOs, quoted the following day in the Sunday New York Times:

It is time for the truth to be brought out in open congressional hearings.... Behind the scenes, high-ranking air force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.... [T]o hide the facts, the air force has silenced its personnel through the issuance of a regulation.

The air force admitted that it had issued the order; it added that the copy was merely part of a seven-page regulation which had been issued to update similar past orders, and that it made no substantive change in policy.¹¹⁸

UFO sightings dribbled along in 1960. Rumors of huge mystery satellites had existed for many years. Now, on February 11, 1960, another such story broke out. Papers in Britain reported a U.S. Defense Department announcement that an unidentified object orbiting Earth had been discovered by a navy-operated space surveillance unit and was under constant observation. Flying Saucer Review covered this in several issues. The object was said to be about fifteen tons, orbiting the poles, and had thus far preserved total radio silence. The Pentagon said the object “may have been of Soviet origin,” a statement that brought a skeptical reply from a Soviet astronomer, who maintained that all Soviet satellites were fired into orbits of sixty-five degrees to the equator, well clear of the poles. In late August of that year the satellite was seen for several days and photographed by Grumman Aircraft Corporation.¹¹⁹

The mystery satellite also figured into a CIA file dated March 17, 1960, which described a March 6 sighting and photograph of two UFOs over Norrtalje, Sweden. A man had gone out that morning “to photograph the unidentified satellite, 1960 Alpha.” Just before the satellite became visible, he saw two objects moving slowly, “not entirely unlike that of the satellites he had seen before. Suddenly, however, the direction of movement changed, and the objects turned such that they were going back in the same direction they came from.”¹²⁰

Thus, despite year after year of blanket denials issued by the American military and government regarding the validity of UFOs, the CIA continued to gather reports from around the globe. Who determined this agency policy? And why were UFOs deemed of interest to the CIA? Could these really be evidence of interest in possible Soviet technology?

PROJECT OZMA GETS A SIGNAL

By the late autumn of 1959, Frank Edwards, still receiving UFO information from many sources, was able to confirm a tip he had originally gotten back in April: that a “giant telescope” was under construction at Green Bank, West Virginia, by the National Science Foundation, with the purpose of searching for intelligible signals from outer space. The NSF promptly denied this, but the story was true. The project, soon known as Project Ozma, was directed by Dr. Otto Struve, who was assisted by Dr. Frank Drake, a protégé of Lloyd Berkner.