Both men confirmed the reality of this conversation. A handwritten transcript of the conversation was found among Smith’s papers after he died. Sarbacher confirmed its truth in 1983, a few years before his own death. Sarbacher also confirmed that debris recovered from an alien vessel was “extremely light and very tough” and described the debris in a manner consistent with descriptions of the Roswell wreckage.66
Smith found Scully’s theory of UFO magnetic propulsion to be of interest, as it coincided with his own thoughts on the matter. He was also interested in Keyhoe’s thoughts on UFOs (Keyhoe himself was about to publish his first UFO book). While in the U.S., he met Keyhoe for the first time, discussed UFO questions, and began a long friendship. Smith mentioned the Canadian government’s plans for “Project Magnet,” which was designed to track UFOs, but does not appear to have told Keyhoe of the conversation with Sarbacher. Regarding UFOs, Smith said the Canadians have
weighed three possibilities. One, they’re interplanetary. Second, they’re a United States secret device. Third, they’re Russian. The last two don’t stand up. From the weight of evidence I believe the saucers come from outer space. And I think their appearance is what suddenly increased your government’s interest in space travel and an artificial satellite. Judging from our own operations, I’m sure your government also is vitally concerned with learning the secret of propulsion. 67
After Smith’s return to Canada, his government quietly pushed forward with Project Magnet. On November 21, 1950, Smith wrote a Top Secret memo mentioning flying saucers:
I made discreet enquiries through the Canadian embassy staff in Washington, who were able to obtain for me the following information: (a) the matter is the most highly classified subject in the United States government, rating higher even than the H-bomb; (b) flying saucers exist; (c) their modus operandi is unknown, but concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed by Dr. Vannevar Bush; (d) the entire matter is considered by the United States authorities to be of tremendous significance.68
If Smith knew what he was writing about, and he appears to have, then here is yet more evidence of the sham nature of the moribund Project Grudge.
ANOTHER CRASH?
Military encounters with UFOs continued at a brisk rate for the remainder of the year. Beginning on October 12, a substantial wave of UFO sightings began again over restricted airspace in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. For the next three weeks, no fewer than sixteen UFO incidents there were recorded in an FBI memo and continued into late December.69
The FBI wrote another UFO memo (author unknown) on December 3, 1950, advising army intelligence in Richmond, Virginia, “very confidentially” that they have been put “on immediate high alert for any data whatsoever concerning flying saucers.” It stated, “CIC (Counter Intelligence Corps) advises data strictly confidential and should not be disseminated.”70
It is possible that a UFO crashed near Laredo or Del Rio, Texas, on December 6, 1950, although less is known about it than the event at Roswell. Col. Robert Willingham signed an affidavit in 1977 stating that while F-94s were being tested at Dyess AFB, radar caught a UFO on a high-speed intercept course with the planes. Some of the personnel saw the object shortly afterward, which Willingham claimed was not a missile. The object “played around a bit” and even made ninety-degree turns at high speed. North American Air Defense (NORAD) tracked it, and the object was said to have crashed near the Mexican border. Willingham said that he and a copilot took a light aircraft to the site but were immediately escorted away. On his way back, he saw what looked like part of the crash field and picked up a small piece of metal, possibly debris, from the ground. Willingham claimed that, like the Roswell debris, this metal “just wouldn’t melt.” He took it to a Marine Corps metallurgy lab in Hagerstown, Maryland, for analysis, never saw the metal again, and was even told that the man he asked for had never worked at the lab, nor did anyone there know anything about it. He claimed he was later told never to discuss the matter.71
One noteworthy feature of Willingham’s affidavit is the year he gave it: 1977, a full year before Stanton Friedman spoke with Maj. Jesse Marcel, and well before the development of the Roswell lore.
1950 TO 1951
