Ancillary Mercy полностью

The research and development board noted in a classified memo that the air force had made “very little progress in learning what the phenomena or objects are and what causes them.”⁴⁰ Air Defense Command, trying to keep current with all UFO reports, maintained records on the ATIC evaluation while undertaking its own preliminary evaluation, separate from Blue Book.⁴¹ An FBI memorandum from July 29 discussed a classified briefing about UFOs by Cmdr. Randall Boyd of the Air Intelligence Estimates Division. According to the memo, the air force had “failed to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion” regarding UFOs. He noted that reports were being received from all parts of the United States as well as distant parts of the world. Boyd stated that, while it was possible there could be some as yet unknown natural phenomenon causing these UFO sightings, he considered the extraterrestrial explanation as possible. He suggested that, “the objects sighted may possibly be from another planet ... [but] that at the present time there is nothing to substantiate this theory but the possibility is not being overlooked.” He stated that “air intelligence is fairly certain that these objects are not ships or missiles from another nation in this world.”⁴²

Boyd also confirmed that the air force was indeed sending jet interceptors after UFOs, but each time a pilot approached such an object, it invariably faded from view.

Boyd’s remarks were significant. In the first place, one would think that even stating the extraterrestrial thesis as a possibility before a group of intelligence officers would take some strong beliefs. Boyd also confirmed that air intelligence had essentially ruled out foreign (e.g., Soviet) technology as an explanation for UFOs. Just a few years prior, several American generals had considered the likelihood that the Soviets were behind all this. They had no doubt that real, technological objects were being seen, and looked into the possibility of Soviet manufacture. Rather quickly, that path appeared to reach a dead end, and Boyd’s statement confirmed this. Note that Boyd, although conceding the possibility of natural phenomena as the explanation for UFOs, stated that there was as yet no known natural explanation.

Thus, after more than five years of UFOs, the Americans offered no known natural explanation, the Soviets were ruled out, and the ET hypothesis was being seriously discussed.

We must remember that in the highly compartmentalized world of intelligence, various solutions might be considered, based on the available knowledge. Several possibilities present themselves. (1) Boyd had complete access to all relevant information, and was in effect speaking on behalf of the highest official position, which would mean that UFOs continued to present a real mystery to those running America’s military, and possibly indicated an alien presence; and (2) Boyd did not have all the available answers, but, as a man several rungs removed from the top levels of power, he struggled to formulate his conclusions based on his best-available data.

If the first possibility were true, it would mean that the U.S. military failed for more than five years to arrive even at a working assumption about a potential threat of a technological and intelligent source (during some of the cold war’s darkest days). This would certainly be an alarming prospect, but also unlikely, unless natural phenomena, after all, were the explanation. Such a natural phenomenon, however, would somehow have to look like metallic craft.

The second scenario, that Boyd did not have all the answers, appears far more plausible. This leaves very few follow-up options. One is that an alien presence had been known in secret for some time; another is that some secret American technology was causing the UFO phenomenon. A naturalistic explanation does not fit here. In the first place, the most difficult UFO cases do not admit of a naturalistic solution. More to the point: there would be no reason to hide such an explanation from one’s own military (whereas there would be very good reasons in the case of secret American technology or an alien presence).