Ancillary Mercy полностью

At this time, astronomer Allen Hynek conducted a covert poll for the air force. In early August, he questioned forty-four professional American astronomers regarding UFOs. His results were somewhat surprising: five of them (11 percent) had actually seen a UFO! Seven were indifferent to the subject, more expressed at least some interest, while a few were very interested. Those interested, however, were fearful of publicity.⁴⁹

Some intelligence agency, most likely CIA, appears to have surveilled civilian UFO groups at this time. In 1952, the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) was founded in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, by Coral Lorenzen. It soon became one of America’s most influential and respected UFO organizations. Months before the first appearance of the organization’s periodical, the APRO Bulletin, a man claiming an intelligence background became an active supporter and attempted to lead the organization into “metaphysical areas of research.” Coral Lorenzen said she “gently parried” these attempts. She later discovered light embossing on a letter she received from him, and used a soft pencil to discern what looked like an intelligence report about her. During the summer of 1952, two suspicious men posing as painting contractors called on her and engaged her in conversation. The men did not seem interested in selling any services. After they left, they parked their car where they had a clear view of the back of her home. These two men also visited APRO’s treasurer and secretary the same day, but apparently not any other homes in the neighborhood.⁵⁰

It is worth mentioning that by 1952, 74 percent of the CIA’s money (and 60 percent of personnel) went toward covert operations. Action, not analysis, had become the CIA hallmark. Contrary to the 1947 National Security Act, which stipulated that the CIA’s activities be confined outside the United States, the agency had already infiltrated and financed many U.S. labor, business, church, university, student, and cultural groups, usually channeling the money through various foundations. In 1952, it began opening the mail through a new program known as HT Lingual, which targeted correspondence between U.S. citizens and communist nations. For twenty-one years, with FBI help, the program photographed two million envelopes and opened 215,000 letters. No one, not even the president, was exempt. By 1952, also, the CIA was using unwitting subjects to test the effects of LSD.⁵¹

A NATO ENCOUNTER

UFO reports slowed down somewhat in September, but there seems to have been a miniwave of sightings in the southeastern U.S. One that received much publicity was the “Flatwoods Monster” case in West Virginia on September 12, 1952. Fireball reports had come from several cities, including Baltimore, before one appeared to “land” at the small town of Flatwoods. Seven people, mostly children, trekked to the sight and claimed to see an enormous creature, over ten feet tall, with glowing eyes and an overpowering stench. The county sheriff, initially skeptical, encountered the odor at the site and noticed a circular area of flattened grass. Many visitors came by, including UFO researchers Ivan Sanderson and Gray Barker, as well as members of the air force. Sanderson interviewed quite a few people from the area and concluded that “a flight of intelligently controlled objects flew over West Virginia.” The air force concluded that people had seen a meteor, the glowing eyes of an owl, and had just gotten hysterical. The Flatwoods case is certainly odd, but even skeptics ruled out a hoax.⁵²

Not far from Flatwoods, an interesting report came from Camp Drum, near Fairfax, Virginia, on September 22. For thirty minutes, several soldiers watched an orange-red UFO circling and hovering over their camp, while they heard a distinct hum from the craft.⁵³ But the most significant series of UFO sightings that month took place during NATO naval exercises in the North Sea near Britain, known as Operation Mainbrace. At least four sightings occurred. At 10:52 A.M. on September 19, 1952, a silver and spherical UFO appeared above Topcliffe Airfield in North Yorkshire. Several ground crew members and civilians saw the object. An RAF Meteor jet was scrambled, and the pilot got close enough to describe the object as rotating around its vertical axis and wobbling slightly. The UFO moved in a zigzag fashion and then flew off. The British Air Ministry set up an investigation into the report.