Flying Saucers Again

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

Circ.: m. 203,960

S. 277,547

## Date:

## Flying Saucers Again

WE CANNOT wholly agree with the respected Vice Adm. R. H. Hillenkoetter (ret.) that the Air Force is deceiving the public when, on the one hand, it orders new vigilance respecting mysterious flying objects and on the other describes reports of flying saucers as the product of "delusion" or "hoax."

The Air Force's experience in tracking down 6312 reports of "unidentified flying objects" since 1947 (183 during the last half of 1959) inclines it to the latter description. In all that time, says a recent Air Force paper, "no physical or material evidence, not even a minute fragment of a so-called flying saucer has ever been found."

Yet with the advent of orbited vehicles and other wonders as yet unfolded, the Air Force would be derelict in its duty did it not intensify its search and inquiry, preserving a certain credulity until each new suspicious manifestation is explored.

Our dark suspicions expert says the weatherman must have made a deal this year with the characters who keep wanting an old-fashioned winter.

Admiral Hillenkoetter, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is a board member of the privately financed NICAP, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. As such he has referred his conclusions to the Senate Space Committee, requesting an investigation. Such an inquiry might make good news copy in competition with the present glut of congressional hearings, but, in the absence of a verified flying saucer, we doubt its productiveness.