Page:Ruppelt - The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects.djvu/114

 photos as proof that UFO’s existed. It didn’t take a photo-interpretation expert to tell that all seven could well be of doubtful lineage, nevertheless the collection of photos added fuel to the already smoldering fire. The U.S. public was hearing a lot about flying saucers and all of it was on the pro side. For somebody who didn’t believe in the things, the public thought that the Air Force was being mighty quiet.

The subject took on added interest on the night of March 26, when a famous news commentator said the UFO’s were from Russia.

The next night Henry J. Taylor, in a broadcast from Dallas, Texas, said that the UFO’s were Uncle Sam’s own. He couldn’t tell all he knew, but a flying saucer had been found on the beach near Galveston, Texas. It had USAF markings.

Two nights later a Los Angeles television station cut into a regular program with a special news flash; later in the evening the announcer said they would show the first photos of the real thing, our military’s flying saucer. The photos turned out to be of the Navy XF-5-U, a World War II experimental aircraft that never flew.

The public was now thoroughly confused.

By now the words “flying saucer” were being batted around by every newspaper reporter, radio and TV newscaster, comedian, and man on the street. Some of the comments weren’t complimentary, but as Theorem I of the publicity racket goes, “It doesn’t make any difference what’s said as long as the name’s spelled right.”

Early in April the publication that is highly revered by so many, U.S. News and World Report, threw in their lot. The UFO’s belonged to the Navy. Up popped the old non-flying XF-5-U again.

Events drifted back to normal when Edward R. Murrow made UFO’s the subject of one of his TV documentaries. He took his viewers around the U.S., talked to Kenneth Arnold, of original UFO fame, by phone and got the story of Captain Mantell’s death from a reporter “who was there.” Sandwiched in between accounts of actual UFO sightings were the pro and con opinions of top Washington brass, scientists, and the man on the street.

Even the staid New York Times, which had until now stayed