The highlight of the evening wasn’t the Civilian Saucer Investigators, however; it was getting a chance to read Ginna’s UFO article in an advance copy of Life magazine that the organization had obtained—­the article written from the material Bob Ginna had been researching for over a year.  Colonel Kirkwood took one long look at the article, sidled up to me, and said, “We’d better get back to Dayton quick; you’re going to be busy.”  The next morning at dawn I was sound asleep on a United Airlines DC-6, Dayton-bound.

The Life article undoubtedly threw a harder punch at the American public than any other UFO article ever written.  The title alone, “Have We Visitors from Outer Space?” was enough.  Other very reputable magazines, such as True, had said it before, but coming from Life, it was different. Life didn’t say that the UFO’s were from outer space; it just said maybe.  But to back up this “maybe,” it had quotes from some famous people.  Dr. Walther Riedel, who played an important part in the development of the German V-2 missile and is presently the director of rocket engine research for North American Aviation Corporation, said he believed that the UFO’s were from outer space.  Dr. Maurice Biot, one of the world’s leading aerodynamicists, backed him up.

But the most important thing about the Life article was the question in the minds of so many readers:  “Why was it written?” Life doesn’t go blasting off on flights of space fancy without a good reason.  Some of the readers saw a clue in the author’s comments that the hierarchy of the Air Force was now taking a serious look at UFO reports.  “Did the Air Force prompt Life to write the article?” was the question that many people asked themselves.

When I arrived at Dayton, newspapermen were beating down the door.  The official answer to the Life article was released through the Office of Public Information in the Pentagon:  “The article is factual, but Life’s conclusions are their own.”  In answer to any questions about the article’s being Air Force-inspired, my weasel-worded answer was that we had furnished Life with some raw data on specific sightings.

My answer was purposely weasel-worded because I knew that the Air Force had unofficially inspired the Life article.  The “maybe they’re interplanetary” with the “maybe” bordering on “they are” was the personal opinion of several very high-ranking officers in the Pentagon—­so high that their personal opinion was almost policy.  I knew the men and I knew that one of them, a general, had passed his opinions on to Bob Ginna.

Oddly enough, the Life article did not cause a flood of reports.  The day after the article appeared we got nine sightings, which was unusual, but the next day they dropped off again.