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agency in any way, shape, or form. This closed-door reaction was typical of how the words "flying saucer" seem to scare some people.
They did help me locate the report on the original incident, however, and since it seemed to be the only existing copy, I arranged to borrow it. About this same time
we located the two graduate astronomy students in New Mexico. Both now had their Ph.D.'s and held responsible jobs on highly classified projects. They repeated their
story, which I had first heard from the scientist, but had kept no record of their activities.
On one occasion, just before dawn on a Sunday morning, they were on the roof, making some meteorological observations. One of them was listening to the Geiger counter
when he detected a definite increase in the clicking.
Just as the frequency of the clicks reached its highest peak--almost a steady buzz--a large fireball, described by them as "spectacular," flashed across the
sky. Both of the observers had seen several of the green fireballs and said that this object was similar in all respects except that the color was a brilliant blue-
white.
With the disappearance of the fireball, the counter once more settled down to a steady click per second. They added that once before they had detected a similar
increase in the frequency of the clicks but had seen nothing in the sky.
In telling their story, both astronomers stressed the point that their data were open to a great deal of criticism, mainly because of the limited instrumentation they
had used. We agreed. Still their work tended to support the findings of the more elaborate and systematic radiation investigations.
The gods who watch over the UFO project were smiling about this time, because one morning I got a call from a colonel on Wright- Patterson Air Force Base. He was going
to be in our area that morning and planned to stop in to see me.
He arrived in a few minutes and turned out to be none other than the colonel who had headed the group which had investigated UFO's and radiation at the eastern
laboratory. He repeated his story. It was the same as I had heard from the scientist, with a few insignificant changes. The colonel had no records of his group's
operations, but knew who had them. He promised to get a wire off to the person immediately, which he did.
The answer was a bit disappointing. During the intervening months the data had been scattered out among the members of the colonel's group, and when the group broke
up, so did its collection of records.
So all we had to fall back on was the colonel's word, but since he now was heading a top-priority project at Wright, it would be difficult not to believe him.