PROJECT 1947: Lou Corbin - Chapter IX "The Search for the Saucers."

He said he did and the call was completed. It was a strange communication to say the least and from an individual quite unknown to me. Here was a young man professing to have had an experience with a flying saucer, which he claimed had stopped his automobile. This was a brand new aspect of the problem as far as I was concerned. I had been rather comprehensive in my reading on the subject and as

far as I could determine, this was the first allegation where something in the air had influenced something on the ground. I thought about that for a length of time and then decided that perhaps I might be encountering something which might cross an Air Force line of investigation. Backed by the efficiency of my telephone, I talked with an officer at the Baltimore Filter Center. I explained the call I had received and the comments made and I asked him if he would like to sit in on the interview that night. He listened calmly and said he couldn't do this, but I was to go ahead and interrogate this Mr. Stewart and let him have the facts later. This I agreed to do.

By now it was 5:00 p.m. and there were four hours to go. My mind was filled with all sorts of crazy things and I realized too, that I had promised to give the result of my interview to the Air Force. This was the starting point of a project which I arbitrarily called "Project Eyeful."

It was more than just a name. I developed a form sheet so as to record my facts in an orderly manner. It listed basic information such as name and address and telephone number, age and occupation. It called for date and time of observation and place along with weather conditions at the time. It asked the observer to note the approximate length of observation and an estimate of the altitude. The remainder of the file allowed simply for a general description of the event. This then was "Project Eyeful" and my preparation for my 9:00 p.m. date with Mr. Donald Stewart.

The only occasion when time moves slowly is when you want it to move swiftly and four hours or so dragged along, at a snail's pace, and a sleepy one at that. I went home for dinner, but my appetite

was a lost cause. I concentrated on coffee and mentally reviewed the entire history of the saucers. If Mr. Stewart's story could be solidly substantiated, it would add appreciably to the evidence being collected on this rapidly growing puzzle. Little did I realize the curious turns it would take and the people it would involve. In fact the general area of Glen Burnie, Maryland, still is a source of interest for investigators.

The weatherman had displayed a rare sort of prophetic accuracy and when I returned to my office around 8:00 p.m., Mother Nature was carrying out all the expectations of the latest forecast. It was raining heavily. Just prior to 9 o'clock, Mr. Stewart arrived. He was a well dressed, clean cut looking young man, in his early twenties, I judged and with a swift sure step. We went back into my office and the interview began.

He explained to me that he was a member of a gun club in Glen Burnie and that on Saturday evening, March 29, 1952, he had attended a meeting of the club. A political campaign was also under way and he was involved too with delivering some political posters in that area. Around about 10:30 p.m. he indicated that with a young neighbor friend, a Mr. George S. Tyler, he prepared to return to the city of Baltimore.

The community of Glen Burnie, Maryland, is situated just a few miles south of Baltimore City and a major road link between the two is the multi-laned Governor Ritchie Highway. Mr. Stewart, driving his British Ford and his passenger, Mr. Tyler, proceeded along this main artery north toward Baltimore. Just about one mile or so out of Glen Burnie, on a slight grade near the Governor Ritchie Raceway, these two men observed, so they said, a strange disc-like object

"And it was when we got under this thing," he said, "that my engine stopped and I couldn't get it going."

"Hold it," I interrupted. "Are you saying the object in the sky was responsible for your engine failure?"

"It must have been," he replied. "A car coming in the opposite direction was also stopped and when this thing left, both cars were able to start up with no trouble at all."

"OK," I calmly stated, "Now start at the beginning and tell me every detail you can think of. What brought your attention to this object in the sky?"

"What sort of sound?" I asked him.

"A sort of whirring noise," he said, "Sort of like, well, a vacuum cleaner."

"All right, so you looked up. Now what exactly did you see?"

"Well," he began in a very deliberate manner, "It was a disc-shaped thing with a sort of dome on top. It was much lower than the commercial air transports coming out of Friendship Airport."

This is the giant air terminal dedicated by President Truman in June of 1950, to relieve congestion in Washington's National Airport.

"I would say," he continued, "It was about the size of a two-motored transport. It hovered directly over the road, I'd judge about 200 feet. It stayed there about two minutes, then suddenly it turned perpendicular and went south with terrific speed."

"You say your car stopped?" I injected. "Did you get the impression you were running out of gas?"

"And what about this other car?" I inquired.

"That was a yellow Pontiac convertible," said Mr. Stewart, "And it was headed south toward Glen Burnie."

I would like to state at this point that Mr. Stewart's story, although slightly more than just unusual, was being told in what appeared to me to be a sincere manner. It in no way sounded rehearsed. To say that it was to take a bizarre turn at this point would be a gross understatement. In fact it was mildly humorous. When I asked him if he discussed this observation with the occupants in the Pontiac, he started into a comedy of errors.

"This is the stupid part of the situation, Mr. Corbin," he said. "I told you I was a member of a gun club in Glen Burnie. It so happened that I had several of my guns in the back seat of the car. While this thing was overhead, I reached back for one of the guns and had an impulse to take a shot at this object. As I got out of the car with my gun, the fellow in the Pontiac was just getting out of his car. He took one look at my gun and lost no time getting back into his car. A young lady was with him and they rolled up the windows, and appeared to be somewhat frightened. I stood along the roadway watching and finally George Tyler, who was somewhat frightened by the affair, talked me out of taking a shot. Suddenly this thing turned on end and shot away. I looked over at the Pontiac and he was starting his car and starting to move. I didn't even get his license number. As a matter of fact, I was so excited I wasn't even thinking about his license number."

The development was almost ridiculous in a way. In another

"I climbed back into my car," he continued, "And it started up right away. Both Tyler and myself were somewhat shaken up by the whole thing. Incidentally, the engine seemed to have a bad knock in it which I hadn't noticed before."

"Well, you were headed home again," I stated, "What did you do about this?"

"First of all, we stopped at a Ford Motor dealer at the edge of Baltimore. I have a friend working there. This fellow's name is Kenny Johnson and he examined the car and said something about some wiring being, I believe he said, magnetized. I was able to drive it home, however, and we started off again. We decided to call the newspaper, the Baltimore News Post, and were somewhat relieved to hear that several others had reported to them about an object in Glen Burnie that night."

Actually, the News Post did make reference to this incident very briefly in a little block item in their Sunday edition the following day, but the story was written somewhat with tongue-in-cheek. That was the end of his story, but it was far from being the end of the incident. Mr. Stewart explained that when he went home he told it to his parents and neighbors and everyone's been ridiculing him since.

"In fact," he observed, "I wish I had never seen the thing."

"Why did you think I would be interested?" I asked.

"Well," he replied, "Since this happened, I've read numerous other stories about saucers in the papers and I heard you mention some of them on the air very seriously. I have been taking a lot

That was a reasonable explanation. I was far from being convinced, however, and I decided to try and get him to submit perhaps to an interrogation by the Air Force in the event they were interested.

"I'll talk to anyone you want me to at any time Mr. Corbin," he stated."

I told him I would call him in a day or so if certain people were interested. I sat watching him for a moment or two and then a thought struck me.

"How's your car working now?" I asked him.

"I forgot to tell you," he said, "The car still has that bad knock in it, but something else too, the roof has a funny look to it."

"What do you mean funny look?"

"I've got it outside Mr. Corbin," he noted, "Why don't you come on out. I'll show you just what I mean."

I slipped on a raincoat almost before he had completed his invitation and we started toward where he was parked. The car was an English Ford. He started it up and sure enough, it did have a queer knock in the engine. I am not sufficiently technically minded to understand this sort of thing, so I made no attempt to even diagnose it. However, there was no doubting the knock in the engine. It was there regardless of what caused it. The roof, which seemed to be a combination rubber-plastic matting, also seemed to be in a state of deterioration. He insisted this had developed since his episode with the saucer. I stood in the rain as he said good-bye and watched him drive toward the neon-lighted jungle of the business section just a block away.

It had been a very interesting evening. Previously, Mr. Stewart had not been quizzed in detail and I most likely had fallen heir to many more points in his alleged experience than had come to light. I went back to the office and set down in writing all the statements he had made for the initial file of "Project Eyeful", which had been born earlier that afternoon. The next step of course was to interview Tyler, who had been a passenger in the Stewart car. However, before attempting to develop more information, I decided to give my friend at the Baltimore Filter Center a call and brief him on the results of the Stewart interview. He listened attentively, agreed that it was hard to take and then indicated that I would hear from him in a day or two.

There was no need to contact Tyler immediately. If the whole thing was a fraud, they would have compared notes long before contacting me. So I decided to sleep on the matter.

Mr. Stewart had given me Tyler's address and telephone number and the following day I attempted to reach him. First of all, I discovered that he was a student at Baltimore's Southern High School and wouldn't be home until late in the afternoon. I left word for him to call me and he did shortly after 7:00 p.m. Mr. Tyler was in a rather embarrassing position. He was 17 years of age and his parents would not permit him to leave the premises because of the weird saucer story he had told them and because he had reported to the newspapers with Stewart which had brought about considerable ridicule from some of the folks who lived nearby. He said he would be glad to tell me his story, but unfortunately would have to do so over the telephone.

Over the phone he substantiated most of the allegations of

Mr. Stewart, but seemed much less excited than Stewart had been. He stated that around the rim of this object in the sky he thought he detected what he called St. Elmo's Fire. It was a yellowish-greenish light, according to him, that faded and then grew intense and then faded again. He stated that the weather had been quite clear and the visibility good. He estimated the altitude of this object to have been about one hundred feet. He too noticed the strange sound apparently coming out of this object. He said that when it left the area, it sped away at a speed faster than any thing he had ever seen. I asked him about the other car. He stated that there had been one nearby, but he was somewhat frightened at the time and paid little attention to it.

Mr. Tyler seemed to be an intelligent boy. He was a member of the LaCrosse Team at his school, and I got the definite impression that he was a good deal more conservative than his friend Mr. Stewart. Their stories checked out and I again communicated this information to my Air Force friend.

There were a number of things that could be checked out through reliable sources. A call to the weather bureau confirmed the fact that on the night in question, March 29, 1952, the weather had been clear, the moon and stars were out and visibility was excellent. Another point that had bothered me considerably in this story was the statement that throughout the entire incident no other cars had passed in the vicinity, or had been seen approaching. The Governor Ritchie Highway is a major artery of traffic between Annapolis and Baltimore and a very busy one. Could this have been possible on a Saturday night?

My wife and I decided we would take a look at the area in

question. While it was still daylight we drove down toward the spot. There was a slight grade in the road as I had been told. We kept on toward Annapolis with the view of returning at the spot around the time of the alleged observation of March. At approximately 10:30 p.m. on our way back to Baltimore we approached this same area. The long arm of coincidence perhaps was tapping me on the shoulder. There wasn't a car in sight in either direction and it was a good two or three minutes before we saw one. If we had stopped the car at the spot considerable time would have elapsed before any vehicle would have passed by. So, it was possible even on that normally busy roadway and on a Saturday night.

The following Monday, April 28, 1952, I received a telephone call from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. I discussed this incident with a Captain Jones. He took down the names and addresses of the informants and the quickest method of contacting me and indicated I would hear from him at a later date.

The basic information on the weather and the like had checked out OK and the traffic possibilities seemed to be within reasonable range. The rest of the story needed some analysis. Earlier, I mentioned a friend of mine who was assisting in this development of a nuclear device and I decided it would be interesting to get his reaction to this affair. I have refrained from using his name, as he is still involved in this sort of work. I shall refer to him as "Greg."

I went over the information I had in great detail and I found him a very attentive listener.

"What do you make of it Greg?" I asked.

"Lou," he answered, "I'd like to talk to this chap. Do you think we could set up an interview?"

"Yes," I replied, "He told me he'd talk with anyone on the subject."

All sorts of things must have been running through Greg's mind. He concentrated for a few moments and then surprised me.

"Let's get him to bring the car with him," Greg began, "And I'll bring a Geiger counter over and we'll examine it carefully just in case."

"In case of radio-activity?" I asked.

"You never can tell, Lou. Let's just clear up that possibility once and for all."

I had considered radio-activity after encountering this story, but I was very surprised with Greg's suggestion. Since our early discussion of the Saucer Problem he had been an arch skeptic. I wasn't sure whether this was an indication he was breaking down or not. Greg is a scientist and a good one. He was not an easy victim of the saucers. It would, I felt be very interesting to see what occurred between him and Stewart I set up the interview.

On Saturday, May 3, 1952, Stewart met us at a designated spot in the city. Greg wanted the interview at the apartment of a friend. For several hours he quizzed Stewart, who repeated over and over again the same story he had told me on April 24th. Greg tried to confuse him several times, but he stuck with the story. Behind the apartment there was a place to park and there we had Stewart's British Ford. It still had the same queer knock in the engine and the roof was in the same condition. Greg had two types of Geiger counters with him. Carefully he proceeded to go over the car. He listened intently on a set of headphones. Stewart and I watched for about ten or fifteen minutes. I couldn't contain myself.

"What about it Greg?" I asked.

"Lou," he said, "it's clean as a whistle."

Greg looked at Stewart and brought his Geiger counter up close. He passed it near the informant who said nothing but was obviously nervous. Again there was a negative reaction.

We thanked Stewart for his cooperation and asked him not to I discuss the fact that we had checked his car with a Geiger counter. Then we went back into the apartment for a short critique.

Greg picked up a phone book and several moments later made a call. I was surprised to hear him ask what motion pictures were shown during the month of March. He repeated the question on two other calls. He told me he was curious to find out if any science fiction films might have been shown near Stewart's home or in the Glen Burnie area. There were none.

"Do you think this guy is a phony Greg?" I asked.

Greg looked thoughtfully for a moment.

"Lou," he began, "Stewart is a clerk on the B. & O. Railroad. He certainly evidences very little scientific training. He's a bright boy, but not bright enough to fake a story like this. I went over him in a deliberate attempt to get him mixed up. What he had to say is aero-dynamically possible and he had his points in logical sequence. I think the fellow's honest, or the world's greatest actor."

"Well, what do you think he saw Greg?" was my next question.

"Of course, we don't know Lou," he stated, "I can't say what he saw. I am about ready to agree that he did see something very unconventional."

"Do you suppose it's ours Greg?" I asked.

"It has to be ours Lou," he replied, "and yet..."

"Yet, what?" I cut in.

"Well, Lou, it's just this whole saucer problem. The stories get more fantastic every day and they keep coming. It's the persistence that gets me. I'm convinced that something is flying around up there, but what it is I don't know."

Nothing further developed and an entire week went by. On Saturday, May 11, 1952, I was in my office when our reception desk notified me that a group of gentlemen were waiting for me in the lobby. When I put in an appearance, I found they were from the Office of Special Investigations of the U. S. Air Force. One was Captain Jones of the local office and the others had flown in from Wright Field in Dayton. They wanted to have a chat with me on the subject of the saucers.

We retired back to my office. We exchanged credentials. They were interested in my background and I showed then my Reserve Officers Identification. At the time I was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserve Corps. I asked them a few questions about the problem of saucers and they quietly informed me that there was little they could say. I indicated that I felt cooperation was a two-way street and at the moment they were going in one direction. They agreed and added that there wasn't too much they could do about the situation. They then asked me if there was something particular I would like to know.

"Is it true," I began, "That the Air Force has distributed a questionnaire to all U. S. Embassies abroad to assist them in reporting strange objects which might appear in the skies in their areas?"

I had received a tip on this point from a friend in Washington not too much previous to this interview.

"Yes, it is true," one who identified himself as Agent Royal replied, But where did you get that information?"

I told him I had heard it in Washington. The point was important in 1952, as it wasn't generally known that such liaison was being established in the Government's investigation. Today it is public knowledge that all the Free Governments are exchanging information on the subject. Agent Royal went on to enumerate many of the questions on the questionnaire, but would not permit me to have a copy, stating that the information was under military classification. That was interesting in light of previous Air Force statements that nothing was classified on the subject.

Finally they got around to Stewart and said they hoped I would be able to set up an introduction. Fortunately I was able to reach Stewart by phone and he invited us to come to his home right away if we wanted. The Air Force men were delighted and we were on our way.

Stewart lived in the south of Baltimore in an industrial area and the official Air Force car followed me through city traffic. We crossed town with little conversation and finally pulled up near Stewart's house. There were five in the party, not counting myself. As they got out of the car three of them fanned out through the neighborhood without comment and Agents Jones and Royal beckoned me toward the Stewart residence.

We were brought into a modest living room for a moment and then Stewart asked us up to his own room on the second floor. This was a little section of the house that the family had obviously

converted into a little apartment for him. The Air Force men presented their credentials. Stewart looked slightly uneasy for they warned him that he could get himself into trouble if the information he gave them proved to be false. The interview began.

For nearly an hour they went over the same story I had heard on two previous occasions. I said nothing as they tried time and time again to confuse him. They couldn't. My man again stuck to the story. I must confess I was slightly pleased with his performance. They filled out a mass of forms they had brought with them and then they asked Stewart to sketch what he saw. He did this a number of times for them. Their manner of questioning was firm and very official in its tone. Stewart was perspiring.

Finally it was over and the two officers thanked Stewart for his time and they suggested it would be better if he didn't discuss this episode further. Stewart thanked them for coming.

Once out on the street the three men who had previously fanned out over the neighborhood joined the party. They had been doing a background investigation of Stewart in the neighborhood. They took the officers aside out of my hearing. When I was invited back again little was said. Agent Royal indicated that Stewart wasn't too reliable in his opinion. They said the neighbors didn't think too much of him. At that point something interesting occurred. Stewart came out of the house with an announcement.

"While you're all here," he began, "you might like to know that the lady next door saw a flying saucer just the other day. Maybe you'd like to talk with her."

Royal and Jones quickly agreed and in a moment or two a very reluctant young lady came out of the house adjoining Stewarts.

"Did he tell you I saw a flying saucer?" she asked. Not waiting for an answer she added, "It wasn't anything. It must have been a plane. I won't say anything. He's always getting people into trouble."

The young lady was quite flustered and quite alarmed as the Air Force boys had quickly presented their identification. They made no attempt to get her to discuss what she had seen. Somewhat embarrassed, they backed off and we headed across the street to the car. Stewart waved from his doorway as we pulled away. The trip back through town was completed in silence.

Back at my office they had very little to say about the interview. They asked me if I would give them a copy of my file on the case. They promised to return same after they could have it copied. I gladly complied with their request and subsequently had my file returned, and was thanked in writing for my courtesy. They refused to comment on the interview except to say they felt Stewart wasn't too reliable. They parted, saying they hoped would communicate to them any additional information I might gather in the future on the saucer problem. It was an interesting Saturday and I had considerable thinking to do.

There are a few things which ought to be said about Donald Stewart. In several week's time, I had heard him tell his story three times. In each occasion he was subjected to careful questioning. There were deliberate attempts to trap him into contradictions. Through it all I observed that he held firm to every point in the story. He was twenty-three years of age with a high school education. It is true that many frauds have been perpetrated upon the public, but in my opinion this sort of thing requires greater brain power and

far more experience than Mr. Stewart possessed. He would have hardly been a match for trained investigators. The Air Force has never commented about Stewart to me other than to say they felt he wasn't too reliable and as far as I could judge, they reached that conclusion in the space of one hour's time, based on the reactions of neighbors.

I feel it necessary to say, that in my opinion, an accurate reading on Stewart's character could hardly have been developed in that space of time. First of all, the investigators I saw in action did little to relax their informants. The cold official tone, the credentials, the approach seemed singularly odd behavior when the objective was to get at the truth of the matter. Stewart's next door neighbor was an interesting case in point. As soon as credentials were presented, she lost all continuity and refused to speak, heaping ridicule on Stewart. It was my own belief that she did indeed see something, but we'll never know what it was. As a subject, she was of no further use, even to a private investigator. In the course of the neighborhood survey, how do we know that others were not similarly upset in the face of the ever present credentials? Against this background, is it reasonable to conclude the actual reliability of the witness? In my personal contacts with Stewart, I can honestly say that I could detect nothing which led me to suspect that he was a fraud or was in any way attempting to execute a hoax.

The fact that the Air Force saw fit to order a special look into this case could be somewhat significant. An isolated observation in itself means very little, however fantastic it might be. It is only when aspects common to it are manifested in other observations

In my first telephone conversation with Captain Jones, head of the local office of Air Force Special Investigations, I recited the basic points of the Stewart case. When he, in turn, passed the information upwards, one of the points must have been impressive. Was it the allegation that this object was disc-shaped and hovered? This sort of characteristic had been claimed and is still being claimed for objects all over the world. Could it have been the sound which allegedly came from this object? This is possible, although this aspect too has been reported widely. Might it have been that there was an alleged relationship between something in the air and something on the ground? This point seems more acceptable to me. If they had received a few similar observations from other areas, this would have made them raise an eyebrow or two. I should imagine it to be a sound conclusion that special investigators were flown to Baltimore, not because of these allegations as such, but because one or several of them coincided with other information in their possession. Perhaps Stewart was sufficiently reliable to have hit upon a very interesting part of the puzzle.

Could Stewart have encountered a secret device belonging to the American Government? This is to be seriously doubted and for very good reason. If this were true, it would hardly seem prudent to call further attention to it and certainly not in the presence of a news reporter. Though the Air Force Officers had my cooperation, they had no solid guarantee that I would not immediately report to the public on their visit to Baltimore. Had Stewart observed one of our own devices, the risk would have been too great.

Did Stewart and Tyler actually see something? I believe we

can safely conclude that they did. According to their description, we might judge that what they saw was a round, inverted, ash-tray-shaped object in the sky. We can discover nothing of its identity or point of origin. We can certainly submit that it was unconventional. Sketches made by Stewart bore no resemblance to any well known type of aircraft. The weight of the known quantities in this incident point to something else.

The case itself might have died, but I'm not quite certain that rigor mortis has finally set in. Several weeks following the Air Force visit to Baltimore, a friend in the Pentagon telephoned from Washington. What he had to say was a little bit surprising.

"If you want to get more on that Glen Burnie Incident," he began, "Find out the peculiarities of the weather in that area."

This was an odd statement and regardless of my persistence, he would not expand on it. I talked with George Brancato, the Baltimore weatherman, and a meteorological expert in his own right. We were and still are personal friends and I feel reasonably certain that if he knew the answer he would have indicated this in some way. I discussed this point with Captain Howard Orville, Chairman of the President's Advisory Committee on Weather Control. He could shed no light on the matter. It was indeed a peculiar comment I had received from Washington.

Something else that happened gives me the opportunity to observe an interesting point about the entire investigation of the saucers. Even at this writing, we continue to get statements from the Pentagon to the effect that no information is being withheld about this problem, that ninety percent of the observations can be resolved, that the saucers may not even exist and so forth. However,

we have definite documented proof or inconsistencies, and of a reluctance to talk about the subject. And here and there we find odd references being made which tend to excite our curiosity and motivate us to further probe into this matter. That question about the weather in the Glen Burnie area is a case in point. The comment certainly wasn't made because it had no relationship to the Stewart experience. Was this case still very much alive? Were they still correlating information about it?

Several more weeks passed, when a friend of mine, an individual who has more than once served this Nation with distinction in the field of intelligence, stopped in at the Air Secretary's office for a chat with old associates. During his conversation he picked up a comment which he thought would be of interest to me. He called me from Washington.

"I just thought you might like to know," he stated, "That the Air Force sent a General Officer down to Glen Burnie to investigate a saucer sighting which occurred recently."

Are we now sending out General Officers to carefully check on the observations of a witness who has already been declared "not too reliable"? It is quite possible that Stewart's observation turned out to be very genuine and that the Air Force had found some additional witnesses in this case. This allegation that a General Officer had been sent into this area not only increased suspicion, but added still another important doctor to an already impressive team of diagnosticians.

For some reason or other, the Glen Burnie incident was receiving a remarkable amount of attention and not only from the Government. In the early summer a personal acquaintance, who had just taken a

job with an American plane manufacturer, was on a business trip to the west Coast. In the course of his travels, he encountered a distinguished scientist who was a member of the "Civilian Scientists" investigating this field of unidentified flying objects. This man, a former German expert, brought up something that had happened in Glen Burnie, Maryland . Knowing my friend was from Baltimore, he inquired as to whether he might know a reliable person in that area who could tell him about this situation. My name was mentioned. A somewhat curious thing happened at this point. My friend was returning east that very day by plane and the scientist asked him if he would contact me and have me write him a letter on this case.

That same evening, my friend landed at Friendship Airport and telephoned. After explaining the above, he then said, "Let me give you his address and you can get something in the mail to him."

"I'd like to ask you a question about this," I said. "If he is so interested, why has he suggested that I write to him? Why doesn't he contact me with, a few questions on the sort of information he desires?"

"That's a good question," he replied. "I can't answer it. I can tell you this however. He and several colleagues were examining something that happened in the Los Angeles area recently and apparently it bears a striking resemblance to some of the points in the Glen Burnie observation, which, by the way, he must have seen somewhere in official files."

This was a conversation of considerable importance. It seemed to substantiate my earlier conviction that something did occur in another part of the country along these lines. This line of thought seemed more reasonable than ever. I had the name and

address of this scientist on the West Coast and by coincidence, Life Magazine carried a picture of him in their current edition. I had a few notes on his background and it was very impressive. He had worked on an atomic project with the Germans during World War II.

I was tormented with the desire to write to him and relay the information I had, but I decided finally on another course. If he did not hear from me within a reasonable length of time and my information was really important to him, then perhaps he would address a communication in writing to me instead of by a mutual friend. He had been given my name and address. I have never had a letter from this man, although I have been asked several times about whether I had written by my friend who had originally brought me the message. It is possible that he decided he didn't require any comment from me after all, or it could be that further information was furnished him by our Air Force. That General Officer in the area came to my mind. In all events, I could not see where a letter from me would furnish me with definite information on the case.

I had made copious notes throughout this strange affair. I put them together as a part of "Project Eyeful". There were some definite questions I had to ask based on the information in the notes. Did I feel that the Glen Burnie affair represented some secret project of our Government? I must label the answer as being just a shade away from a definite conclusion. I felt too much attention had been given this incident for it to have been some secret of ours. If Stewart had inadvertently stumbled on an American device much more pressure would have been exerted on him to keep quiet. The risk of his talking was too great. The risk of

his telling was too great. The risk of my giving the entire episode a big play on the air was too great. These factors drove me to the belief that it had to be something else. I said we were just a shade away from a definite conclusion on this point. As fantastic as it might appear, there is still the possibility, although very remote, that this was a Government secret and they were going to all this trouble to point the finger of suspicion in another direction. I say this to remain as objective as possible within the confines of logic. I do not consider it as probable.

Could this have been a figment of everyone's imagination? This is ridiculous on the face of it, but again, in the interest of complete objectivity, let us give it some brief consideration. Despite its unlikelihood, Stewart could have been a magnificent actor. His partner could have been in on the plot. If you accept this as a possibility, however, you must then conclude that his tender young inexperienced years had completely deceived trained Air Force investigators and that the deception went all the way to a General Officer and over the country to a famous atomic scientist. Or you can suppose that they were all collaborating, which of course is utter nonsense. I think we can safely conclude in this regard that the Glen Burnie incident in no way was a figment of anyone's imagination. I think we can conclude that something was in the sky and that it was something very unconventional.

No reader could be content until I asked this question based on information I had on this case. Could this have been a vehicle from an origin not on this planet? Was it a space ship? The answer here requires some very special attention. It is not something we can take lightly. In 1952, the term space ship was being discussed in