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18 Once Jesse Marcel Sr. had spoken out on the crash and his involvement in it, his son was under no pressure to keep this novel family secret, even though he was now part of the mili- tary as a National Guard helicopter pilot and Vietnam veteran. Neither man has indicated that any pressure was applied to keep them from talking further, nor that Jesse Sr. ever felt that national security was being endangered by his speaking out. The first stage of the investigation of the crash at Corona had ended. Not that a great number of details had been disclosed, but the reality of the crash of something very strange had been established with sufficient authority to elevate this case to a height never approached by any other story of the crash of a flying saucer. It could yet turn out to be a mistake, the crash of a test rocket carrying a monkey, which had been exaggerated through sloppy retelling—but the chances of that being the case were diminishing. In the past, careful investigation had always revealed major flaws in a crash report. This time, each new piece of information tended to support the premise that this might well be the big one. So far, however, there wasn't enough information considered sufficiently reliable to justify going public. All that was known with any degree of certainty was that something odd had crashed in New Mexico in early July 1947; that according to an official press release, it had been recovered by the Army Air Forces; and that it had been flown away, probably to Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio. It was also known that official denials followed quickly and had been accepted. Friedman, having worked under serious secrecy rules for fourteen years, knew the government could keep secrets under some pretty emo- tional conditions. But a crashed flying saucer and alien bodies? The questions triggered by even this small amount of infor- mation were now bubbling to the surface: 1. Would the Marcels stick to their story? Or would they recant, or claim to have been misquoted when the time came to stand up and be counted? 2. Could enough confirming witnesses be found to sub- CRASH AT CORONA