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23 Washington when faced with this mysterious incursion that had to be considered a potential threat. What could they say when President Harry Truman asked them what in hell was going on? They couldn't claim to know what the flying saucers were, for they would then have to provide details they didn't have. They also couldn't very well admit that there were unknown craft flying through American skies with impunity, for the ensuing questions would be far too embarrassing to contemplate. What if the Senate Armed Ser- vices and Appropriations committees got wind of the USAAF's inability to cope with foreign machines flying over American cities? The Army Air Force was about to achieve a long-term dream and become a separate service: the United States Air Force. An admission of such impotence could wipe that out overnight and leave the once-proud flyboys huddled in a few offices in the basement of the Department of Agriculture. The only solution was to launch an all-out effort to find out what the flying saucers were, and to keep the entire matter totally secret from the public and from most of the government until the USAAF could regain control of the skies. Less than two months later, on September 23, 1947, a more detailed report was prepared by the Air Force's Air Materiel Command (the technical and scientific establishment) for Air Force Intelligence. It reiterated the conclusions of the first report and would also have amazed the public if it had not been kept secret: "The phenomenon is something real and not vi- sionary or fictitious." While the American people and most of their leaders re- mained in total ignorance of the extent of official concern and activity, yet another step was taken to expand the knowledge of peculiar flying things which hardly anyone outside the Penta- gon considered of any consequence. On October 28, 1947, a draft order was prepared for American intelligence operatives throughout the world, directing them to get all potentially relevant information about flying saucers. The order was an intelligence collection memorandum from Brig. Gen. George Schulgen, chief of the USAF's Air Intelligence Requirements THE GOVERNMENT AND UFOS