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36 cannot be justified, either on the grounds of national security or in the interest of science." He does not say that there is no justification for the continuation of other Air Force UFO activ- ity. In fact, he leaves that door wide open: "However, as already stated, reports of UFOs which could affect national security would continue to be handled through the standard Air Force procedures designed for this purpose." Bolender adds: "The Air Force experience therefore confirms the impression of the University of Colorado researchers that the defense function could be performed within the framework established for intelligence and surveillance operations with- out the continuation of a special unit such as Project Blue Book." Clearly, all that happened in December 1969 was that Proj- ect Blue Book was ended, while the remainder of Air Force (and other governmental) UFO-related activities no doubt contin- ued unabated, since "reports of unidentified flying objects which could affect national security are made in accordance with JANAP 146 or Air Force Manual 55-11, and are not part of the Blue Book system" (emphasis added). If the national security-related UFO reports never were seen by the people in Project Blue Book, then their contention that UFOs showed no evidence of a threat to national security is empty. And since there was a special procedure for handling UFO reports having national security aspects, then is it possi- ble that UFOs involve some kind of threat to the nation? At the very least, someone must have thought so. When Project Blue Book shut its doors, it signaled the end of an era. The press and the public, aware only of the totally negative conclusions of the Condon Report and the apparent end of all official interest in UFOs, assumed the subject was dead. There were scattered lingering doubts, especially among those who remained convinced they had seen unexplained things flying through the sky. But for most people, UFOs were about to fade into history. The major private organization—NICAP—tapidly lost its mass appeal, its funding which came almost entirely from CRASH AT CORONA