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This is why, by the mid-twentieth century, anthropologists were making massive efforts to keep newly discovered tribes isolated so that they could be studied without the destruction of their cultures. Something like this could be going on here. It would certainly explain the reticence of the aliens, and the ferocious effort that government makes to keep their secrets, knowing that the penalty for revealing their presence too soon could easily be the abandonment of their interest in mankind. If, for whatever reason, aliens have forced the U.S. government to help them conceal themselves, it might explain what is, after all, an extremely unusual policy on its part. There is more than adequate evidence that UFOs are a genuine unknown. There is no rational basis for official secrecy, media debunking, and the rabid denial that forms a basic tenet of the modern culture of science. Any one of a hundred UFO cases could form the basis for serious investigation, and the Shag Harbor incident, with its detailed evidence of the operation, and possible failure, of technology, would be an excellent place to start. In the early years it appeared that UFO policy might go either way. Captain Edward Ruppelt became chief of Project Grudge, which soon became Project Blue Book. Ruppelt, with a degree in aeronautical engineering, brought a high level of technical expertise to UFO investigation, and Blue Book gathered and documented many extraordinary cases from 1951 until 1959. Over this eight-year period the purpose of Blue Book gradually changed. Ruppelt, with his eager desire to solve the problem and inform the public, was replaced by one manager after another, each less inclined than the last to follow Ruppelt's original design. In 1963 the project was taken over by Major Hector Quintanilla. By this time Blue Book was nothing more than a public relations effort. In 1989, when I spoke to Major Quintanilla about his work on the project, he said that he had done nothing but gather data sent in by the public, and had no personal opinion about UFOs. He was very different from dynamic and effective officers like Ruppelt, who had made serious efforts to at least gain scientifically sound information rather than passively file reports without any real investigation. In 1965 a massive UFO wave occurred worldwide, and it was during the three-year aftermath of this wave that the Shag Harbor incident took place on the night of October 4, 1967. It was during this period that the air force began aggressively downplaying sightings. During a previous wave in 1952 the air force had received substantial public criticism for its inability to assert U.S. control over its own airspace, which is its most fundamental mission. The 1965 wave brought a hardening of the air force position. Ruppelt and his approach were forgotten. The official word was that UFOs were a mystery not worth exploring. In 1969 a disaster took place for UFO research, one from which it has never recovered. A committee of distinguished scientists had been asked by the air force to evaluate Project Blue Book. Their final report recommended that the air force drop UFO investigations. The highly respected name of Dr. Edward U. Condon carried a lot of weight, and the scientific community accepted the conclusions without ever noting that the report upon which they were based contained a substantial number of unknown or unverified sightings. The report had vocal critics, including no less an authority on official secrets than Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the first director of the CIA. He was adamant that UFOs deserved serious investigation. In 1960 he had stated, "Unknown objects are operating under intelligent control."