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possible that those clippings could supply some broad data about the overall phenomenon. None of the UFO organizations had made any effort at all to extract such data. The U.S. Air Force had tried in the early 1950s but had apparently given up in despair. So my next job was to translate the seemingly random clippings and reports of investigated cases into some form of statistical information. More than 10,000 clippings and reports reached me in 1966 (in contrast with the 1,060 reports allegedly received by the Air Force during that same period). I had checked out many of these cases personally and had become convinced of their validity. Throughout 1967, I devoted my spare time to sorting this great mass of material, categorizing it, and boiling it down into valid statistical form. It was an enormous job, and I had to do it alone. I threw out most of the “‘lights in the sky” types of reports and concentrated on the Type I cases. I obtained astronomical data on meteors, etc., for the year, and from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration I obtained information on all of the year’s rocket launches. By checking the UFO reports against this data, I was able to sift out the possible or probable misinterpretations that were bound to occur. My first interest was to uncover whatever patterns or cycles that might exist in the flap dates. I ended up with two files: one containing the Type I sightings (730 in all, or 7.3 percent of the total); and the other, the best of the Type II sightings (high-altitude objects performing in a controlled manner and distinct from normal aircraft and natural phenomena). There were 2,600 reports in the second group. Thus I was working with 33.3 percent of the total. (Radio and TV surveys that rule the industry work on a far smaller sampling, claiming that a survey of 1,500 TV viewers represents the viewing habits of the whole country.) As soon as I had organized the sightings by dates, the first significant pattern became apparent. This was that sightings tended to collect around specific days of the week. Wednesday had the greatest number of sight- ings, and these were usually reported between the hours of 8 to 11 P.M. Day Wednesday Th..nn dae 20.5 17.5 15.5 15.0 Thursday . meta... Friday Saturday 16 / Operation Trojan Horse Patterns in the Phenomenon Percentage of Total Reports