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In my studies of several other flaps I have discovered this same baffling geographical factor. If the UFOs are actually machines of some sort, their pilots seem to be familiar not only with our calendar but also with the political boundaries of our states. They not only concentrate their activities on Wednesday nights, they also carefully explore our states methodically from border to border. Does this sound like the work of Martians or extraterrestrial strang- aan Ne Anne a nee AIM. abe wnat Ae 22 ee ee te Lente +e ers? Or does it sound like the work of someone who is using our maps and our calendars and may, therefore, know a great deal about us, even though we know little about ‘them’? The skeptics try to explain away the published UFO stories by saying that a mass hysteria builds up in flap areas and that everyone starts seeing the things once a few reports have been published. This is patently untrue. Nearly all the published reports of flap dates appear on the same day. There is no time lag, no building up of reports. Random individuals in widely separated areas all apparently see unidentifiable objects on the same night and dutifully report their observations to their local police or newspapers, seldom realizing that anyone else has seen something that night. The next day the newspapers in several areas, or even several different states, carry the reports. The flap has come and gone in a single day. Even then, people reading the Arkansas Gazette never learn that other papers in other states have been filled with UFO accounts on that same day. Most UFO buffs, who depend upon one another and assorted friends for clippings, are never aware of the full extent of the flap. With the exception of the North American Newspaper Alliance, no news service assigns men to keep track of these things and tabulate them. So while an occasional sighting may be sent out by a wire service, data on the overall situation are simply not available. In March-April 1967, the published UFO sightings outstripped all previous years. I received more than 2,000 clippings and reports in March alone and was able to investigate many of them firsthand. Yet the major news media ignored this flap, perhaps because none of the editors realized it was happening. Instead of the mythical censorship so lovingly ex- pounded in some cultist circles, we have a lack of communication and a complete lack of research. The indifference so long fostered by the official government position has resulted in a general indifference. The biggest flap in March 1967 occurred on Wednesday, March 8. Let’s review briefly some of the sightings reported on that day: 18 / Operation Trojan Horse Anatomy of a Flap