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"I'm going to be taking some trips, too, " he said. "First to the chief of staff to make sure we have the discretionary budget we're going to need. Then to some of the people | want you to talk to once you have the backing from the scientific community for the projects on your list. " "We've been working with image intensifies for some time, "| said. "We even got our hands on devices the Germans were working on at the end of the war." "Well then, why don't you make a very preliminary trip over to Fort Belvoir, "General Trudeau said. "They've had a night vision project in the works for the past ten years, but it's got nothing over what you have in your file. " "Yes, Phil, but you get out of that uniform and into a real lawyer suit, " the general ordered. "And don't take your staff car. "He saw me raise my eyebrows. "All you're going to do is feed a project, "Trudeau continued, "that's been under way since right after the war. They've got stuff, but you're going to give them a giant leap. Once you've fed them, you'll disappear and I'll assign a night vision project manager here to see the development through. "| prepared to leave his office. "No one will know, Phil, " he said. "Just like you thought, the Roswell night viewer will put a seed of an idea in someone's mind over at Fort Belvoir and it will become part of along project history. It will disappear just like you into the history of the product development." This was the beginning. | saluted, but the general just stuck out his hand and | shook it. We both realized in that moment, as we were striking out on our own, just how momentous this was about to become. A lieutenant general allocating money for his development budget and a lieutenant colonel looking for someone to develop an innocuous-looking eye shield an unknown Gl had picked up out of the sand near a UFO crashed into a rock in the lonely desert outside of Roswell in a lightning storm fourteen years ago. General Trudeau marched down the hall to his boss at the Pentagon to begin the process of funding the new items we'd identified in our Foreign Technology budget, and | went home that evening and tried on my official White House three piece suit. President Eisenhower once told me that he always trusted a man who wore a vest, and | never forgot it. Although there were times when the President asked me to wear my uniform for special meetings when | had to look military, | usually wore suits every day to work. But after my years at the Red Canyon missile base and in combat uniform in Germany, | lost the knack of wearing civilian clothes. Nevertheless, here | was again, after all those years, wearing a suit just like any other nine-to-five commuting Joe as | headed toward Fort Belvoir, perhaps the army's most important base in the entire Washington Military District. 51 "Where are you going to be, General?" | asked. "Where to first?" | asked. "What do you like?" the general shot right back to me. "I'll get over there first thing, "| said. "Yes, sir," | said. | was beginning to realize just how lonely this job could be. "You still have a suit that fits?" the general asked. "| think so, "| answered. "Maybe what | wore over at the White House is a little out of style, but it'll pass. " "Good luck, Phil, "General Trudeau said. "Make sure no one knows where you're going and I'll make sure you have all the budget you need." What a pair we must have made. CHAPTER 9 Ss THE PROJECT HAD OFFICIALLY BEGUN.