Page Content (OCR)
126 FOR A MOMENT after Boggs's last answer, I had an impulse to end the interview. I had a feeling I was facing a sphinx--a quiet, courteous sphinx in an Air Force uniform. I was sure now why Major Jerry Boggs had been chosen for his job, the all-important connecting link with the project at Wright Field. No one would ever catch this man off guard, no matter what secret was given him to conceal. And it was more than the result of Air Force Intelligence training. His manner, his voice carried conviction. He would have convinced anyone who had not carefully analyzed the Godman Field tragedy. I made one more attempt. "Do the Godman Field witnesses--Colonel Hix and the rest-- believe the Venus answer?" Again the Intelligence major nodded. I pointed, out that all three of the cases mentioned had been listed as unidentified in the April report. We looked at each other a moment. Major Boggs patiently waited. I began to realize how a lawyer must feel with an imperturbable witness. And Boggs's unfailing courtesy began to make me embarrassed. "Major," I said, "I hope you'll realize this is not a personal matter. As an Intelligence officer, if you're told to give certain answers--" {p. 149} out." CHAPTER XVII "I haven't asked them," said Boggs, "so I couldn't say." "What about the Chiles-Whitted case?" I asked. "You were quoted as saying they saw a meteor--a bolide that exploded in a shower of sparks." "That's right," said Boggs. "And Gorman was chasing a lighted balloon?" "They'd had those cases for months," I said. "What new facts did they learn?" Boggs said calmly, "They just made a final analysis, and those were the answers." He smiled for the first time. "That's all right--but I'm not hiding a thing. There's just no such thing as a flying saucer, so far as we've found