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67 "It wasn't in the papers. But all the pilots up that way know about it. In his report, Gorman said something about trying to ram the thing. The idea got around that Air Force orders had said to try this. Anyway, it got into the papers and Gorman almost got court- martialed. If his family hadn't had some influence in the state, the Air Force probably would have pushed it." Before I left them, Green double-checked my report on his sighting, which Hilton had forwarded. As in the majority of cases, he had seen just one disk. It had hovered at a very high altitude, gleaming in the sun, then had suddenly accelerated and raced off to the north. been pretty big." "It's kind of hard to believe," said Pete. "The thing would have to be a lot bigger than a B- twenty-nine, and the speed over two thousand miles an hour." "You know what they said about the Mantell saucer," I reminded him. "Some of the Godman Field people said it was at least three hundred feet in diameter." {p. 78} That evening I talked with the airline official, whom I knew well enough to call by his first name. I put it to him bluntly. "Dick, if you're under orders not to talk, just tell me. Fm trying to find out whether Project 'Saucer' has muzzled airline pilots." "You mean the ones who've sighted things? Perhaps, in a few cases. But most of the pilots know what happened to Captain Emil Smith, on United, and those Eastern pilots. They keep still so they won't be laughed at. Also the airlines don't like their pilots to talk for publication." "Are you sure about this?" I said. "You know how those things build up." "Ask Gorman," he said. "Or ask some of the pilots at Fargo." "I couldn't tell its size or speed," said Green. "But if it was as high as I think, it must have ey vannr runny Pete told me later that Green believed the disk had been at least twenty miles high, because it was well above clouds at thirty thousand feet. "I've heard it was twice that," said Pete. "You know any Kentucky National Guard pilots?" I asked. "One or two," said Pete. "But they couldn't tell me anything. It was hushed up too fast."