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"Yes. They released that same story. And it came back to our newspaper by way of the AP and UPI wire services. "Now I want to emphasize that what I told the major at Stewart was pure conjecture. I didn't think the object that I saw even looked like a helicopter with a big strobe light on it. He, the major, asked me what it might be. And that was the only kind of a thing I could come up with. Because of the transverse movements, because of the brilliance of the light, the helicopter-strobe-light idea just popped into my mind as a possible explanation. So they flung right back at me what I call my own story. "I'm glad it was I who received the story from the major. Because if some reporter on our staff had called the major and taken the story as gospel and quickly run it through the copy desk before I saw it - I would have had to chew the poor guy out, but roughly! But that major threw my own words right "Later that night, I called back once more and someone else at Stewart Air Force Base gave me the helicopter story all over again. And then at six o'clock the next morning, our Morning Editor called them - and they denied ever saying any such a thing about a helicopter." "Do you know why they denied it?" I asked. Ball shook his head. "I don't know why they denied it. But they did. They denied it "Our afternoon edition carried the story stating that they had denied saying the UFO had been a helicopter. You'll remember that they had made a point of telling me that there were no helicopters operational in the area and that they had none on the base. And McGuire said the same thing to me. In pursuing the story, I even phoned other people who I thought might have had helicopters in the area. I called the State Police of New Jersey. They had none operational at the time. I called the Radio Station WJRZ at Newark, but they had only a light plane and no copters. I also called a couple of New York City radio stations that have helicopters to survey traffic conditions - but they didn't have their copters operational at that time. So there wasn't anything in the sky of that type during the UFO sightings. "Now I'm not saying the Air Force wasn't cooperative. They were a 100% cooperative with me. But I think things got to the point where they didn't want to say anything - or couldn't. A point was reached where some lid came down, and they didn't want to say anything." Newspaper Editor Howard Ball summarized his experience with a UFO in this manner: "I didn't see little green men coming out of nowhere carrying needles to stick me with and find out what I'm made of - or anything like that. But I did see a big light in the sky that was moving strangely. To me, it was an unidentified object that I can't explain - and I would like to have it explained. "T have a 13-year-old son and I wouldn't want him to think his father was a nut or a liar. I try to teach him not to be. And I try to teach him to be objective. So why all of a sudden should I not be objective myself?" Certainly Howard L. Ball, Jr., newspaper editor and father, is neither a crackpot nor a liar. The same statement holds true, it seems to me, for every police officer that I interviewed in the Wanaque and Pompton Lakes area. Not only they but hundreds of others have been seeing strange phenomena in the sky above that area ever since January 11, 1966. Some even say that sightings of weird objects go back back into my mouth. in the morning.