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investigation, told the people the truth. Much was learned, except for the most important thing of all: the origin and purpose of the crafts themselves. However, in the United States, our UFO wave wasn't handled at all. Not a thing was done by any branch of our government. There was no national or statewide mobilization. No Air Force F 16s were launched (at 1 : 6 aa awNO4AT least not as a matter of public record). No attempts were made to capture the objects on radar. Nor was there any established partnership with a leading U.S. research organization to collect reports, though such qualified scientific groups were ready and waiting. No government labs analyzed the photographs. No government body convened a press conference to provide Air Force data for a public eager for information. The local media gave plenty of coverage in places where the events were actually happening and were a fact of life, but because no officials were engaged other than local policemen, national coverage was minimal. When pressed by concerned callers, the FAA told witnesses that they had seen something other than what they saw—recognizable things that made a lot of noise, such as airplanes in formation, or helicopters. Numerous factors rendered this explanation untenable, the most obvious being that sometimes the craft hovered or moved more slowly than planes could fly, often at very low altitudes, and it was usually silent. Hovering helicopters or a group of planes flying in formation are notoriously loud. Also, the UFO was seen on many occasions when there were no planes or blimps aloft, as confirmed by the nearby airport. Sometimes, witnesses saw a massive, solid structure around the lights blocking out the sky behind it, easily distinguishable from conventional aircraft. In 1984, for example, six security guards at the Indian Point nuclear power plant witnessed the UFO hovering about 300 feet over the reactor in restricted airspace. Two guards told investigators it was a solid object bigger than a football field. [5] Yet U.S. government indifference never changed, despite the fact that w'hat many called the "Westchester County boomerangs" hovered or cruised off and on for years over the Hudson Valley and parts of Connecticut, arrayed with colored lights that sometimes blinked on and off when approaching people. Witnesses were left to handle these events on their own, encounters that were disturbing to some, frightening to others, and awe-inspiring to almost everyone; but no official guidance was offered as to what to do. Police departments in New York and Connecticut were 1 10 re flooded with calls, but how were the small units to respond? They were simply not prepared or equipped to handle something like this, beyond making records of these witness accounts, some from their own officers. Traffic jams occurred on Route 84, a major thoroughfare, as drivers stared at the sky. And the local airports simply told callers that they had nothing on radar and could not confirm the sightings. Communities were left unassisted in trying to make sense of these absolutely staggering events, and most of the U.S. public never heard anything about them.