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the COMETA Report and the work of GEIPAN. 2 I first became aware Oscar Zambrano translated some sections about Captain Girard and Captain Fartek. The rest was written in English. 4 our responsibility to study them seriously Interview with General Thouverez, Armees d'aujourd'hui (Armies of Today), July 2002. 1 For twenty-one years The much longer first draft of this piece was written in French and translated by Jean-Luc Rivera. Throughout the editing process, M. Velasco and I worked in English. 2. the incidents at Malmstrom Air Force Base Velasco is referring to the 1967 case described by Robert Salas in chapter 15 (pp. 144-45) and other sightings that took place in the Malmstrom area around the same time period. 3 a new internal agency then called GEPAN GEPAN: Groupe d'Etude des Phenomenes Aerospatiaux Non-Identifies (Group for the Study of Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena). 4 anew agency called SEPRA SEPRA: Service d'Expertise des Phenomenes de Rentrees Atmospheriques (Service of Expertise on the Phenomena of Atmospheric n Reentries). 5 might account for the chlorophyll reductions The case was presented in the GEPAN report Note Technique No. 16, Enquete 81/01, "Analyse d'une Trace" (Analysis of Trace Evidence), March 1, 1983. For more on the Trans-en-Provence case, see "Report on the Analysis of Anomalous Physical Traces: The 1981 Trans-en-Provence UFO Case," by Jean-Jacques Velasco, p. 27, and "Return to Trans-en-Provence," by Jacques F. Vallee, p. 19, in Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 4, no. 1, 1990. Both articles can also be found in the excellent book The UFO Enigma: A New Review of the Physical Evidence, by Peter A. Sturrock (Warner Books, 1999), pp. 257-97. Vallee's paper is noteworthy: The site of the 1981 Trans-en-Provence UFO case was visited again during 1988. Soil samples taken at the time of the initial investigation were analyzed in an American laboratory in an effort to validate the GEPAN/CNES study of the case. The results of the interviews with the witness and his wife and the examination of samples taken at the surface and below the surface of the physical trace support the findings of the CNES team and the truthfulness of the witness's testimony. 6 an outstanding independent French investigator Dominique Weinstein, "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena: Eighty Years of Pilot Sightings—Catalog of Military, Airliner, Private Pilots' Sightings from 1916 to 2000," February 2001, 6th edition. 7 "there is cause for concern" Richard Mandelkorn, Commander, U.S. Navy, "Report of Trip to Los Alamos, New Mexico, 16 February 1949," Subject: Project Grudge, February 18,1949, p. 4. Project Blue Book file. 8 "It is felt that these incidents" Memo from Headquarters Fourth Army to Director of Intelligence, "Unconventional Aircraft (Control No. A-1917)," by Colonel Eustis L. Poland. www.project!947.com/gfb/poland.htm.. 9 "the National Defense of the United States" Report concerning a conference held on April 27 and 28,1949, at Kirtland Air Force Base on unidentified aerial phenomena, for the director of special investigations, USAF, Washington, D.C., May 12,1949, p. 4. From Project Blue Book files. Richard Mandelkorn, Commander, U.S. Navy, "Report of Trip to Los Alamos, New Mexico, 16 February 1949," Subject: Project Grudge, 18 February 1949, p. 4. Project Blue Book file. 10 "and return to home base" George E. Valley, "Some Considerations Affecting the Interpretation of Reports of Unidentified Flying Objects," report for Project Sign, USAF, originally classified Secret. CHAPTER 14: FRANCE AND THE UFO QUESTION