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where I had left off. I knew there was disdain for UFOs in the culture, but I also knew that this was a breaking story passing muster with a leading mainstream paper. Amazingly, nothing happened. J had been exposed to another aspect of this strange world. It was the beginning of a rude awakening, a rite of passage into the perplexing reality that UFOs cannot be acknowledged at all, even as simply the unidentified flying objects that they are. It was as if everyone was pretending that they didn't exist. Ever since the Globe story solidified my interest and increased my confidence, I have been focused on investigating and coming to terms with this subject—a process that never ends. Fundamentally, after many years of research and in-depth interviews with key players, I have learned that UFOs are a genuine scientific mystery. There have been extraordinary UFO sightings occurring in America for more than sixty years, many by pilots and military personnel, and many yielding physical evidence. Volumes of case studies have been published by qualified researchers and scientists since the 1950s, documenting UFO incidents all over the globe and leaving a solid record begging for further analysis by contemporary scientists. The most credible sources clearly recognized, and stated repeatedly, that we don't yet know what the objects are—contrary to public assumptions that UFOs, by definition, are extraterrestrial spaceships. But I had to come to terms, over and over again, with the fact that these amazing, high- performance unidentified objects do exist, without AA. ems 1 1 1" rr ie aL amazing, high-performance unidentified objects do exist, without question—just as the COMETA authors had unequivocally stated. There is enough data available to make this clear to anyone who decides to take the do without time to study it. Because that alone was so potentially explosive, I couldn't quite understand the indifference it generated among those who took it seriously enough to rise above ridicule but who nonetheless remained blase and disinterested. Eventually I came to realize—repeatedly, through the research and publication of my subsequent stories, each of w'hich seemed like earth- shattering news to me then but was never enough to stimulate change— that the UFO story could not be properly told, nor could the taboo be overcome, through any one short news piece, no matter how many there were. I now believe that the only way to adequately convey the full story— to really break the news about the existence of UFOs and convey the impact of the material for the person so far unexposed to it—is through a book such as this one, which includes some of the world's best sources speaking in detail for themselves. Sound bites and short quotes cannot carry a story of this magnitude. The chapters you are about to read will address the fundamental questions about UFOs that concern so many people. What do we really know about them? Is it actually possible that some of these objects are 6 an a from outer space? Do pilots ever see them? How do governments and militaries handle sightings? Why is there so much ridicule and denial about