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CD 42 that I have done in my life, I would change just one thing, and that would be the night we chased that damn saucer.” Neff agreed, “If that thing landed in my backyard, I wouldn’t tell a soul.”4 By now, so many encounters were occurring that the media couldn’t keep up. Numerous citizen UFO groups formed such as the National Investigative Committee of Aerial Phenomenon (NICAP) and the Aerial Phenomenon Research Organization (APRO), both of which Force’s Project Blue Book was followed by several other governmen- tal investigations. At the same time, there was a change in the UFO phenomenon itself. In the 1940s and 1950s, there were many sightings over power stations, military bases, and other technological installa- tions. Investigators Coral and Jim Lorenzen successfully predicted sightings that occurred over many such bases. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, the phenomenon began to escalate. For the first time, wide- spread reports came in of UFOs landing and strange-looking figures exiting the craft. After this came reports of abductions, also called close encounters of the third kind. Some of these amazing cases are covered in later chapters, but the 1970s and beyond brought many more incred- ible sightings worth investigating. The early 1970s produced only scattered high-profile sightings. In 1973, however, a large wave of UFO activity hit the United States. One case that stands out above the rest is known as the Coyne Encounter. On the evening of October 18, 1973, Captain Lawrence Coyne and his crew of three Army officers were on a routine training flight in a helicopter over Columbus, Ohio. Suddenly Captain Coyne noticed a red light from the east, coming directly towards them. Says Coyne, “I looked to my right, through the right window, and I observed the light coming at a very fast speed, in excess of 600 knots.” UFOS AND ALIENS collected and studied literally thousands of cases. Meanwhile, the Air THE COYNE ENCOUNTER