Though I knew the lid was probably on, I went to the Pentagon. When the scare had first broken, in the summer of ’47, I had talked with Captain Tom Brown, who was handling saucer inquiries. But by now Brown had been shifted, and no one in the Press Branch would admit knowing the details of the Mantell saucer chase. “We just don’t know the answer,” a security officer told me. “There’s a rumor,” I said, “it’s a secret Air Force missile that sometimes goes out of control.” “Good God, man!” he exploded. “If it was, do you think we’d be ordering pilots to chase the damned things?” “No—and I didn’t say I believed it.” I waited until he cooled down. “This order you mentioned—is it for all Air Force pilots, or special fighter units?” “I didn’t say it was a special order,” he answered quickly. “All pilots have routine instructions to report unusual items.” “They had fighters alerted on the Coast, when the scare first broke,” I reminded him. “Are those orders still in force?” He shook his head. “No, not that I know of.” After a moment he added, “All I can tell you is that the Air Force is still investigating. We honestly don’t know the answer.” As I went out the Mall entrance, I ran into Jack Daly, one of Washington’s veteran newsmen. Before the war, Jack and I had done magazine pieces together, usually on Axis espionage and communist activity. I told him I was trying to find the answer to Mantell’s death. “You heard anything?” I asked him. “Only what was in the A.P. story,” said Jack. “But an I.N.S. man told me they had a saucer story from Columbus, Ohio—and it might have been the same one they saw at Fort Knox.” “I missed that. What was it?” “They sighted the thing at the Air Force field outside of Columbus. It was around sundown, about two hours after that pilot was killed in Kentucky.” “Anybody chase it?” I asked. “No. They didn’t have time to take off, I guess. This I.N.S. guy said it was going like hell. Fast as a jet, anyway.” “Did he say what it looked like?” “The Air Force boys said it was as big as a C-47,” said Jack. “Maybe bigger. It had a reddish-orange exhaust streaming out behind. They could see it for miles.” “If you hear any more, let me know,” I said. Jack promised he would. “What do you think they are?” he asked me. “It’s got me stumped. Russia wouldn’t be testing missiles over here. Anyway, I can’t believe they’ve got anything like that. And I can’t see the Air Force letting pilots get killed to hide something we’ve got.” One week later, I heard that a top-secret unit had been set up at Wright Field to investigate all saucer reports. When I called the Pentagon, they admitted this much, and that was all.