Air Force investigators later concluded that the famous Tremonton movies show merely the large white gulls that soar near Utah’s Great Salt Lake. The objects were photographed shortly before noon on a hot summer’s day, against a deep-blue sky without any clouds to obscure the high sun. The fading and brightening of the lights, their individual motion within the group, and the one object that suddenly left the group, all are consistent with the behavior of a flock of birds, probably gulls, whose plumage is reflecting the sun. The glossy feathers of these birds can flash as brilliantly as a satiny metal surface as they circle and change position with respect to the sun. The birds can be dazzling against the clear, dark-blue sky of the western states. So brilliant is the flash that it wholly obscures the object that is reflecting the light. Like many other puzzling UFO reports, the objects in the Tremonton movies were living lights--a case for the ornithologist rather than the Air Force. A bright light moving erratically as it crossed and recrossed the field of view caused an experienced pilot and copilot to execute violent and evasive maneuvers in a flight over the dark Pacific.[VI-14] The errant UFO proved to be only a firefly inadvertently trapped between the panes of the double windshield. [VI-1] Rolfe, F. _Eastern Daily Press_, January 16, 1908. [VI-2] Purdy, R. J. “The occasional luminosity of the White Owl (_Strix flammea_),” _Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists Society_, Vol. VIII (1904–1909), p. 547. [VI-3] Gurney, J. H. _The Zoologist_, No. 802 (April 1908), p. 121. [VI-4] Boston _Traveller_, Oct. 30, 1961. [VI-5] London _Daily Telegraph_, November 8, 1958. [VI-6] Maney, C. A., and Hall, R. _The Challenge of Unidentified Flying Objects._ Washington, D.C., 1961. [VI-7] Ruppelt, E. J. _The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects._ Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1956. [VI-8] Air Force Files. [VI-9] Menzel, D. H. Personal files. [VI-10] Ruppelt, E. J. _The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects._ Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., reprint, 1960. [VI-11] _Life_ magazine, April 7, 1952. [VI-12] Los Angeles _Times_, May 21, 1955. [VI-13] Case 201, CRIFO _Orbit_, Vol. III (Oct. 5, 1956). [VI-14] Major William T. Coleman. Personal communication. _Chapter_ VII PANIC The summer of 1952, the period that Captain Ruppelt called “the big flap,” offers a history of the UFO mania in capsule form. If the newspapers were to be believed, the heavens were crowded with armadas of spaceships both visible and invisible. There was even a monster story to add spice to the tales.