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Then Admiral Fahrney read a statement regarding the policies of NICAP. It was as follows: "Reliable reports indicate that there are objects coming into our atmosphere at very high speeds . . . No agency in this country or Russia is able to duplicate at this time the speeds and accelerations which radars and observers indicate these flying objects are able to achieve.
But none deserve the niche in UFO history that does NICAP. NICAP had power and it raised a storm that took months to calm down. NICAP got off to a fast start. Dues were pegged at $7.50 a year, which included a subscription to the very interesting magazine The UFO Investigator, and the operation went into high gear.
While Congress was right in the middle of such important and crucial problems as foreign policy, atomic disarmament, racketeering, integration and a dozen and one other problems, NICAP began to bedevil every senator and representative who was polite enough to listen.
"As long as such unidentified objects continue to navigate through the earth's atmosphere, there is an urgent need to know the facts. Many observers have ceased to report their findings to the Air Force because of the seeming frustration that is, all information going in, and none coming out. It is in this area that NICAP may find its greatest mission.
NICAP Director Don Keyhoe has taken a beating, being accused of profiteering, trying to make headlines, and other minor social crimes. But personally I doubt this. Keyhoe is simply convinced that UFO's are from outer space and he's a dedicated man. While the big NICAP-Air Force battle was going on the UFO's were not waiting to see who won. They were still flying.
It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease and in November 1957, the United States Senate Committee on Government Operations began an inquiry concerning UFO's. A few weeks later the inquiry was dropped. But NICAP had made its name. Of all of the thorns that have been pounded into the UFO side of the Air Force, NICAP drove theirs the deepest.
Keyhoe set up a Panel of Special Advisors, all saucer fans, to "impartially evaluate" the UFO reports ferreted out by the "listening posts," based on facts uncovered by the "investigators." Even though the "leading scientists" Fahrney mentioned in his statement never materialized NICAP was cocked, primed, and ready.
To get things off to a gala start Keyhoe, as director of NICAP, wrote to the Air Force and set out NICAP's Eight Point Plan. First of all, NICAP wanted its Panel of Special Advisors to review and concur with all of the conclusions on the thousands of UFO reports that the Air Force had in its files. This went over like a worm in the punch bowl.
First of all, the Air Force didn't feel it was necessary to review its files. Secondly, they knew NICAP. If every balloon, planet, airplane, and bird that caused a UFO report hadn't been captured and a signed confession wrung out, the UFO would be a visitor from outer space. The Air Force decided to ignore NICAP. But NICAP wouldn't be ignored.
In the midst of all this mess Admiral Fahrney, General Wedemeyer and General del Valle, politely, and quietly, resigned from NICAP's board of governors. Neither the loss of these famous names nor the defeat at the hands of the Air Force has stopped NICAP. They continue to forge ahead, undaunted. In many UFO incidents they have actually uncovered additional, and sometimes interesting, information.
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