ONLY MUSHROOMS
GROW IN THE DARK
In Which Voodoo Science Is Protected by Official Secrecy
IN 1994 SECRETARY of the Air Force Sheila Widnall agreed to issue an unprecedented blanket order relieving anyone with information about an alleged 1947 UFO incident near Roswell, New Mexico, from any obligation to keep the information secret. A no-nonsense physicist and aeronautical engineer on leave from MIT, Secretary Widnall thought the air force had more important business than chasing down UFO stories, but Representative Steven Schiff of New Mexico was insisting on an all-out search for records and witnesses. Schiff wanted to reassure the public that there was no government cover-up. I did not expect anyone to come forward with new information, but I recalled with some chagrin my own "Roswell incident."
As a young air force lieutenant in the summer of 1954, I had been sent on temporary assignment to Walker Air Force
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