UFO Update

Anonymous low-level informants have for years accused the U.S.
government of hiding crashed UFOs.  Since these sources are of
uncertain reliability, the reports have been largely ignored.
Now, however, ufologists must consider the testimony of Robert
Sarbacher, whose entry in WHO'S WHO consists of more than 3
inches of tiny print, including education at Princeton and
Harvard and a stint as dean of the graduate school of the Georgia
Institute of Technology.  In the years after WWII, the story
goes, Sarbacher served as a science consultant for the Defense
Department's Joint Research and Development Board.  He was in
his Washington office on September 15, 1950, it seems, when he
received a visit from Canadian electrical engineer Wilbert B.
Smith.  According to information released by Smith just recently,
it was then that Sarbacher revealed the existence of crashed
UFOs, apparently under investigation by Vannevar Bush, the
government's top scientist.

In a recent interview, Sarbacher, now head of the Washington
Institute of Technology, confirmed those remarks.  He says
that during his period of government service as one of a
number of government scientists who served largely as
volunteers, he was told that the vehicles were composed of an
"extremely light and very tough" material, apparently intended
to withstand tremendous acceleration and deceleration.  At one
point, Sarbacher says, he was even invited to a meeting at
Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where officials
related their findings to scientists connected with the Research
and Development Board.  Sarbacher had other commitments and did
not attend the meeting, but he says that those who did, including
Bush and noted mathematician John von Neumann, were told that the
vehicles appeared to be spaceships from another solar system.

Asked about his reaction to the episode, Sarbacher seems oddly
blase.  He admits he hasn't given much thought to a matter most
people would consider extraordinary -- he considers it simply a
curious event in the course of a long scientific career.  "After
all," he says, "I had -- and have -- a great many more pressing
scientific responsibilities.  I wish I could refer you to someone
who was more directly involved than I was," he adds.
"Unfortunately, they're all long gone."

Writer William Moore, who has been chasing government UFO secrets
for years, considers Sarbacher's testimony significant.  "It's
the first time someone with a reputation has come forward to
state publicly that the Pentagon has a recovered UFO," he says.
"This isn't proof, of course, but it fits in with information we
have from other sources."  Informed of these claims, Temple
University history professor David M. Jacobs, author of THE
UFO CONTROVERSY IN AMERICA, admits Sarbacher's credentials are
impressive but observes, "Until somebody can produce an actual
crashed saucer, this is hearsay evidence.  And how can he talk
so casually about something that would have to be the most
sensational event in all of history?"