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?"