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Authors: Philip J. Corso
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have changed the outcome of the war if
they’d held us off any longer at the Battle of the Bulge.
I was responsible for developing this technology, ideas we
hadn’t come up with ourselves, and work up recommendations
for how we could incorporate this into our weapons planning. But I
didn’t know why the general kept on patting the top drawer of
that file cabinet.
“I’ll get to those files right away if you
like, General, ” I said. “And write up some
preliminary reports on what I think about it. ”
“It’s going to take you a little longer
than that, Phil, ” Trudeau said. Now he was almost laughing,
something he didn’t do very much in those days. In fact, the
only time I remember him laughing that way was after he heard that his
name had been put up to command the U.S. forces in Vietnam. He also
heard that they wanted me to head up the intelligence section for the
Army Special Forces command in Vietnam. We both knew that the army
mission in Vietnam was headed for disaster because it was a think-tank
war. And the people in the think tank were more worried about
restraining the army than in wiping out the Vietcong. So Trudeau had a
plan: “We’ll either win the war or get
court-martialed, ” he said. “But they’ll
know we were there. ” And he laughed when he said that the
same way he was laughing as he told me to take my time with the
contents of the file cabinet. “You’ll want to think
about this before you start writing any reports, ” he said.
I couldn’t help but pick up the nervousness in his
voice, forcing itself through his laughter, the same sound over the
phone that got me nervous when I heard it the first time. There really
was something here he wasn’t telling me.
“Is there something else about this I should know,
General?” I asked, trying not to show any hesitation in my
voice. Business as usual, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing anybody
can throw my way that I can’t handle.
“Actually, Phil, the material in this cabinet is a
little different from the run-of-the-mill foreign stuff we’ve
seen up to now, ” he said. “I don’t know
if you’ve ever seen the intelligence on what we’ve
got here when you were over at the White House, but before you write up
any summaries maybe you should do a little research on the Roswell
file. ”
Now I’d heard more about Roswell than I was ready to
admit right on the spot my first day at the Pentagon. And there were
more wild stories floating around about Roswell and what we were still
doing there than anyone could have imagined. But I hadn’t
made the connection between the Roswell files and what was in the
cabinet General Trudeau was talking about. Basically I had hoped after
Fort Riley that it would all go away and I could simply stick my head
in the sand and worry about things I could get my brain around like
bureaucratic in fighting inside Washington instead of little aliens
inside sealed coffins.
The general didn’t wait for me to answer him. He
left me standing there in his office and walked out to the reception
room, where I heard him giving orders into a speaker phone. He had
barely clicked off the speaker and walked back to where I was standing
when four enlisted men pulling a hand truck showed up, saluted, and
stood there at attention while Trudeau kept looking at me. He
didn’t say anything. He turned to the enlisted men instead.
“Load up this cabinet on that dolly and follow the colonel to
his office on the second floor. Don’t stop for anybody.
Don’t talk to anybody. If anyone stops you, you tell them to
see me. That’s an order. ”
Then he turned back to me. “Why don’t you
take some time with this, Phil. ” He paused. “But
not too much time. Sergeant” - he turned his attention back
to the enlisted man with the shortest haircut -
“please see the colonel back to his own office below.
”
They loaded the file cabinet onto the dolly as if there were
nothing inside, pulled it toward the back
they’d held us off any longer at the Battle of the Bulge.
I was responsible for developing this technology, ideas we
hadn’t come up with ourselves, and work up recommendations
for how we could incorporate this into our weapons planning. But I
didn’t know why the general kept on patting the top drawer of
that file cabinet.
“I’ll get to those files right away if you
like, General, ” I said. “And write up some
preliminary reports on what I think about it. ”
“It’s going to take you a little longer
than that, Phil, ” Trudeau said. Now he was almost laughing,
something he didn’t do very much in those days. In fact, the
only time I remember him laughing that way was after he heard that his
name had been put up to command the U.S. forces in Vietnam. He also
heard that they wanted me to head up the intelligence section for the
Army Special Forces command in Vietnam. We both knew that the army
mission in Vietnam was headed for disaster because it was a think-tank
war. And the people in the think tank were more worried about
restraining the army than in wiping out the Vietcong. So Trudeau had a
plan: “We’ll either win the war or get
court-martialed, ” he said. “But they’ll
know we were there. ” And he laughed when he said that the
same way he was laughing as he told me to take my time with the
contents of the file cabinet. “You’ll want to think
about this before you start writing any reports, ” he said.
I couldn’t help but pick up the nervousness in his
voice, forcing itself through his laughter, the same sound over the
phone that got me nervous when I heard it the first time. There really
was something here he wasn’t telling me.
“Is there something else about this I should know,
General?” I asked, trying not to show any hesitation in my
voice. Business as usual, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing anybody
can throw my way that I can’t handle.
“Actually, Phil, the material in this cabinet is a
little different from the run-of-the-mill foreign stuff we’ve
seen up to now, ” he said. “I don’t know
if you’ve ever seen the intelligence on what we’ve
got here when you were over at the White House, but before you write up
any summaries maybe you should do a little research on the Roswell
file. ”
Now I’d heard more about Roswell than I was ready to
admit right on the spot my first day at the Pentagon. And there were
more wild stories floating around about Roswell and what we were still
doing there than anyone could have imagined. But I hadn’t
made the connection between the Roswell files and what was in the
cabinet General Trudeau was talking about. Basically I had hoped after
Fort Riley that it would all go away and I could simply stick my head
in the sand and worry about things I could get my brain around like
bureaucratic in fighting inside Washington instead of little aliens
inside sealed coffins.
The general didn’t wait for me to answer him. He
left me standing there in his office and walked out to the reception
room, where I heard him giving orders into a speaker phone. He had
barely clicked off the speaker and walked back to where I was standing
when four enlisted men pulling a hand truck showed up, saluted, and
stood there at attention while Trudeau kept looking at me. He
didn’t say anything. He turned to the enlisted men instead.
“Load up this cabinet on that dolly and follow the colonel to
his office on the second floor. Don’t stop for anybody.
Don’t talk to anybody. If anyone stops you, you tell them to
see me. That’s an order. ”
Then he turned back to me. “Why don’t you
take some time with this, Phil. ” He paused. “But
not too much time. Sergeant” - he turned his attention back
to the enlisted man with the shortest haircut -
“please see the colonel back to his own office below.
”
They loaded the file cabinet onto the dolly as if there were
nothing inside, pulled it toward the back
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