beginning. McConnell was a career employee at No Such Agency, as some people refer to this super secret organization, which was located a stone's throw outside the Washington Beltway at Fort Meade, Maryland.

"Based on his own initiative and personal concern about UFOs, Howell had written a position paper on the topic that was made available to his superiors. Upon a document search responding to a written request under FOIA, that paper had been released by NSA. Thus, he was known to the public as informed in the area. For personal reasons, Howell and Jack, a coworker of his, had a deep interest in the topic." (p.30.)

"When it came to record keeping, Howell was also a saving grace in NSA. While civilians seem to believe that every piece ofinformation that goes into the U.S. Government is saved, that is not true. Especially in the days of paper files, Washington, D.C., would have sunk into the swamp on which it is built just under the sheer weight of the documents. Rather, most material was scheduled for routine destruction after a specified date. Using an old boy net, McConnell had become known inside NSA for his interest in UFOs and incoming reports were regularly funnelled to him.

"He kept many of those reports long after their expiration date. It is important to note that the vast majority of those documents were from intelligence officers around the world who were sending in reports that appeared in their local newspapers. There were a few that got our attention, as they came