I
had some fun the other day that had nothing to do with the Fourth of July
holiday. I received an email from a woman who had stumbled across an article
about Brigadier General Arthur Exon. She wanted to know the source of the
quotes I had published. Her tone was nearly accusatory. She wrote, “… I'm wondering if you have any corroborating source material
for what you are attributing to General Exon?”
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| Arthur Exon. Photo by Tom Carey |
She went on to explain that her father
had been a close friend of Exon and that her father said that reports he had
ever discussed Roswell were “completely false.” She added that her father had
once asked Exon about Roswell and that he, Exon, refused to talk about it. She
said that it was hard to believe that “during those later years he would not
have told my dad that he went public with military secrets.”
She then wrote, “I would so appreciate
a response. I’d like sources that I can trace.”
I emailed her almost immediately, which
is something I rarely do. But I thought of this inquiry as a treat. I told her
that I could provide the source of the quotes in two words. “Arthur Exon.”
I went on to explain that I had
interviewed Exon in May 1990. Don Schmitt interviewed him a few weeks later.
Both interviews were recorded, though Don’s was intermittent, given his
recorder and the lawn mowing going out just outside the window. A few months
later I met Exon at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base but it wasn’t recorded,
given the circumstances.
To make this even better, I mentioned
that I had a letter from Exon attesting to the accuracy of the quotes. Stan
Friedman, in one of his many attacks on my integrity, said that I had misquoted
Exon. I told Friedman that I had the quotes on tape, but he said he didn’t
care. Exon had told him I had misquoted him and Friedman was going to continue
to push that point.
I sent a copy of the book, UFO Crash
at Roswell, to Exon where the “offending” quotes were published and copies
of the taped interviews, as well as the transcripts. Exon responded with a
handwritten letter saying, “Although I believe you did quote me accurately, I
do believe that in your writings you gave more credence and impression of
personal direct knowledge than my recordings would indicate on their own.”
I also sent her a link to an article
that Greg Sandow had written about the Exon episode. Kal Korff, that perigone
of journalistic integrity, had made several allegations about Exon’s testimony.
Sandow, a disinterested third party, responded to those allegations at length.
For those interested in that, you can read it here (reprinted in the post with
his permission):
With that, I believe that the questions
about the source of the information was established. We had the tapes, I had
the letter from Exon, and later Tom Carey became involved so that he heard many
of the same things and took a picture of Exon as well.
There is one other thing that came from
all this. Friedman never again raised the issue of misquoting Exon. I believe
that was because he’d look a little bit vindictive by continuing the allegation
when Exon himself had called the quotes accurate.
In the end, I gave her the information
about the sources she could trace, provided documentation that the quotes were
accurate, and told her I would be interested in her response to all this. She sent
a longer email, giving some additional information about her research. The
important line in all this was, “E[xon] intimated, though he could not claim
first-hand experience, that it was all true.”
I will note that is not exactly true
since Exon did talk about having flown over the crash sites, sometime later and
could describe that he had seen burned areas and tire marks. Not exactly
reporting on the downed craft, or the soldiers cleaning the area, but of some
interest to us all.
But I think the questions about what
Exon said have been laid to rest once again. I am certainly glad that I
recorded the conversations and Friedman’s allegation inspired a handwritten
response from Exon. It put all this to bed… again.
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