Ruffing, interviewed separately for the others, told the Air Force officers that he saw Desvergers walk into the woods and that the next thing he saw was a series of red lights in the clearing. Ruffing said that as soon as he saw the red lights, he saw Desvergers stiffen and fall.
The other two boys, Stevens and Rowan, were interviewed together. They reinforced the story about the ride out to the spot where Desvergers claimed to have seen the lights going down into the trees. They watched their scoutmaster moving through the woods, his progress obvious by motion of his flashlight. The light disappeared and a few seconds later they saw the red lights. They described it as a "lot like flares or sky rockets."
Frightened, they got out of the car and ran down the road for help. They found a lighted farm house and told the people that their scoutmaster was in trouble. The people called the sheriff's department.
The Air Force investigators noted, "All in all, the boys' stories were rather conflicting and it was very difficult to obtain the facts. The only fact that seemed to stand out in all of their minds was the fact that they did see red lights out in the palmetto grove after Desvergers had gone in."
Sheriff deputy Mott Partin was one of those who responded to the call. As he reached the scene, Desvergers staggered from the woods. Partin told Air Force investigators and reporters who spoke to him later that he didn't believe that Desvergers was faking. He said, "In nineteen years of law enforcement, I've never seen anyone as upset as he was."
With the law enforcement officers, Desvergers returned to the palmetto to search for his dropped equipment. They found a place in the grass that looked as if someone had fallen there. They located his machete and one of his flashlights. It was still burning. They marked the spots.
One of the deputies took the boy scouts home. But the scoutmaster followed the deputies back into town. He complained about burns and when they arrived at the sheriff's office, they noticed that he had been burned on the arms and face. His cap had also been scorched. At that point one of the deputies called the Air Force.
It seemed that almost everyone was impressed with the story told by Desvergers. There were corroborating witnesses, there was some physical evidence in the form of burns, and an examination of his cap revealed additional burns that had been overlooked, further validating his tale.
Testing of the items carried by Desvergers revealed nothing unusual. The machete had not been magnetized, subjected to heat, or radiation. The same could be said about the flashlight. No radiation was found in the palmetto groves either. Nothing out of the ordinary.
The day after Ruppelt, along with Second Lieutenant Robert M. Olsson, a couple of Air Force pilots, the local intelligence officer and his sergeant interviewed Desvergers, his story appeared in the newspaper. Although Desvergers had asked Ruppelt if he could talk about the sighting and was told that the Air Force had no policy of restricting civilians, Desvergers told reporters he had been silenced. The newspaper reported that Desvergers had conferred with "high" brass from Washington, D.C. who had confirmed his sighting by telling him exactly what he had seen, but who didn't want him talking about it.
That irritated the Air Force officers. There had been no high brass, just several captains and a second lieutenant. They had not suggested to Desvergers that they knew what he had seen, though he had asked them repeatedly for an explanation. And then hadn't muzzled him.
Before Ruppelt left Florida, one of the deputies had suggested they look into the background of Desvergers. The deputy had said that Desvergers was a former Marine, and that aspect was played up in the newspapers. He also told some stories of secret missions into the Pacific during the Second World War. He told of a horrible accident when a car had fallen on him and he'd spent months in the hospital recuperating from his injuries. All these were facts that could be checked and while they had nothing to do directly with the UFO story, they did speak to the character of the witness.
In his book, Ruppelt pointed out that Desvergers had a reputation for telling tall tales. In the official Project Book file I read it was noted, "Once during a birthday party, Desvergers stated that during the war he was a Marine and had been on sea duty on a battleship. He stated that one day he was contacted by an Officer of Naval Intelligence who asked him to go on a secret mission. He was taken to Washington and given a briefing by a group of Colonels then taken to California to go to school with some more Colonels from Washington. He was flown to the Pacific to map Jap held islands that were unchartered (sic). He stated that he was taken to the island under cover of darkness in a PBY aircraft along with his surveying cryptography equipment and that as they approached the island a life raft was inflated and thrown out the waist window of the PBY. The PBY landed in the dark in unchartered waters next to the raft and put Desvergers and his equipment into the raft. With the cover of darkness he paddled up to the beach and buried all his equipment. Desvergers stated that at the beginning of the story the island was 7 x 3 mi. long and at the end, it was 25 x 50. After about two weeks of hiding from the Japs all day and digging up his equipment and surveying at night, he had mapped the island. In many cases he had brushes with Japanese Officers and once during his two weeks he was lying in some bushes hiding during the day when the Japs walked by so close to him they could touch him. When the job was finished he had set up a rendezvous with the PBY and it landed at night. However, the Japs saw the airplane land and knew that he was on the island. He inflated his rubber raft and started paddling toward the aircraft but the Japanese started to fire at him and sunk his life raft, however, in the raft he had a Gibson Girl radio with a balloon for an antenna. He quickly inflated the balloon, crawled on it and flowed out to the PBY. As he was being picked up by the aircraft, people were reaching out of the hatch helping him. During the time the Japs were shooting at them and several of the sailors who were helping him were badly wounded."
The problems with this "war story" are many. First, it smacks of being just that, a war story. Secret missions are not developed in that fashion and they don't select the soldiers, or in this case Marine, in such a haphazard fashion. They are given to highly trained personnel who have expertise that is critical to the mission.
But more importantly is the service record of Desvergers. Here is a man who was in the Marines during the Second World War. It was a time when the expansion of the various services including the Marines demanded huge numbers of recruits. The fighting in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific were grinding up men in terrible numbers. Yet, according to the record, Desvergers had been tossed out of the Marines with a less than honorable discharge in 1944. Ruppelt noted, "He had been booted out of the Marines after a few months for being AWOL and stealing an automobile." He apparently went from lone hero to disgraced Marine in a very short time.
To me, this spoke volumes about the reliability of the man. That is not to mention the other factors on his record. He had told various people at various times that he had been a PFC test pilot in the Marines and had flown every type of naval and Marine fighting aircraft. Of course, prior to the war, the Marines did have "flying sergeants," that is, enlisted men who were pilots. They had no PFC test pilots, however.
He told high school friends about his automobile accident. He said that he had finished work late, after everyone else had gone home for the day when, somehow, a car had fallen on him. For hours he was pinned under the car, screaming for help. But, when Air Force investigators checked, they learned that others had been there to help at the time of the accident. He had been taken to the hospital and released quickly. He had taken the real event and embellished the account into a truly horrifying tale.