William C. Odell was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1915. He originally joined the U.S. Army and volunteered for the Army Air Corps. During the War, he flew the very first mission of the famous "Night Fighters" probing German territory from France. "Colonel Bill Odell" at that time became the expert on the history of that unit, and wrote a book, Those Who Dared, about those WWII exploits post-retirement. He passed away in 2009. The following is speculation, but as the Night Flyer expert, it seems very likely that Colonel Odell would have known all about the mystery of the Foo Fighters, and that knowledge MAY have played a role in his unpublished essay which was shown by Albert M. Chop (Air Force PIO) to Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe in 1953. It would also explain why the pro-UFO Pentagon officers knew that Odell had written such a thing at all, as he was likely one of the generally-silent UFO-supportive group at the time of Samford, Ruppelt, Garland, Fournet et al. Col.Odell_&_Invasion_of_Earth (IUR 30-3) (Mike Swords). Odell's essay was entitled, "Planet Earth: Host to Extraterrestrial Life" Keyhoe's discussion with Al Chop. (Fran Ridge)