Like all good UFO stories, there is always the event that triggered the imagination. The Roswell story is no exception. Below is a brief synopsis of what took place back in 1947.
It all started on June 25th, 1947 when a pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing several objects while flying near Mt Rainier, Washington. His descriptions of the objects that flew like “geese” and moving “like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water” became the term “Flying Saucers”, and thus the age of the UFO was born.
Many newspapers in the country picked up the story from the wire services, and the publicity gave birth to a rash of Sightings that kept the papers and the public fascinated throughout that summer… and indeed, to this day. One of those Sightings happened on a ranch outside Corona, New Mexico.
Early in July, 1947, after hearing about Arnold’s “flying saucers”, ranch foreman Mac Brazel told the Sheriff of Chaves County about some strange material he had found on the Foster Ranch, and that he was sure it was the remains of a “flying disk”. Sheriff Wilcox passed this information on to the Roswell Army Air Force base and the base intelligence officer, Major Jessie Marcel, was immediately detailed to look into the matter.
On July 8th, the local newspaper printed a story that the Roswell AAF had released the news of the “capture of a flying saucer”. This story was quickly put on the news-wires, and soon newspapers across the country were all running stories about the Captured Saucer.
No copy of the original press release exists today, but the following is generally thought to be the closest to the original:
“The many rumors regarding the flying disk became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eight Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the co-operation of one of the local ranchers and the Sheriff’s Office of Chaves county.
“The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the Sheriff’s office, who in turn notified Major Jesse A. Marcel, of the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence office.
“Action was immediately taken and the disc was picked up at the rancher’s home. It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned by Major Marcel to higher headquarters.”
(San Francisco Chronicle – July 9, 1947)
What is intriguing about the first accounts is the large number of errors that exist in such a short report.
The debris found didn’t look like a disc, the object didn’t land but crashed, and the rancher (Mac Brazel) didn’t store any disc.
Clearly, the author of the press release wasn’t certain what had happened. This is shown even more in the Roswell Daily Record account of the press release. According to Lt. Walter Haut, the man who wrote the press release, he stopped at the office of the Roswell Daily Report to give them the press release, and the differences between the San Francisco Chronicle version and the RDR version probably stem from questions that Haut answered for the local writer who knew Haut. This seems to make sense, as there was usually friction between the town and the air base, and any good commander would try to cooperate with the local paper.
By the end of the day (July 8), the Army Air Force base in Fort Worth had examined the wreckage and identified it not as a flying saucer, but as a high altitude weather balloon carrying a radar target made of aluminum and balsa wood. An AAF news release correcting the misidentification was published by the RDR [1] on July 9, but by then it was too late. The Roswell paper, sheriffs office and the Air Force base were already being deluged with calls from all over the country looking for a story.
The correction did eventually quell most of the speculation, and by the end of the week, the story had, for the most part, disappeared from the news. By the end of the year, the Roswell Incident had slipped into obscurity, destined to be no more than a footnote in the annals of UFO literature- until 1978, when Stanton Friedman, an unemployed scientist and part-time UFO lecturer, was prompted to revisit this obscure event.
On Feb 21, 1978, Stanton Friedman was in Baton Rouge, La after giving a lecture on UFOs and interviewed a man over the phone that said that he had handled the wreckage of a crashed spaceship. Friedman found it difficult to get excited about this story (page 12, Crash at Corona) but did a little checking. This was made harder because Jesse Marcel, the man who made the claim, couldn’t remember either the month or even the year of the event.
It was one year later, Feb 10, 1979, that William Moore found the clippings of the affair referred to by Jesse Marcel, and his and Friedman’s interest suddenly became very active.
Their research started the saga that has made Roswell the most celebrated case ever in the literature of UFOs.
Many books and articles have been published about Roswell, and as anyone who has read more than one of them knows, the tale is confusing. There are many different competing versions, and each succeeding book seems to contradict the others. So if the mainstream literature can’t agree, then what REALLY happened?
Note: [1] General Ramey’s office at the Fort Worth Army Air Force Base (8th Army HQ) issued a press release “deflating” the earlier Flying Disk stories late in the afternoon of July 8, 1947. As most evening papers had already been published, this story was not carried until July 9. However, some evening papers on the west coast were able to include both the original “Flying Disk” press release and the Ramey news in the same edition.For anyone interested in tracing the story of Roswell through its many different variants, we suggest reading:UFO Crash at Roswell: The Genesis of a Modern Myth. Benson Saler, Charles A. Ziegler, and Charles B. Moore. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington and London. 1997. |
The Roswell UFO Incident Witnesses
Mac Brazel: His finding of the debris field is what started it all.
Bill Brazel: Mac’s son.
Bessie (Betty) Schreiber (nee; Brazel): Mac’s daughter. Bessie was 14 years old when the Event happened, but it is her consistent memories that conflict with the sensational stories that came out in the 1980’s.
- The Problem with Bessie Brazel: While everyone else’s memories seem to expand the story rather dramatically, not so with Bessie.
The Proctors; Loretta and Floyd: When first interviewed, Floyd said that neither he nor Loretta saw the debris, but they did mention to Mack the possible reward money being offered by several newspapers. Only after Floyd died, did Loretta suddenly remember that Mack did show them some of the debris. Even later, she came up with the memory that Mack mentioned the “freezer tape” with the purple writing.
Sheriff George Wilcox: Mac Brazel told him about the debris, and the Sheriff passed on the information to the Roswell Army Air Force base.
Jim Ragsdale: Ragsdale’s story seems to change radically with every affidavit he signs! Another discredited witness.
Frank Kaufmann/ Steve MacKenzie
Gerald Anderson: Ted’s Nephew, the the “hero” of Crash at Corona. Gerald Anderson has been caught lying and forging documents. All researchers (with the exception of Stanton Friedman) consider Gerry’s story to be bunk.
Ted Anderson: How did Uncle Ted manage to write his diary in ink not produced until years after his death?
Glenn Dennis: Roswell Mortician. It was his dramatic testimony about child-size coffins and what his “girlfriend” Naomi told him about a autopsy that electrified the Roswell Saga. Most researchers now do not think Dennis’ testimony is credible.
Naomi Self (Selff): A mysterious “witness” to the alleged autopsy, it appears that she was more a figment of Glenn Dennis’ imagination than a nurse.
Major Jesse A. Marcel: Intelligence Officer at the Roswell AAF base. It was his dramatic story, told thirty years later, that started the Roswell Saga.
- The Military Career of Jesse Marcel: Jessie Marcel seems to have enjoyed expanding on his stint in the Army Air Force.
- A very short Biography of Jesse Marcel: From his Military Records file
Jessie Marcel, Jr. Maj. Marcel’s son. When he was 11, he was woken up in the middle of the night by his father to look at the Flying Disk debris. Junior is the source of the “I-beam” description of the sticks. Jessie, described them quite differently.
Col William Blanchard: The Commanding Officer of Roswell AAFB.
Col. Dubose: His reminisces seemed to depend on how you asked the questions.
General Roger Ramey: Commander of the 8th Army Air Force in Ft Worth. Texas. It was his command that identified the debris as a weather balloon, and issued the release of July 9, 1947 that quelled the early national interest in the Roswell Crash.
Lt. Walter Haut: He released the famous news release that first got Roswell into the news.
Lorenzo Kent Kimball: RAAF Medical Supply Officer
- Capt. Kimball’s Perspective: You might think that July, ’47 was an exciting time at the Roswell Army Air Force Base… wouldn’t you?
J. Bond Johnson: Photographer who took the famous pictures of the debris.
Major Edwin Easley: Provost Marshall at the Roswell Army Air Force base.
The Roswell UFO Incident Storytellers
There have been more books written on the events that allegedly took place around Roswell in 1947, than any other single UFO sighting. This is a list of just some of the books available today (at your favorite on-line booksellers).
- A History of UFO Crashes
- Project Blue Book Exposed
- Project Moon Dust: Beyond Roswell
- The Randle Report: UFOs in the ’90s
- Roswell UFO Crash Update
- The UFO Casebook
Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt
- The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell
- UFO Crash at Roswell
- Top Secret/MAJIC
- Crash at Corona with Don Berliner
Charles Berlitz and William Moore
- The Roswell Incident
Timothy Good
- Above Top Secret: The Worldwide UFO Cover-up
- Alien Contact: Top Secret UFO Files Revealed
Karl K. Korff
- The Roswell UFO Crash: What They Don’t Want You To Know
Phillip J. Klass
- UFOs: the Public Deceived
- The Real Roswell Crashed-Saucer Cover-up
Philip J. Corso
- The Day After Roswell
Michael Heseman and Philip Mantle
- Beyond Roswell
Phil Patton
- Dreamland: Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51
John A. Price
- Roswell: A Quest for the Truth
C. P. Leacock, et al
- Roswell: Have You Wondered?
James McAndrew
- The Roswell Report: Case Closed
The Roswell Incident and the Government
The Roswell Incident is a classic example of the
“Perfect Government Conspiracy”.
- The 509th stationed at Roswell Army Air Force Base was the only Nuclear Capable air wing at the time- a fact that conspiracy addicts never tire of pointing out.
- Jesse Marcel was Head of Intelligence and Sheridan Cavitt was with Counter-Intelligence at the Roswell AAFB- titles that smack of spies and secrecy.
- The Debris is suddenly whisked off to HQ.
- Higher-ups in the Pentagon start flashing off urgent requests for information.
- The FBI and CIA become interested enough to send off cautionary telegrams.
- Wreckage that originally was identified by an Intelligence Officer as a “flying disk” is later officially reclassified as a harmless weather balloon (Yeah, right!).
- Many records from the Roswell AAFB were later destroyed or “disappeared”.
And the above is just what really happened! Later, we have stories of Black Operations, the Majestic-12, super secret hangers at Wright-Patterson (or, was that Area 51?), midnight autopsies… and on and on. All the stuff that any good student of a Gummint C’spiracy loves to thrash around in.
Many argue that while some of the later revelations might be hoaxed, there is still sufficient evidence that a massive cover-up was concocted in a matter of hours. They point to the eventual Official Air Force Explanation that a test flight for the secret Project Mogul was responsible for the balloon train- a secret operation that was not reclassified until the ’80s. Why, they ask, did the Air Force wait so long to reveal the existence of such a “harmless” operation? Why did the Pentagon in 1947 suddenly become interested in gathering information about “flying disks”? And why did the government and the Air Force destroy many of the records?
Of course, the strongest proof of the existence of The Conspiracy is the
Official Government Denial that there is, or ever was a conspiracy!
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