"I believe the American people are entitled to a more thorough explanation than has been given them by the Air Force....I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs, and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment of the subject."
—Former U.S. President Gerald Ford
A mysterious flying object crashes to earth
Something crashed in the desert not far from Roswell, New Mexico, on the night of July 2, 1947 (1). A rancher named William Brazel and his family heard multiple lightning strikes over one area of his property leading up to an odd explosion. Afterwards the lightning quickly died down.
The next morning, the rancher and the son of a neighbour went on horseback to check on his sheep in the general vicinity of the odd explosion. What he found later that morning, in a shallow area below an escarpment, was something that would leave an indelible mark on the rancher's memory. What he found were balsa-wood like plastic I-beams (some with hieroglyphic-like writing on them), dark brown plastic insulating sheets, and a great quantity of a dark-grey metal foil. But these were no ordinary plastic and metal. What he observed on that day were remarkably lightweight materials that revealed unheard of physical properties not seen in any known man-made material at the time, or even to this day. For example, he could not tear or burn with his cigarette lighter the extremely thin plastic sheets. Also, a newspaper-thin yet extremely tough, dark-grayish foil, definitely a metal of some sort, had the uncanny ability to return to its original shape.
Looking at the way the materials were distributed on the ground in a fan-shape pattern, spread over an area about a mile by 200 to 400 feet wide with most of the wreckage concentrated at the narrowest end. The object was travelling at high speeds to the west when it exploded above ground, dropping a lot of material from a certain height after some kind of explosion. Was this related in some way to the odd explosion heard during the night?
Nearly 200 kilometers to the west, a dark-grey "dirty stainless steel" metallic disk with bodies scattered around and inside the object was whisked away under great security by the US Army.
The USAF showed great interest in the metal foil
The rancher rushed to speak to his local neighbours about his find. They could not explain what he found. After talking to friends in the town of Corona, it was recommended that he go to the authorities in the city of Roswell to report his discovery. Eventually he did, carrying with him two boxes containing the mysterious debris.
The sheriff in Roswell was sufficiently impressed to notify the USAF, just to see if the military could shed light on the nature of these unusual materials and the type of object that had lost pieces on the rancher's property.
Major Jesse A. Marcel of the Roswell Army Air Field (Roswell AAF) was the best person to ask as he had extensive experience in virtually every known civilian and military flying object in existence at the time. He visited the sheriff's office to see what the commotion was about. Upon inspecting the materials, he too became quickly impressed. In fact, Marcel was looking very closely at the behaviour of the metal foil as it returned to its original shape. He had never seen anything like it. In fact, Marcel was so astonished and excited by the find that he had to take one box to the Roswell Army Air Field where he was stationed to show his commanding officer, Colonel William Hugh Blanchard (1916-1966). Again even his superior was stumped as to exactly what these materials were or type of object it was.
A decision was made. Not knowing the nature of the object, how much materials were out there, or its importance other than finding unusually tough properties in the super lightweight materials, Marcel and a colleague would travel with the rancher to the debris field, staying overnight, and the next morning spend time inspecting and collecting the materials. It was assumed the two men would be enough to pick up the remaining debris, but as it turned out, it wasn't.
After inspecting the wreckage at the first crash site, Marcel said to investigators in 1979 that it "...was definitely not a weather or tracking device, nor was it any sort of plane or missile". (2)
As soon as the men returned to base with as much of the materials as they could carry, a meeting was held. Various military men started to arrive and inspect the materials. One person had the bright idea of using a sledgehammer to try to put a permanent dent in the newspaper-thin metal foil. He wasn't able to succeed. The foil simply thumbed its proverbial nose at the man by returning to its original shape without a scratch. Another man spoke of having used a blow torch to see what would happen. Remarkably, the foil would not melt, and within seconds became cool to the touch. As the meeting progressed, talk of a new type of flying object soon started to enter the minds of everyone who was there. The consensus was that this represented a new flying object because of the unique nature of the materials, and the fact that it was flying at the time when it lost pieces.
Could this be evidence of one of those mysterious flying discs witnessed and regularly reported in the media? The men started talking. Even Blanchard could not rule out this possibility. So he ordered his men to take several trucks and make the long distance to the debris field to collect all the materials as thoroughly as possible as it appeared the materials were an important find and he didn't want one piece of the debris to be missed.
As it was unlikely that a major military operation of this kind, with numerous military trucks going through the town heading north, would not be noticed by the public and lead reporters to ask questions, Lieutenant Walter Haut, the public information officer at the base, was ordered to distribute to the media, in an attempt to keep reporters away from the recovery operation, a news release claiming that a flying disc had been recovered — an interesting choice of words to describe the object and perhaps not the most ideal for some military officials higher up the chain of command. However, no one in the top brass knew what was happening. Everything remained quiet. Blanchard was merely acting on considered and reasoned advice from his men and those with more knowledge and experience that a new flying object not made by anyone in the world might have been found and could represent one of those mysterious flying saucers getting mentioned regularly in newspaper articles and news broadcasts of various radio stations around the country. It had to be a new flying object not manufactured by any organization on the planet — not even the USAF. This was a new find. He thought he had a significant find based on what he saw and the advice he received. Despite making what he thought was a reasonable decision, Blanchard would be chastised for this after failing to seek advice higher up the chain of command (he would later be replaced by another commanding officer even though the USAF claimed, on the record, there was nothing out-of-the-ordinary in making this decision). Unfortunately, Blanchard's decision had far-reaching consequences. Far from quelling the curiosity of the press, it had the opposite effect. The news release had merely heightened the interest among reporters in the military recovery operation and wanted to learn more.
One eager reporter named Johnny McBoyle, who had heard about the military commotion over an apparent "disc", attempted the long drive to the site to see what it was the military were picking up. Unfortunately, he was prevented from doing so. He was stopped at a checkpoint, taken out of his car and put inside a military vehicle and sent to the Roswell air base to be held against his will. Despite this, McBoyle picked up additional information as he carefully tried to make out what some of the military people were saying. While sitting in an office until the recovery operation was complete, he eventually overhead from some military officers at the base of so-called "bodies" having been recovered some distance from the main wreckage site. The journalist was so excited about the information that he attempted to make a secret call to his radio station to state that bodies had been found, and he would describe them as "little green men" to give an indication of just how unusual the discovery was and the way the military men were behaving on hearing about the news. Almost immediately, the line was tapped and military personnel at the base were informed about what was happening. Since then, the journalist kept quiet and told his colleague at the radio station not to say anything. It would appear that he was threatened with his own life, as did the rancher who was eventually brought in for questioning and held against his will for several days. All forms of interrogation and bad treatment of the rancher were handed out in the hope that he would reveal everything he knew. Eventually, he had to be released; however, before doing so, the rancher was ordered to go to a local radio station in Roswell, accompanied by two Air Force men, to state it was a weather balloon, and was later allowed to visit another radio station on his own in the belief that he was complying with the military directive. However, the rancher changed his mind. He stated that what he saw was not a weather balloon and that if he had his time again, he wouldn't tell the authorities, even if it was an atomic bomb. He was left distrusting of the military ever since and only spoke to his son years later about what he found.
As a result of the sensational claims of a flying disc having been allegedly recovered, within two hours of the news release, General Roger Ramey at Fort Worth AAF issued a new story to the media. In fact, there was only a former military officer turned a civilian photographer and news reporter named James Bond Johnson working for a newspaper who arrived at the meeting. Now the story was that the whole event was merely a mistake and what was recovered was a simple weather balloon. No special materials were mentioned in the construction of the balloon. To support the new claim, General Ramey permitted Johnson to take several photographs of the remains of a weather balloon put on temporary display in his office. In those photographs reveal a bright-silvery and heavily crinkled metallic foil together with some beams and plastic tape.
The shape-memory metal foil left a deep impression on people's mind
But those witnesses who saw the original Roswell wreckage knew a cover-up had begun.
Bill Brazel, another witness and the son of the rancher (William Brazel)who first discovered and notified authorities in Roswell of the wreckage, claims he saw pieces of a dark greyish metallic foil found at the crash site among other odd materials. He described the foil as "very thin and extremely lightweight. The odd thing about this foil was that you could wrinkle it and lay it back down and it immediately resumed its original shape." (3)
Other witnesses, including those claiming to have loaded the material onto several B-29 bombers under strict security for scientific examination at Wright-Patterson AAF (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) in Dayton, Ohio, USA, said they saw a lead-coloured, "dirty stainless steel" (4) or dark-grey metallic foil that "could unfold itself" after slightly warming it with their body and bending it in one hand.
Many more witnesses would come forth to testify to the shape-memory effect of the foil as well as other physical properties of all the materials found.
Last known destination of the original Roswell wreckage
Eventually, all of the original Roswell materials were picked up with such unusual thoroughness and haste for what was presumably an ordinary weather balloon (must be a very special kind of weather balloon) and placed inside large wooden crates. This, together with the bright silvery and highly crinkly weather balloon from General Ramey's office) to Wright-Patterson AFB to be scientifically analysed (as confirmed by media outlets at the time and military personnel who claimed to have been involved in the recovery operation) possibly in case the weather balloon was not a weather balloon and further mistakes in the identification of this object might have been made. Still, there was a need for further analysis of the materials and continued for many years after the event by having them sent to various secret locations around the country for further analysis.
Perhaps the USAF wanted to be one hundred per cent certain it was a weather balloon?
In 1992, the USAF elaborated on this "weather balloon" explanation (sounds like the military is certain about this, and a very expensive balloon at that given the nature of the materials used to construct it). After concerns from congressman Steven Schiff that the incident continued to be handled by the military under considerable secrecy despite requests for further information from the public after all this time, the USAF finally gave its new and (hopefully) final explanation: it was a secret weather balloon, most probably from Project Mogul, that was designed to detect nuclear explosions in Russia. But now that the public knows the reason for the secrecy, there is nothing more secret to know about. Everything that could have been said and told about the crash has been revealed. No so. The materials used in Project Mogul mentioned nothing about using titanium-based shape-memory alloys.
There is no one Project Mogul is responsible for the Roswell UFO crash in early July 1947. Something else had crashed out there.
Bodies found
To add to the confusion, there was no mention by people who worked on Project Mogul of using dummies or real-life biological entities with the balloons. On examining one of the photographs taken by Mr Johnson, we see General Ramey had inadvertently held a top secret memo to the camera in one of the photos. Apart from the fact that the foil shown in General Ramey's office was clearly not a shape-memory alloy, digital analysis of the memo shown in the photograph showed a continued belief by the military in a "disk" with "victims" and a desire to use a weather balloon and dummies at the very end of the memo as an alternative explanation should media representatives ask questions about the Roswell incident, especially if there has been any hearsay from civilians of anything remotely connected to a flying disc and possible aliens. Only one media representative was allowed at the meeting, and he didn't ask about "bodies", making it easier for General Ramey not to mention dummies as a possible explanation. Despite this, the presence of "victims" (allegedly recovered not far from the initial wreckage site) is significant since the original news release never mentioned the existence of "victims". Nor did the civilian witnesses at the first crash site ever observed bodies.
It means that during the recovery operation, the military group based at Roswell AFB had found something else further away and in the direction of travel by the stricken object that has got the military all concerned and desperately in need to silence everyone who may have seen or heard. It has to do with the "victims".
So what are these "bodies"? The term "victims" makes no sense with plastic dummies as they don't have feelings when they hit the group. To be called "victims" means someone or something was once alive and had suffered an injury or death as a result of the crash. Therefore, who, who actually died in the crash?
Far from making a final report, in 1997, the USAF re-issued yet another final report; and this time, it introduced the dummies explanation to try to quell all interest in any possible "victims" situation associated with this crash. But will it be enough to quieten down the controversy?
It is time the USAF tells the truth about what it found all those years ago
What exactly is the USAF hiding from the public after all this time? Why can't the military come clean on exactly what it had found? Was it man-made? If so, prove it with a USAF report dated prior to July 1947. And show how it managed to make this shape-memory alloy, and what this alloy actually is. And why the lingering rumours of aliens allegedly having crashed to earth in this part of the world? Were there indeed bodies recovered from the wreckage? If so, who are these "people" that flew the stricken flying object? Why do we not know the names of these people who died in the crash? And what is so sensitive about these people that the world cannot be told who they are?
When combined with the SUNRISE book, Can UFOs Advance Science? Making the Case for a New electromagnetic Technology, we can now appreciate why a shape-memory alloy would be used in an electromagnetic flying object, and how the object would get hit by lightning. There is something important about retaining its original shape to help with its acceleration or hovering in the air.
We are now at the cusp of a major breakthrough in this important case.