What’s the Truth About the Roswell Crash? Pt. 1

The current obsession with UFOs will be forever linked to the watershed event that occurred in Roswell, New Mexico, through the last week of June and into early July of 1947.^[1]

Believers claim parts of a non-terrestrial craft crashed on a remote ranch owned by W.W. “Mac” Brazel (also spelled “Mack”) near Corona, NM.

He showed a few pieces to the Roswell sheriff, George Wilcox, who suggested he talk to the military at Roswell Army Air Field, home of the 509th Composite Group. At the time, the world’s only unit tasked with dropping atomic bombs.^[2]

Brazel was accompanied back to his ranch by three members of the 509th: Major Jesse Marcel and Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) agents Lt. Colonel Sheridan Cavitt and Master Sergeant Lewis Rickett.^[3]

The day after they arrived, Brazel helped load some of the debris into a Jeep and a second Army vehicle, and the three 509th members headed back to the base.

On the way back to the airfield, Major Marcel decided that the debris was strange enough that he wanted to show some of the pieces to his son, ten-year-old Jesse Marcel Jr.

Years later, Jesse Jr. described one of the pieces as ‘a small beam with purple-hued hieroglyphics on it.’^[4] The beams were described as being as light as balsa wood yet would not break or burn.

Some of the metallic pieces were as light and thin as cigarette package foil, yet when crumpled, would return to their original shape as if they had a memory.^[5]

The original collected debris — there was more recovered later — was loaded onto a military plane and flown to the 8th Army Army Air Corps headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.^[6] There Marcel was ordered to pose with pieces of the wreckage for photographs.

According to Marcel’s later testimony, he stood in a room with pieces of the debris around him, along with General Roger Ramey, commanding officer of the 8th Air Force.

Marcel was led out of the room, then brought back in later for official photographs. The second time, there was different debris scattered on the floor: parts of an ordinary weather balloon that Marcel was quite familiar with, but not at all like the original material he’d first brought in.^[7]

Marcel followed orders and had his picture taken holding up the weather balloon debris, although the skeptical look on his face was very telling.^[8]

Marcel would say much later in life, ‘General Ramey was the one who told the newsmen what it was, and to forget about it, (that) it was nothing more than a weather observation balloon. Of course, we both knew different.’^[9]

One very significant clue occurred during this photo session. More on that later.

Supposedly, the original debris was placed on a special flight to Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio, home of the Army Air Material Command. Once there, specialists would study the debris to determine its origin and capabilities.

According to Lt. Col. Arthur Exon (who would in the 1960s become base commander), the characteristics of the material ‘had them pretty puzzled. . . [The] overall consensus was that the pieces were from space.’^[10]

Back in Roswell, news quickly spread around town.

Following a press release from the base itself that they had recovered a crashed ‘flying disc,’ on July 8th, the Roswell Daily Record carried a banner story declaring, ‘RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.’^[11]

The local radio station also carried the news, but the next day, was ordered to halt reporting on the incident or face losing its broadcasting license.^[12] The local morning newspaper also was ordered by the military to rescind its previous statement and printed a retraction, claiming the debris was only parts of a weather balloon.^[13]

Their headline carried the significantly worded headline, ‘Army Debunks Roswell Flying Disk.’

The weather balloon explanation flies in the face of everything we know about the capabilities of the officers and enlisted men of the 509th Bomb Group. They were briefed on the most advanced technology in the world, and kept up to date on whatever flight characteristics they might encounter against their adversaries, especially the then-Soviet Union.

To suggest the highest officers of the 509th didn't recognize balsa wood, rubber, and tin foil is a slap in the face not just of their capabilities, but of the training of the entire U.S. military.

Major Marcel himself was a highly decorated officer with intelligence training. He had assisted in the administration of the 1946 nuclear test Operation Crossroads, and was awarded with two letters of commendation for his handling of that event, including one from Brig. General Roger Ramey, later his C.O. during the Roswell incident.^[14]

Marcel was even promoted after the Roswell incident in December 1947,^[15] so he must have done something right.

Even the FBI believed something, possibly a ‘flying disc,’ fell near Roswell, as they reported in a memo sent on July 8th from the Dallas FBI office to their office in Cincinnati.^[16]

However, in the brief one-page teletype message, the disc was described as ‘hexagonal’ in shape, and was suspended from a balloon twenty feet in diameter.

Interestingly, immediately following the weather balloon description, there’s the additional note that ‘telephonic conversation between their (presumably the Dallas FBI) office and Wright Field had not (two or three words redacted) borne out this belief.’

Following the delivery of the ‘weather balloon’ debris to Dayton, a massive cleanup was ordered by Roswell base commander Colonel William Blanchard,^[17] involving hundreds of soldiers from Roswell AAF as well as other support units.

They combed the Brazel ranch and nearby areas for days, and set up roadblocks to keep everyone, including the local police and other emergency responders, out of the area. Would all this effort be undertaken for just a weather balloon?

Locals also had run-ins with the military. Roswell sheriff George Wilcox and his family were ordered by military police not to talk about what Brazel showed him or, according to his wife’s and granddaughter’s testimony, their bodies would be buried out in the desert where no one would ever find them.^[18]

Brazel himself was held incommunicado by Roswell AAF military personnel for almost a week, until upon his release, he appeared in town driving a brand-new pickup truck.^[19]

When asked about the debris, he said, ‘I am sure that what I found was not any weather observation balloon.’^[20] But after all the harassment the military put him through, he also said, ‘[If] I find anything else besides a bomb, they’re going to have a hard time getting me to say anything about it.’

Again, the type of harassment and intimidation, even possible bribery, visited upon the witnesses seems out of all proportion to the finding of a simple weather balloon.

In our next newsletter, we’ll explore how the Air Force’s explanation about the Roswell incident keeps changing over the years, and we’ll examine the two most interesting pieces of evidence that suggest there really was something extraordinary that crashed at Roswell.

^[1] https://www.seeroswell.com/the-1947-roswell-incident/

^[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/509th_Composite_Group

^[3] https://www.dvidshub.net/news/475677/intelligence-agents-investigate-ufos-roswell-7-jul-1947

^[4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/28/roswell-jesse-marcel-dies

^[5] https://www.sunrisepage.com/roswell/pdf/Summary_of_Witnesses_Claims_for_a_Shape_Memory_ Roswell_Foil.pdf

^[6] https://science.howstuffworks.com/space/aliens-ufos/history-roswell-incident.htm

^[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEro5RedFf8&t=271s

^[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdv3z97lE2E&t=30

^[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdv3z97lE2E&t=124s

^[10] https://science.howstuffworks.com/space/aliens-ufos/history-roswell-incident.htm

^[11] https://i.pinimg.com/736x/3f/ab/f7/3fabf74f486ce3cd20426875e2b1636a.jpg

^[12] https://georgehbalazs.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1994-1996-ROSWELL-UFO-LITERATURE- AND-LETTERS.pdf