The Roswell Incident

This incident occurred sometime between 4 and 6 July, 1947, in the state of New Mexico, USA. According to the US Department of Defense, a weather balloon simply crash-landed on a farm near Roswell Air Base. However, not everyone believes this. A rather large group of people believe that the 'weather balloon' was in fact an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) from outer space. In fact, they believe the military actually recovered three or four alien bodies, and recovered the UFO. What happened to the debris or the bodies has not been conclusively determined. Mack Brazel, the ranch owner on whose land the crash occurred, found debris from the crash and reported it to the Roswell sheriff, who in turn, reported it to Captain Jesse Marcell at Roswell Air Base. Brazel believed that the crash had resulted from falling parts that had separated from a test aircraft. Captain Marcell issued a press release stating that the Army had indeed recovered a UFO. But mysteriously, this statement was later retracted. The new official line, according to General Roger Ramsey, was that the incident had involved a weather balloon, and not a UFO, as Marcell had previously stated. Marcell later appeared on a local radio show explaining that he knew all along it was a weather balloon.

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Roswells UFO museum.

Did a spaceship really crash in the New Mexico desert in 1947? The day after the crash, the government issued a press statement confirming recovery of a "flying disk" - then hastily retracted it. But why? In this episode, witnesses and government officials recount their experiences that inspired one of the greatest alien conspiracies of all time. Then, discover the surprising connections between the Roswell crash, Second World War German aviation technology... and chimpanzees. It is absolutely certain that something happened in Roswell, New Mexico, in July of 1947. What is less clear is whether Something Happened. Shortly after the first documented sighting of flying saucers, by airman Kenneth Arnold in June 1947, a funny thing happened in the tiny desert town of Roswell. The very first media report of the incident on July 8 made no bones about it: "The intelligence office of the 509th Bombardment group at Roswell Army Air Field announced at noon today, that the field has come into possession of a flying saucer. "According to information released by the department, over authority of Maj. J. A. Marcel, intelligence officer, the disk was recovered on a ranch in the Roswell vicinity, after an unidentified rancher had notified Sheriff Geo. Wilcox here, that he had found the instrument on his premises. "Major Marcel and a detail from his department went to the ranch and recovered the disk, it was stated. "After the intelligence officer here had inspected the instrument it was flown to higher headquarters. ..." Mac Brazel, the "unidentified rancher," had come to the local authorities after finding some suspicious debris on his property in nearby Corona, New Mexico. The exact nature of the debris remains the topic of much debate, but an infamous picture of Major Jesse Marcel depicts a mass of material that looks more like Reynolds Wrap than anything else. Brazel spent the next 40 years being grilled about the incident from the media and the military. He told the Roswell newspaper, "I am sure what I found was not any weather observation balloon. But if I find anything else besides a bomb they are going to have a hard time getting me to say anything about it."

The Roswell Incident involved the recovery of materials near Roswell, New Mexico, USA, on July 7, 1947, and since the early 1980s has become the subject of intense speculation, rumor and questioning. There are widely divergent views on what actually happened and passionate debate about what evidence can be believed. The United States military maintains that what was actually recovered was debris from an experimental high-altitude surveillance balloon belonging to a classified program named "Mogul". Many UFO proponents maintain that a crashed alien craft and bodies were recovered, and that the military engaged in a cover-up. The incident has turned into a widely-recognized and referred to pop culture phenomenon, and for some, Roswell is synonymous with UFOs. It ranks as one of the most publicized and controversial UFO incidents ever.

On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued a press release stating that personnel from the field's 509th Bomb Group had recovered a crashed "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell, sparking intense media interest. Later the same day, the Commanding General of the Eighth Air Force stated that, in fact, a weather balloon had been recovered by RAAF personnel, rather than a "flying saucer." A subsequent press conference was called, featuring debris said to be from the crashed object that seemed to confirm the weather balloon description. The case was quickly forgotten and almost completely ignored, even by UFO researchers, for more than 30 years. Then, in 1978, ufologist Stanton T. Friedman interviewed Major Jesse Marcel, who was involved with the original recovery of the debris in 1947. Marcel expressed his belief that the military had covered up the recovery of an alien spacecraft. His story circulated through UFO circles, being featured in some UFO documentaries at the time. In February 1980, The National Enquirer ran its own interview with Marcel, garnering national and worldwide attention for the Roswell incident. Additional witnesses and reports emerged over the following years. They added significant new details, including claims of a large military operation dedicated to recovering alien craft and aliens themselves, at as many as 11 crash sites, and alleged witness intimidation. In 1989, former mortician Glenn Dennis put forth a detailed personal account, wherein he claimed that alien autopsies were carried out at the Roswell base.

In response to these reports, and after congressional inquiries, the General Accounting Office launched an inquiry and directed the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force to conduct an internal investigation. The result was summarized in two reports. The first, released in 1995, concluded that the reported recovered material in 1947 was likely debris from a secret government program called Project Mogul. The second report, released in 1997, concluded that reports of recovered alien bodies were likely a combination of innocently transformed memories of military accidents involving injured or killed personnel, and the recovery of anthropomorphic dummies in military programs like Project High Dive conducted in the 1950s, and hoaxes perpetrated by various witnesses and UFO proponents. The psychological effects of time compression and confusion about when events occurred explained the discrepancy with the years in question. These reports were dismissed by UFO proponents as being either disinformation or simply implausible, though significant numbers of UFO researchers discount the probability that any alien crash was in fact involved.

Comments (1)

luckasa
written by lucas james xavier kolasa on May 30, 2007

Perhaps classified a-1 project mogul was the reason for the mysteriousness of roswell.
However.. if this is not the case..
i think that the U.S. government should come foward and show what they have found.
-- in any event.
-- if it is merely a weather balloon,, then show us the weather balloon.
--if not,, show us the space craft and dead aliens.
--
reason being:::
--
if more aliens come to earth..
we cannot harm them.
their technology is obviously superior to ours,, and it would be ill advised to start a war with space aliens that have superior flight capability.
no telling what else they have.
--
so,, for the military to not inform the planet of the truth would be not wise.
*~*
what we would be dealing with,, is not only an intelligent species.. -- but in fact.. a superior species.
-- and any action to offend them would be so wrong.
-- it could get us all killed.
--
so
it would be wise to teach the world what was found.
- and then if or when we encounter another one..
we would be wise enough to offer it food,, or a gift.
-- as opposed to hitting it with a shovel because you were scared.
--because that is just stupid.. and that kind of action would make us appear as a hostile species..
and that might trigger them to think that they should take over the planet before we destroy the planet,, along with the other intelligent and gentile species around the galaxies.
--
see...
you really have to think this one through.
--
however..
i am goin gto say..
for the first time ever..
that i hope the military is correct.. and not telling a lie -- which would seem like a first to many ..
-- but i would hope that these were weather balloons... and devises used to track nuclear explossions from around the planet..
AKA... classified A-1 project Mogul
--
but i am going to allow for suspission...
i can also see how that could be what they used to cover up the UFO.
--
if you are covering up something as big as a UFO,, you have to be rather clever.

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