Talk:Roswell incident/sandbox: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia
This is not a Wikipedia article: This is a workpage, a collection of material and work in progress that may or may not be incorporated into an article. It should not necessarily be considered factual or authoritative.A military balloon crashed near Roswell,[1] during what historian Kathryn S. Olmsted describes as "the first summer of the Cold War".[2] By 1947, the United States's top-secret Project Mogul had launched thousands of balloons carrying devices to listen for Soviet atomic tests.[3] On June 4, 1947, researchers at Alamogordo Army Air Field launched a long train of these balloons and lost contact within 17 miles (27 km) of Mac W.W. "Mac" Brazel's ranch.[4] Brazel discovered tinfoil, rubber, tape, and thin wooden beams scattered across several acres of his ranch in mid-June.[5][6] With no phone or radio, he was unaware of the ongoing flying disc craze.[7][8] That June, Kenneth Arnold's account of what became known as flying saucers incited a wave of over 800 sightings.[9][10] Brazel was exposed to the disc reports – often attributed to unknown foreign aircraft[2] – when visiting Corona, New Mexico on July 5 and informed Sheriff George Wilcox of the debris he had found.[11] Wilcox called Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF), who assigned Major Jesse Marcel and Captain Sheridan Cavitt to return with Brazel and gather the material from the ranch.[12][13]
Colonel William Blanchard reported their findings to General Roger Ramey at Fort Worth Army Air Field (FWAAF), resulting in orders to fly the material out to FWAAF.[12][6] By the end of the day, RAAF public information officer Walter Haut issued a press release stating that the military had recovered a "flying disc" near Roswell.[14] Robert Porter, an RAAF flight engineer, was part of the crew who loaded what he was "told was a flying saucer" onto the flight bound for Fort Worth. He described the material - packaged in wrapping paper when he received it - as lightweight and not too large to fit inside the trunk of a car.[15][16] After station director George Walsh broke the news over Roswell radio station KSWS and relayed it to the Associated Press, his phone lines were overwhelmed. He later recalled, "All afternoon, I tried to call Sheriff Wilcox for more information, but could never get through to him [...] Media people called me from all over the world."[17]
Media interest in the case dissipated soon after a July 8 press conference where General Ramey, his chief of staff Colonel Thomas Dubose, and weather officer Irving Newton identified the material as pieces of a weather balloon.[5][19] Irving told reporters that similar radar targets were used at about 80 weather stations.[6][20] The small number of subsequent news stories offered mundane and prosaic accounts of the crash.[19][5] On July 9, the Roswell Daily Record highlighted that no engine or metal parts had been found in the wreckage.[21] Brazel told the Record that the debris consisted of a "large area of bright wreckage made up of rubber strips, tinfoil, a rather tough paper and sticks."[21] Brazel said he paid little attention to it but returned later with his wife and daughter to gather up some of the debris.[21] When interviewed, Marcel described the wreckage as "parts of the weather device" and "patches of tinfoil and rubber."[6] The 1947 official account omitted any connection to Cold War military programs. Major Wilbur D. Pritchard, then stationed at Alamogordo Army Air Field, would later describe the weather balloon story as "an attempt to deflect attention from the top secret Mogul project."[22]
Events of 1947 (Old version)
On June 14, 1947, William Brazel, a foreman working on the J.B. Foster ranch, noticed clusters of debris approximately 30 miles (50 km) north of Roswell, New Mexico. This date—or "about three weeks" before July 8—appeared in later stories featuring Brazel, but the initial press release from the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) said the find was "sometime last week", suggesting Brazel found the debris in early July.[4] Brazel told the Roswell Daily Record that he and his son saw a "large area of bright wreckage made up of rubber strips, tinfoil, a rather tough paper and sticks."[5] He paid little attention to it but returned on July 4 with his son, wife and daughter to gather up the material.[6] Some accounts have described Brazel as having gathered some of the material earlier, rolling it together and stashing it under some brush.[7] The next day, Brazel heard reports about "flying discs" and wondered if that was what he had picked up.[6] On July 7, Brazel saw Sheriff Wilcox and "whispered kinda confidential like" that he may have found a flying disc.[6] Another account quotes Wilcox as saying Brazel reported the object on July 6.[4]
Wilcox called RAAF Major Jesse Marcel, and Marcel brought Lt Colonel Sheridan Cavitt and Master Sergeant Bill Rickett to the ranch where more pieces were picked up.[8] "[We] spent a couple of hours Monday afternoon [July 7] looking for any more parts of the weather device", said Marcel. "We found a few more patches of tinfoil and rubber."[9]
On July 8, 1947, RAAF public information officer Walter Haut issued a press release stating that personnel from the field's 509th Operations Group had recovered a "flying disc", which had crashed on a ranch near Roswell. As described in the July 9, 1947, edition of the Roswell Daily Record:
The balloon which held it up, if that was how it worked, must have been 12 feet [3.5 m] long, [Brazel] felt, measuring the distance by the size of the room in which he sat. The rubber was smoky gray in color and scattered over an area about 200 yards [180 m] in diameter. When the debris was gathered up, the tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks made a bundle about three feet [1 m] long and 7 or 8 inches [18 or 20 cm] thick, while the rubber made a bundle about 18 or 20 inches [45 or 50 cm] long and about 8 inches [20 cm] thick. In all, he estimated, the entire lot would have weighed maybe five pounds [2 kg]. There was no sign of any metal in the area which might have been used for an engine, and no sign of any propellers of any kind, although at least one paper fin had been glued onto some of the tinfoil. There were no words to be found anywhere on the instrument, although there were letters on some of the parts. Considerable Scotch tape and some tape with flowers printed upon it had been used in the construction. No strings or wires were to be found but there were some eyelets in the paper to indicate that some sort of attachment may have been used.[10]
A telex sent to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) office from the Fort Worth, Texas, office quoted a Major from the Eighth Air Force (also based in Fort Worth at Carswell Air Force Base) on July 8, 1947, as saying that "The disc is hexagonal in shape and was suspended from a ballon [sic] by cable, which ballon [sic] was approximately twenty feet (6 m) in diameter. Major Curtan further advices advises [sic] that the object found resembles a high altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector, but that telephonic conversation between their office and Wright field had not [UNINTELLIGIBLE] borne out this belief."[11] A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather balloon after launching
Early on Tuesday, July 8, the RAAF issued a press release, which was immediately picked up by numerous news outlets:[12]
The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation 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 Maj. 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.[13]
Colonel William H. Blanchard, commanding officer of the 509th, contacted General Roger M. Ramey of the Eighth Air Force in Fort Worth, Texas, and Ramey ordered the object be flown to Fort Worth Army Air Field. At the base, Warrant Officer Irving Newton confirmed Ramey's preliminary opinion, identifying the object as being a weather balloon and its "kite",[7] a nickname for a radar reflector used to track the balloons from the ground.
The military decided to conceal the true purpose of the crashed device—nuclear test monitoring—and instead inform the public that the crash was of a weather balloon.[2] Later that day, the press reported that General Ramey had stated that a weather balloon was recovered by the RAAF personnel. A press conference was held, featuring debris (foil, rubber and wood) said to be from the crashed object, which matched the weather balloon description. Historian Robert Goldberg wrote that the intended effect was achieved: "the story died the next day".[14]
Subsequently, the incident faded from the attention of UFO enthusiasts for more than 30 years.[15]
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