The UFO Crash in Roswell

Just about everyone in the world has heard about the UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. Few people, however, know the actual details of what took place at the time. All they know is that something unusual happened in the late 1940's that was covered up for almost 50 years. What was so important about the Roswell incident was not that a UFO crash-landed in that area, but the fact that the United States government had been hiding this information for so many years. It was the first time UFO debunkers admitted that they might have been wrong in their previous judgment of flying saucer tales. In fact, once the story became public, polls showed that the number of UFO 'believers', which started at only 28% of our population, jumped to a whopping 76%. The Roswell story has been the number one breakthrough for UFO researchers. Instead of being laughed at, they are listened to. The following is what they have to say about Roswell.

In the summer of 1947, Kenneth Arnold, a pilot trained to do search and rescue missions, reported seeing nine objects flying toward Mount Rainier. He was heading in the direction of Yakima, Washington when he spotted them. He watched these unusual flying machines for several minutes and noticed that every few seconds, the objects changed course or dipped. The sun flashed on these metallic crafts and they seemed like saucers skipping across the surface of a lake.When Arnold told of his account that day, Bill Bequette, a reporter from the local paper, used the term "flying saucer" to describe what Kenneth had seen in his news article. A day later, the story was carried nationally. Bill had coined the phrase that would dominate the UFO field forever.

Over the next few weeks, reports were coming in everyday about these "flying saucers", not just in the Washington area, but from all over the country. Rewards were being offered for any proof that could be shown of this phenomenon. Mac Brazel, a rancher in the Roswell area, had found aluminum foil-looking debris on his property. It didn't faze him much, until his neighbors urged him to take it to the papers to collect the $3000 reward that was being offered. Brazel waited until July 7th to make the long trip to town with his findings. The local sheriff told Brazel to contact the military that seemed to be excited about Mac's find. Two days later, after the items were flown to Ft. Worth for identification, Warrant Officer Irving Newton publicly stated that the material was simply a weather balloon. The story was quickly buried.

Thirty years passed before any inkling of a cover-up was detected. In the late 70s, Jesse A. Marcel broke the silence. He had been the intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group who had picked up the debris from Mac Brazel's ranch to take to higher headquarters where the weather balloon story was invented. He felt it was time to come clean. Jesse said that on July 3, 1947, Mac Brazel discovered that his property was covered with metallic debris. This debris was spread over an area of around three quarters of a mile long and two to three hundred feet wide. Pieces of thin metal, parchment-like paper, wire, I-beams and lead foil littered the pasture. Mac picked up a few samples and brought it to the local sheriff, George A. Wilcox. Unimpressed, Sheriff Wilcox suggested that Brazel call the Roswell Army Air Field. Two officers and a civilian answered the call, one of which was Jesse A. Marcel.

According to Marcel, he had never seen anything like this material. The metal was thin as newsprint and light as a feather. It was strong and flexible. A sledgehammer would not dent it, nor would a fire burn through it. It took all day to load a truck with the debris. On the way back to base, Jesse stopped at his house to show his wife and son some of Mac's find. Upon arriving at base, he was ordered to fly some of the debris to the Eighth Air Force headquarters in Ft. Worth. The plane was met by another carrier, which then transported everything to the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright Field. Everyone was told to return to their bases and forget what they had done that day.

The story got even more complicated when a man named, Grady L. Barnett, claimed to have come across the wreckage of a disc-shaped craft about 120 miles from Brazil's ranch. While Barnett was there, a group of university archeologists drove up right beside him. They all saw four dead bodies lying outside the craft. Grady said that the bodies were not human. He described them as small beings with large heads and very skinny arms and legs. They had no hair and wore metallic-like, gray suits that had no buttons or zippers.

Before anyone could speak, a military truck arrived and ordered everyone to step away from the craft. The head officer told the civilians that it was their patriotic duty to keep what they had seen to themselves. If Jesse Marcel didn't 'come clean' in the 70s, we may still have not known anything about one of the biggest UFO cover-ups on record. More details can be found in" UFO Crash at Roswell".

This article was written by Sheila Knies, the Florida director of the National Investigations Committee on UFOs, has been a UFO researcher since 1983. In her weekly column, she will explore topics ranging from abductions to crop circles to chupacabras and show how they relate to our world today. She can be reached via email at skniesp@aol.com.