ROSWELL AND YOU
c/o ROSWELL REPORTER
P.O. Box 85
Hartford, WI 53027
Back to Robin's Alien Gallery Did an actual UFO Crash outside of Roswell, New Mexico in July of 1947? At first the military announced to the public that they had indeed recovered a flying disk on a remote ranch in the central region of the state. Four hours later, they retracted the story and identified the debris displayed in Brig. General Roger Ramey's office at Forth Worth, Texas, as merely a downed weather balloon with an attached radar reflector kite. The question, however, still remains, which of the two announcements was the truth?
Within the last six years, we have amassed a continuously growing number of over 500 witnesses associated with the events who support the first account. Not only was a flying saucer and debris of an unconventional nature recovered, but its crew as well! As long as there are first hand witnesses who continue to challenge the government's original explanation or the "updated" balloon explanation of this past September, we will remain committed to finishing this investigation.
You hold in your hands our first newsletter which symbolizes that resolve. Our commitment is to the truth, no matter where it leads us. Welcome aboard and be assured, when new witnesses are discovered and new evidence, pro or con, is secured, you will read it in the ROSWELL REPORTER. Donald R. Schmitt & Kevin D. Randle
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This is Vol. 1, No. 1 of The Roswell Reporter. Editors In Chief: Donald R. Schmitt and Kevin D. Randle. Contributing Editors: Tom Carey, John Kirby, Kent Jeffrey and Brad Radcliffe. A special contribution was made by Jerome Clark. Editors: Deborah Greyson and Lance Miller. Special thanks to The Albuquerque Tribune.
The Roswell Reporter is published by Donald R. Schmitt and Kevin D. Randle, P.O. Box 85, Hartford, WI 53027. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. Copyright (c) 1994 by Donald R. Schmitt and Kevin D. Randle. Address all article submissions, letters to the editor, and other editorial correspondence to The Roswell Reporter, P.O. Box 85, Hartford, WI 53027. Address all subscription correspondence to the same address. Yearly subscriptions are $15.95 in U.S. funds only. Please add $2.00 for subscriptions outside the United States. - - -
The search for the truth behind what crashed near Roswell did not begin in 1991 with the publication of the book "UFO Crash at Roswell". There were researchers who came before us and we are happy to acknowledge their efforts here. It is not surprising that many of the early attempts met with only modest success, the web of secrecy has been tightly woven. As an example of this, bear in mind while you read this that the "official" Air Force investigation of UFOs, Project Blue Book, in eighteen years and thousands of documents does not once mention the most highly publicized UFO incident of its time. Special thanks to Jerome clark. Most of the following article is excerpted from his book "The Emergence of a Phenomenon: the UFO Encyclopedia, Vol. 2 (Apogee Books, 1991)
Though the Roswell incident (which actually took place some 75 miles away in the Corona, New Mexico, area.) is now generally regarded as one of the most important UFO events in history, an extensive review of the UFO literature of the 1950s finds no mention of it beyond the first press accounts in early July 1947. The only known reference to it as a UFO crash was in a 1955 lecture by broadcaster and UFO enthusiast Frank Edward (Randle and Schmitt, 1991). Even in the 1960s the UFO literature mentioned it only three times, twice -- in both instances briefly, in the latter rather vaguely, with no reference to Roswell or Corona -- as a spaceship crash (Edward, 1966; Trench, 1966), once -- following the official Air Force version -- as a misunderstanding about a downed weather balloon (Bloecher, 1967).
The reconsideration of the Roswell/Corona event began in January 1978, when ufologists William L. Moore and Stanton R. Friedman compared notes from two separate interviews Friedman had conducted. The interviews were with a woman and a man who had been in New Mexico in July 1947 and who knew of the crash of a mysterious craft. The man, a retired Air Force officer, Maj. Jesse A. Marcel, claimed to have been involved in the retrieval of a great quantity of a strange material believed to be wreckage of an extraterrestrial vehicle. The woman, Lydia Sleppy, had worked at Albuquerque radio station KOAT and remembered how the military had squelched coverage of a crashed saucer and the bodies of "little men," even to the extent of stopping the transmission of a teletyped new report.
Moore and Friedman linked these accounts with an obscure episode which occurred a week and a half after the June 24, 1947, Kenneth Arnold sighting brought the term "flying saucers" into the popular vocabulary. For a brief period, no more than a few hours, a widely-published story reported that personnel from Roswell Field had a "flying disk" in their possession. When the material was flown to Eight Army Air Force Headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, the commander, Brig. Gen. Roger M. Ramey, told the press that the "disk" was really just a weather balloon and produced balloon remains to "prove" it. Pictures were taken, there were chuckles all around, and the press fell victim to a lie and a cover-up it was able to maintain without challenge for over three decades. The Roswell story became only a footnote in the public history of the UFO phenomenon of the late 1940s and 1950s.
Even today, the hidden history of the Roswell wreckage -- what was done with it, who studied it, what conclusions were drawn from it -- remains a dark mystery, though a controversial document, purportedly a briefing paper prepared for President- elect Dwight D. Eisenhower on November 18, 1952, asserts that on September 24, 1947, President Harry S. Truman ordered the creation of super secret "Operation Majestic-12" (or, more simply, "MJ-12") to study the remains and to make recommendations. The document appeared one day in December 1984 in an unmarked manila envelope, postmarked Albuquerque, in the mail of Los Angeles television producer and Moore associate Jaime Shandera. In early 1987 a copy of the same document was given to British ufologist Timothy Good, who released it to the British press in May, at the same time Moore and Shandera suspicion, ambiguity, and dead ends. By the end of 1990 no conclusion, positive or negative, about the document's origins much less its authenticity, could be declared with any degree of confidence.
In the past few years, however, new evidence has surfaced. The MJ-12 documents have been shown to have many stylistic errors that negate its authenticity. Moreover, the document is a strong reflection of the state of the Roswell investigation as it stood in 1987. It does not reflect the reality of the situation as it has now unfolded. Today, most ufologists consider it a hoax and it is primarily a dead issue.
Yet all the while, where the Roswell incident itself was concerned, the investigation was making significant headway. In 1980 Moore, with popular occult author Charles Berlitz, wrote a premature and mediocre book on his and Friedman's research up till then (Berlitz and Moore, 1980). Fortunately Moore and Friedman continued to locate and interview persons who were in some way, direct or indirect, involved in the episode. Within five years they had talked with over 90 persons, one-third of them direct participants (Moore, 1985). In the late 1980s through today, Donald R. Schmitt and Kevin D. Randle of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) started an independent investigation and added considerably to ufologists' knowledge through extensive archival research and interviews with some 500 persons, ranging from on-site witnesses to high-ranking Air Force generals (Randle and Schmitt, op. cit.; Schmitt, 1990)
Those of you who support the Roswell investigation and this newsletter come to us from many different venues. Many of you have come to us from our two books, "UFO Crash at Roswell" and "The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell." Many of you became interested in finding out more during a speaking engagement or through the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell. Because of this we would like to take a step back and review some major aspects of the case so everyone can be brought up to speed. The events that happened north and northwest of Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, may well have been one of the most extraordinary occurrences of all recorded history. Even today, when the truth about the U. S. government's involvement in other coverups continue to surface, Roswell remains shrouded in secrecy.
1. On Tuesday July 8, 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field base commander Col. William Blanchard, announced the recovery of a flying disk. It is important to note that this wasn't the intelligence officer, or the public affairs officer, this was the commander of the Army base. A commander who was entrusted with the first atomic bomb strike force, releasing to the press, and the people information about an event he believed to be true and of great import.
2. At approximately 4:30 PM CST., Brig. General Roger Ramey, the commander of the 8th Air Force at Forth Worth, Texas, presented the reporters a counter story; a Rowen target device.
3. Mac Brazel, the rancher who first discovered the debris, was detained by the military for seven to eight days while cleanup operations continued. He was denied access to a phone, given an Army physical, and subjected to rigorous questioning and intimidation while being kept under house arrest at Roswell Army Air Field.
4. Extreme security measures were exercised at the crash site. Armed guards encircled the primary location, a second cordon was placed around the perimeter, riflemen were stationed on the surrounding hills, and MPs posted on outlying roads.
5. Special flights arrived from Washington, D.C., with additional units arriving from White Sands in Alamogordo and Kirtland in Albuquerque.
6. Senator Dennis Chavez of New Mexico, then chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, phoned Walt Whitmore Sr., the owner of KGFL Radio in Roswell, to advise him to do as instructed by the FCC in an earlier call and not broadcast an interview with rancher Mac Brazel.
7. On July 9, 1947, military official toured news media offices in Roswell, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe to retrieve copies of the original press release sent out by Roswell Army Air Field that revealed the Army had retrieved a "flying disk." A wire recording of an interview with Mac Brazel was also confiscated.
8. An FBI telex at 6:17 PM on July 8, 1947 out of the Dallas, Texas office first disputed General Ramey's announcement to the press that the special flight transporting wreckage to Wright Field had been canceled, as well as the new explanation of a balloon and hexagonal radar target.
9. Multiple first-hand military and civilian witnesses who actually witnessed the crash have come forward to tell their stories.
10. Multiple first-hand military and civilian witnesses have suggested the location of the craft and separate debris field. Their stories coincide with each others.
11. Multiple first-hand military and civilian witnesses have given the same story regarding the actual size and the "non"-saucer shape of the craft. It appeared more like a crescent shape.
12. Over two dozen witnesses, both military and civilian sources, agree to the unconventional characteristics of the debris. The debris could not be cut or even slightly damaged by any conventional means.
13. Multiple first-hand military and civilian witnesses have given testimony regarding the five non-human bodies at the Roswell impact site.
14. Finally, the most shocking revelation to date: the U.S. military resorted to physical threats against civilian witnesses. Children were terrorized and parents were threatened that their children would be killed if they mentioned anything about the crash and retrieval. One additional military witness, now a civilian, has received death threats within the past three years regarding his involvement at Roswell.
All of this over a WEATHER BALLOON?
Here is a brief look at a few of the new witnesses we have uncovered since the publication of "The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell." As word gets out, and more people find the courage to come forward, the puzzle that is Roswell begins to take shape. We will bring you this new evidence as we uncloak it.
* While in Portland, Oregon during our last visit, we had the pleasure of talking with Terrie Randall. Her father was Tech Sgt. Charles Randall (deceased 1976). He described his personal involvement to her in 1953. Terrie told us her father held some of the material and didn't like handling it for fear of its effects. Sgt. Randall added that some of the personnel who cleaned up the debris were also afraid to touch it.
* One of the special guard units to arrive at the impact site just north of Roswell, was headquartered at White Sands in Alamogordo. In our latest book, we mentioned Lieutenant Colonel Albert Lovejoy Duncan, a member of that unit who confirmed their assignment and acknowledged witnessing the "bodies." Recently, another member of that unit was interviewed and confirmed the site just north of Roswell, west off of HWY. 285. He added a most interesting observation. "Being posted on 285, we couldn't help but comment between ourselves that if that thing would have just stayed in the air a moment longer, it would have crashed right in the middle of the highway." (See Map on page 9)
* On July 5, 1947, a local farmer, Sherman Campbel of Circleville, Ohio, discovered on his property a six pointed star shaped kite, fifty inches high by forty-eight inches wide which was wrapped in foil. It was briefly thought to be part of a UFO but was soon identified by the local sheriff as part of a weather balloon complete with plainly visible serial numbers.
The story was carried by newspapers across the country as part of the flood of UFO sightings of the summer of 1947. The story included photographs of Campbell's daughter, Jean, standing with the very intact kite in front of her. According to Jean, they were allowed to keep the device for years to come without the slightest suggestions of anything out of the ordinary. Due to all of the national publicity, no doubt military officials, specifically in Dayton, Ohio (which is not far from Circleville), may have had the solution to Roswell, or at least the cover story, literally drop from the skies.
It is interesting to note that the Randalls were able to keep their weather balloon while all of the pieces of the "weather balloon" that crashed near Roswell were carefully collected and confiscated. Also, the published photographs of the Circleville kite contain precisely the same type of kite debris that were shown to and photographed by the press in General Ramey's office on July 8th 1947 as part of the cover up. Now, if today, the Air Force is speculating its a Project Mogul Balloon in Forth Worth... well, you understand the point. The Air Force can't have it both ways.
* Thanks to the efforts and cooperation of John Price of The UFO Enigma Museum in Roswell and Don Ecker of UFO Magazine, we have yet another first hand witness to the recovered bodies. Thomas L. Gonzales, a sergeant with Squadron T. of the 509th Bomb Group, was one of those assigned to guard the impact site. He has corroborated its location close to Roswell and the retrieval of bodies which he called, "little men." Gonzales described them as having eyes and heads that were slightly larger than human. He also referred to the crashed object as an "airfoil."
* Within the past six months, we have been fortunate to learn the whereabouts of the base navigators from both Roswell and White Sands in 1947. According to one, White Sands was indeed tracking an unknown object prior to the crash. The gentleman once assigned to Roswell did acknowledge the tracking of an object at Kirtland in Albuquerque as well, but when queried about Roswell, he responded, "Don't ask me about that." We intend to follow up so stay tuned.
* Robert Wolf, a native of New Mexico and a famous country fiddle player, was a stock owner of radio station KGFL in 1947. You will recall that ranch foreman, Mac Brazel, was interviewed by Frank Joyce at KGFL, regarding the found debris. Later, under watch of military guard, Mr. Brazel retracted his original story. According to Wolf, about a month after the story died down, he observed Brazel at the Mitchell Feed and Grainery loading a new 1947 Ford pickup truck. New vehicles always attracted the attention of the locals and Brazel's especially caught the attention of Wolf who was declined any explanation by the rancher.
* Finally, an item from the January 15, 1954 issue of the APRO Bulletin, the official publication of the Aerial Phenomenon Research Organization. APRO, which is now defunct, was the first civilian organization devoted to the study of UFOs and was based in Tucson, Arizona. Contained within the editorial comments of that issue is the following, "We have appointed an honorary member to APRO who has been passed on by officers of the national groups, but whom we are not able, at least at the present time, to name. He is an astronomer and an intelligent man." The unnamed scientist was none other than Dr. Lincoln La Paz. He was the former Manhattan Project scientist and meteroritics expert who was called in by the military to inspect the crash site. It was his job to figure out the speed and trajectory of the craft when it hit, if possible. Together, with CIC agent Lewis Rickett, La Paz discovered a touchdown point five miles from the debris field that contained more debris and sand that was apparently crystallized from an intense amount of heat.
* The first part of our series, "Reinventing Roswell: The Air Force's New Story and Project Mogul"
* Jim Ragsdale and Roswell, including actual copy of his AFFIDAVIT.
* Update on the Search for the Archaeologists
* New first hand drawing of the bodies.
Regarding the crash sites
"It was probably the same accident, but there were two distinct
sites...[There was a] location where... apparently the main body of the
spacecraft was... where they did say there were bodies... They were all found
apparently outside the craft itself but were in fairly good condition. In other
words, they weren't broken up a lot."------- Brig. Gen. Arthur
Exon
"But it was either dummies or bodies or something laying there. They looked like bodies. They weren't very long... over four or five feet long at most... we didn't see their faces or nothing like that there." Don Schmitt: "How far from town?" Ragsdale: "Thirty-forty miles."-------Jim Ragsdale
"All that sagebrush. I remember it took us about 45 minutes. I said, 'How far are we going out here and [Cavitt] said, "It's just over here, I just want you to see it, instead of talking about it..."-------NCOIC-CIC, Lewis Rickett
NOTE: Debris field site is over 2 1/2 hours from Roswell, whereas impact site is approx. 45 minutes.
"It gets worse and worse and worse. All you got to do is drive out here about forty miles and you'll see the damnedest piece of wreckage. It's just like everybody getting in the car to see where the fire is."-------Frank Kaufmann
"At the end of our conversation/interview, I wasted no time to inform [Karl T.] Pflock, in a strong direct manner, not to use my name in any manner, shape, or form, privately or otherwise. He nodded in the affirmative several times."-------Frank Kaufmann
"There's a scene in the screenplay where they [CIC] talk about -- -and not in an insidious way --- if we're going to take responsibility for this information, and if so, how are we going to control it. We control it, they decide, by purposeful disinformation. You direct people to believe one thing, and then undermine that belief. When you think of that, that's pretty clever. It's probably standard operating procedure. You say it was a UFO crash, then you say it wasn't, when in fact it was."------- Jeremy Kagan, Producer, director, Showtime Movie, "ROSWELL." CINEFANTASTIQUE, August, 1994
The newsletter's subscribers will find an enclosure called, "Roswell Declaration 1994." Once you read it and the explanation contained on the back of the document, it's purpose will be self- evident to you. A little piece of your time could be of great helping the effort to get the government's help in releasing documents regarding the events at Roswell. Please read the Roswell Declaration, and send it to CUFOS, 2457 West Peterson Ave., Chicago, IL 60659. You are encouraged to photocopy it and circulate it to those who you may think would like to end the forty-seven year silence. If you have not subscribed, and have received an issue of ROSWELL REPORTER without the insert, you may send a self addressed stamped envelope to: Roswell Declaration, c/o ROSWELL REPORTER.
Part 1: The ROSWELL REPORTER
1. A subscription to the ROSWELL REPORTER is the best way to keep abreast of new developments, receive important details about this labyrinth, and truthfully, your subscription helps to continue the investigation. All proceeds from the newsletter go directly to the fight for unearthing the truth. Don and Kevin aren't redecorating summer beach homes or buying new suits, and not a penny goes to the grocery store with them.
2. Your subscription is the hearts blood of the investigation in other ways. It help Schmitt and Randle to know that the public wants to know. Many "researchers" would rather this be a private power struggle, political and financial means, and/or a subject for theories and philosophy, only to be discussed among "ufology's" "PEOPLE IN THE KNOW". By reading the ROSWELL REPORTER, you bring the subject, to coin a phrase, down to earth.
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ROSWELL AND
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