The Truth about Roswell: Decoding Decades of Deception

It was a sunny afternoon on June 24th, 1947, and Kenneth Arnold was flying his small. aircraft over Mineral, Washington. [music]. He was heading to Yakima, but took a. slight detour to look for a lost US. Marine Corps plane. If he could find it, he could collect a nice reward. Flying. near Mount Rainier, he spotted a shiny. object in his plane's mirror. Then he. saw multiple flashes of light. It looked. like a group of aircraft flying in. formation, but something was wrong. These aircraft didn't have tails, and.

they were flying faster than anything. he'd ever seen. After about 2 minutes, the objects vanished near Mount Adams. When Kenneth landed in Yakima, he. immediately told his friends and airport. staff about his bizarre experience. By. the time he reached Pendleton, Oregon, his story had spread, and reporters were. eager to hear it. [music]. In describing the odd movement of these. objects, Kenneth said it was like a. teacup saucer skipping across a lake. At. that moment, the term [music] flying. saucer was born. And over the next 2.

weeks, events would unfold that would. affect [music] every person on Earth, and change the course of history. [music]. When you drive east out of Albuquerque. on Route 40 and take the 285 south, you're in the middle of nowhere. It's. sand and scrub brush for miles. Take. this drive at night, and the darkness is. something you've never seen. It's heavy.

and penetrating and unsettling if you're. not used to it. And summer storms in the. New Mexico desert are also something. unique. Heat lightning can tear through. the sky for hours, lighting up the. landscape all the way to the horizon. July 1st, 1947, was one of the worst. lightning storms in years. That same. night, the Army Air Field outside of. Roswell had been tracking strange radar. blips. Same with the nearby White Sands. Proving Ground, a missile base that had. been testing German V2 rockets since the.

end of the war. The nuclear testing. facility at the Alamogordo bombing range. was also tracking the objects. The blips. were moving too fast to be aircraft. Some blips would disappear off the radar. screen, then reappear a few seconds. later. This was a major concern. The. 509th at Roswell was an elite unit, the. only unit responsible for deploying. atomic weapons. Finally, technicians. took the radar equipment apart to check. for malfunctions. They couldn't find. any. The objects continued to zip around.

the area for hours. Dan Wilmot and his. wife were on their porch watching the. lightning storm when a bright oval. object zipped over their house and. disappeared over the horizon. Moments. later, the object streaked over Steve. Robinson's truck as he was making. deliveries. He tracked the object to the. horizon moving faster than any plane. he'd ever seen. Over the next few. nights, local sheriff George Wilcox. received dozens of calls about objects. in the sky. He hadn't seen anything. himself, so he told the folks it was. probably lightning or planes from the.

nearby air base. But then Mack Brazel, a. local rancher, came into the office. Mack told the sheriff he had come across. a debris field on his ranch in Corona, New Mexico. At first he thought it was. plane wreckage, but the material was. like nothing he'd ever seen. He even. brought a few pieces to show the. sheriff. In the back of Mack's pickup. were pieces of metal that looked like. aluminum foil, but much thinner. It was. also much stronger and lighter. And. strangest of all, even though you can. bend or crumple the metal, as soon as.

you released it, it would revert back to. its original shape. The sheriff called. Roswell Army Air Field just outside of. town, [music] and the matter was. assigned to an army intelligence. officer, Major Jesse Marcel. Brazel took. Marcel back to the debris site, and the. two gathered up more pieces of material. from the crashed object. On Tuesday. morning, Marcel took the material to the. base commander, Colonel William. Blanchard. Later that day, Walter Haut, the base's public information officer, issued a press release that was picked. up by newspapers and radio stations all.

over the country. Well, let me guess. The press release. said they deny everything. Nope. The official United States Army. press release said, "We found a UFO.". Yikes! Headline edition, July 8th, 1947. The Army Air Forces has announced that a. flying disc has been found and is now in.

the possession of the Army. Army. officers say the missile found sometime. last week has been inspected at Roswell, New Mexico and sent to Wright Field, Ohio for further inspection. The report was national news. It was the. biggest story in the country. Late this afternoon, a bulletin from New. Mexico suggested that the widely. publicized mystery of the flying saucers. may soon be solved. Army Air Force. officers reported that one of the. strange discs had been found and. inspected sometime last week.

But, it was only the biggest story for a. day. Just a few hours after the news. broke, the Army retracted it. Then. General Raimy at Fort Worth Army Air. Field ordered Major Marcel to personally. deliver the wreckage to him in Texas. A. few hours after they landed, General. Raimy held a press conference where. aluminum foil and pieces of wooden. debris were spread out in front of. photographers and newspapermen. Raimy, with Marcel and Colonel Thomas DuBose. backing him up, insisted that the whole. UFO thing was a mistake.

[music]. That the debris was from a weather. balloon and that's all there was to the. story. Mac Brazel, the rancher who found the. wreckage, also changed his story. [music]. He said he regretted coming forward and. that the debris was just rubber strips, tin foil, some paper and balsa wood. Marcel, in front of the press backed him. up on this and said simply, "We went. back to the ranch and found a few more. patches of tin foil and [music] rubber.". General Raimy went back to his normal. duties and the whole matter was. officially dropped. Headlines again.

[music] spread throughout the country. that the flying disc was nothing more. than a weather balloon. Hey, they really took the air out of. this story, eh? Eh? Yatzee. After that, everyone seemed to move on. The flying saucer craze cooled down and. the country forgot about Roswell. Oh, so that's it? Oh, not even close. [music]. The men at the press conference where. the famous photos were taken were men of. honor. If they're given orders, they. follow them. [music]. But as they grew old, they remained men. of honor, but there were no more orders. to follow. All they had left to follow.

was their conscience. So these men of. honor, they started telling the truth. [music]. Dr. Bob Wood was an aerospace engineer. with a long and distinguished career. He. worked at Sikorsky, Lockheed, Hughes, and McDonnell Douglas. He taught courses. at Georgia Tech, UCLA, Caltech, and USC. Dr. Wood was very well known, so it's.

easy to find his work history, but there. is a hole in Dr. Wood's resume from 1968. to 1970. During that time, Wood worked. on a secret study for McDonnell Douglas. He was given a huge budget to find out. if UFOs were real or not. One of the. first people Dr. Wood recruited for this. project was a young scientist also. working at McDonnell Douglas, Stanton R. Friedman. Friedman was a nuclear. physicist by trade, but also dabbled in. UFO investigation. At the end of their. 18-month study, they determined that.

UFOs were real and worth investigating. Dr. Wood was invited to present his. findings to Congress, but knew this. would hurt his career, so he declined. But Dr. Friedman took a different. [music] path. After working on the UFO. study for McDonnell Douglas, Friedman. began giving speeches on the subject to. civic groups and scientific. organizations. UFOs had become his passion, so he left. the aerospace industry, changed his. nickname to the flying saucer physicist, and began investigating UFOs full-time.

But even as late as the mid-1970s, Stanton Friedman had never heard of the. Roswell incident. In 1978, Friedman. heard about it from a television. producer. The producer, Bill Allen, told. Friedman that he was ham radio buddies. with Jesse Marcel. When Friedman learned. that Marcel was the intelligence officer. at a base that actually handled the. wreckage from a UFO crash, Friedman. wanted to meet him. And the story of the Roswell incident. takes a wild turn. [music]. We found a piece of metal.

uh. about about a foot and a half to two. feet wide and about. about two, three feet long. Felt like. you had nothing in your hands. It wasn't. any thicker than the foil out of a pack. of cigarettes. But the the thing about that uh got me. is that you couldn't even bend it. You. couldn't bend it. Even with a. sledgehammer, it would bounce off it. So, I knew that I had never seen anything. like that before. And as of as of now, I. don't know what it was.

That doesn't sound like the material. from a weather balloon. They took pictures, of course. They had. a. whole flock of microphones there. They. wanted me to to they wanted some. comments from me, but I wasn't at. liberty to do that. So, all I could do is keep my mouth. shut. And uh General Raimy is the one who. discussed the told the the newspapers. I mean, the newsman. what it was and to forget about it. It. was nothing more than a. weather observation balloon.

Cuz we we both knew differently. Jesse Marcel was in charge of. intelligence for the only atomic unit in. the world. [music] He wasn't going to go. against orders. But, before he went to. the base with the wreckage and received. the keep quiet order, he stopped at home. first. There he showed the pieces to his. [music] wife and his son, Jesse Jr. The 1942 Buick we had was loaded with. [music] stuff uh. in the backseat and in the trunk area. At any rate, uh he brought the.

[music]. the material in and spread it on the. kitchen floor. and in an effort to. try to piece it together. The pieces weren't just metallic scraps. There was a small I-beam that had some. kind of writing on it that Jesse and his. father described as hieroglyphics. They. [music] even had the piece recreated. And that's when I saw the the writing or. the symbols of some sort. I thought at. first, this is hieroglyphics or some. kind of writing like that. It sort of.

looked alien to me. Marcel was extremely familiar with all. kinds of aircraft, including top secret. craft being deployed from Roswell air. base. This wreckage didn't come from. anything he recognized. It was not anything from this earth. That I'm quite sure of. Cuz I was being intelligent always. I. was familiar with just about every all. materials used in aircraft and in our. air travel. This is nothing like that. Colonel Thomas DuBose, who retired as a.

Brigadier General, was General Raimy's. chief [music] of staff. He also posed. for pictures at the press conference. He. confirmed in multiple interviews that. the weather balloon [music] story was a. lie. It was a cover story. The balloon part of it. is the [music]. story that's to be given to the press. and that is it and and anything else, forget it. General Clements McMullen in Washington, D.C. [music]. called DuBose and gave him three orders.

One, get the press off our backs. Two, send some of the wreckage to Washington. And three, never speak of this again. Not to General Raimy, not to anyone. [music]. So, he didn't. As deputy to. to George Kenny, and he in turn responsible [music] to. the president. This is the highest. priority you can exhibit. And you will. say nothing and not breathe a word of. it. And. and Jesus that's [music] the neck matter. in chief of the military and then it was. forgotten about it.

Stanton Friedman kept interviewing. witnesses, kept releasing articles, and. kept speaking publicly about Roswell and. how he believed it was a cover-up. Throughout the '80s and '90s, the. military either said the weather balloon. story was true or they said nothing at. all. But then in 1993, something very. unexpected happened. After a lot of. public pressure, the military issued a. report about the Roswell incident. It. turned out that Friedman was right. The. debris showed to the press in 1947 and.

whole weather balloon story, the. military admitted it was a lie. In October 1993, a US Congressman from. New Mexico, Steven Schiff, launched an. inquiry into the Roswell incident. Congress directed the Air Force to. conduct an internal investigation to. uncover any documents they might have. In 1995, the Air Force released its.

findings in The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert. The. report concluded that the material. recovered by Jesse Marcel from Mark. Brazel's ranch in 1947 was not from a. regular weather balloon. The wreckage. was actually from a super secret program. called Project Mogul. Project Mogul was. a military surveillance program. Balloons equipped with acoustic sensors. were launched to high altitudes to. listen for the signatures of Russian. atomic bomb tests. So, why did some of. the men at the air base think this was a.

UFO? Well, because they were never told. about Project Mogul. To attempt to limit unauthorized. disclosure, the Air Force employed a. security mechanism known as. compartmentation. Compartmentation controlled access to. classified information by dispersing. portions of the research among several. facilities and institutions. Each participating entity received only. enough information necessary to. accomplish its assigned tasks. In the case of Mogul, only a small. circle of Air Force officers received.

the intimate details that link together. these unrelated research projects. Okay, but these were highly trained. military personnel. They couldn't. recognize a surveillance balloon? Well, according to the Air Force report, no, they couldn't. Although members of the 509th possessed. high-level clearances, they were not. privy to the existence of Mogul. Their. job was to deliver nuclear weapons, not. to detect them. And to be perfectly clear,

[music]. the investigators found no evidence of a. UFO. The Air Force research found absolutely. no indication that what happened near. Roswell in 1947 [music]. involved any type of extraterrestrial. spacecraft. Uh is this kind of like when the FBI. investigates itself and finds they did. nothing wrong? Or the DOJ investigates. itself and finds they did nothing wrong? It's exactly like that. Yeah. Yeah, the report didn't sit well.

The balloon story sounds like it's full. of hot air. Ugh. Yeah. Yeah. [laughter]. [screaming]. Okay, I'm sorry. Sorry, couldn't help. it. Go on. The Air Force said that the wreckage. wasn't a flying saucer. They said it was. a secret balloon. What they didn't. really address was the fact that they. lied to the American people and put a. bunch of fake wreckage on display for. the press. So, in 1997, the Air Force. issued another report. They had a lot of. questions to answer, like what happened.

to all the records from 1947? Wait, what do you mean? Records such as finance and accounting, supplies, buildings and grounds, and. other general administrative matters. from March 1945 through December 1949. and RAAF outgoing messages from October. 1946 through December 1949. were destroyed. What? Who destroyed the documents? Well,

the document disposition form did not. properly indicate the authority under. which the disposal action was taken. And so the records are gone, and nobody. knows who did it? Mhm. I call bull. But the question people really wanted to. be answered was, what happened to the alien bodies. recovered from the second [music]. secret crash site? Wait, another crash with bodies? My sherona. Yes, there have been ET visitation.

There have been. crashed craft. There have been uh. material and bodies recovered. Mhm. And there is some group of people. somewhere. that. may or may not be associated with. government at this point, but certainly. were at one time, that have this knowledge. [music].

The first public crash site was a few. miles south of Corona, New Mexico, but. there was a second crash site. And. according to eyewitnesses, whistleblowers, and leaked documents, here's what happened the summer of 1947. [music]. In the few months leading up to the. Roswell incident, there were over 300. UFO sightings over the New Mexico. desert. These were witnessed by local. residents and military personnel. On. Friday, July 4th, two alien ships were. flying over Corona, New Mexico. Why they.

were there is unclear, but best guess is. they were surveying White Sands Missile. Range. Back then, White Sands was the. Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range. It's about 35 mi southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, and was the location of. Trinity, the first time the human race. deployed a nuclear weapon. That evening, there was an especially violent. thunderstorm. Lightning filled the sky. The alien ships, unprepared for and. unshielded from lightning, experienced. an equipment failure. While flying in a.

tight formation, they collide. Rancher. Mac Brazel hears a tremendous. thunderclap, but it's different from the. rest of the thunder. Others in the area. report similar phenomena. Wait, wait, wait, wait, what's that. word? What? Phenomena? Phenomena. Phenomena. The hand, you may continue. At 11:27 p.m., military radar. installations all report seeing the.

objects. Then they pulse and vanish. They suspect a crash. Jim Ragsdale and. his friend Trudy are camping in the. area. They see a bright flash of light. and hear a roaring sound that passes. overhead. Then something big strikes the. ground nearby. [music]. Several archaeologists, including W. Curry Holden, are working a dig near. Roswell. They stumble across the impact. site where the object has crashed. One. of them heads to the closest phone to. tell Sheriff George Wilcox they found a.

crashed aircraft. Wilcox calls the local. fire department to alert them about the. crash. The site is about 35 mi north of. Roswell. The Roswell Fire Department, escorted by members of the Roswell. Police Department, respond. These are. among the first civilians to visit the. impact site. At 5:30 a.m. the military, knowing the approximate location of the. saucer crash, move in with a carefully. selected team to recover the craft. The. soldiers find civilians already on site. The area is secured and the civilians. are escorted off. Only those with the.

highest clearance are allowed near the. center of the impact. Guards are posted. facing out. The site is cleaned and. secured in 6 hours. Five alien bodies. are recovered. The aliens are described. the same way by many witnesses. [music]. About 4 ft tall, large heads, large. eyes, no ears, no nose, only nostrils, and small mouths. They had pale skin. At. first the bodies appeared to be without. clothes, but they were actually wearing. very tight-fitting [music] suits. The. bodies are covered by sheets, then.

placed in lead-lined body bags. John. McBoyle, a reporter for KSWRS radio in. Roswell, attempts to access [music] the. site. He calls the station and reports. seeing a crushed dishpan-like object and. a large military presence. Lydia Sleppy. from the parent station in Albuquerque. tries to broadcast his report. [music]. Sleppy receives a call from the FBI and. is ordered not to broadcast. [music]. Melvin E. Brown, who is on guard duty at. the impact site, has been ordered to not. look under the tarp. But the moment that. everyone's back is turned, he [music].

does. He sees the bodies of the alien. flight crew. He described them as small. with large heads and pale skin. Nearby, Mac Brazel discovers a large debris. field. He heads to the home of his. closest neighbors, Floyd and Loretta. Proctor. He shows them a little sliver. of material that he can neither burn nor. cut. The Proctor suggests he shows the. sheriff. He agrees and gathers pieces of. the wreckage and heads home for the. night. I remember he said something about um. [music]. that you could crumple it up and it.

would. pop back out. Military bases along the West Coast put. fighters on standby in case more flying. discs are seen. Bases in Oregon and. Washington have planes equipped with gun. cameras. They're put on airborne alert. In Roswell for a conference, C. Bertram. Schultz, a paleontologist, sees a large. military presence on Highway 285. He. doesn't realize until later why so many. soldiers were there. Local mortician. Glenn Dennis, contracting with the. airbase, receives an odd request for.

small caskets and later encountered. unusual debris at the hospital while. aiding an [music] injured airman. Dennis. is then confronted by officers who tell. him he's seen and heard nothing. They. say, quote, "If he opens his mouth, [music] they will be picking his bones. out of the sand.". And he did say, "Look, mister, you don't. go and start any rumors in Roswell. There's nothing happened out here.". And he said, "If you do, you you you. know, it'd be real serious problems.". And uh. then uh.

So, I just. being as. my character was at that time, I said, "I'm civilian. You can go to hell.". And that's where he said, "You may be. the one going to hell.". And then that's when he really told me, he said, "Somebody be picking your bones. out of the sand if you do that.". Back at the crash site, the bodies are. sealed into a long crate, which is taken. to a hangar and left overnight. The. crate is guarded by military police who. are ordered not to approach it. Melvin. Brown is once again standing guard.

Brown's commanding officer approaches. and says, "Come on, Brownie, let's have. a look inside." But, there's nothing to. see because everything has been packed. and crated ready for shipment. To where? The soldiers have no idea. William Woody and his father try to. drive out toward the area where they'd. seen the object coming down, but the. roads are blocked. The side roads off. Highway 285 from Vaughn and to the west. are guarded by military police who allow. no one to pass. Mac Brazel gets up early.

and drives to Roswell, about 75 miles. away. He stops at the office of Sheriff. George A. Wilcox. Wilcox is excited. about the find and notifies the military. at Roswell Army Air Field. While waiting. for the military officers to arrive, Wilcox sends two of his deputies to the. ranch. A reporter named Frank Joyce. contacts the sheriff's office to inquire. about any interesting events. Wilcox. directs him to Brazel. Colonel William. Blanchard, in charge of the 509th Bomb. Group, instructs Air Intelligence.

Officer Jesse A. Marcel to investigate. Marcel visits the sheriff's office. He. interviews Brazel, examines the. material, and then decides to visit. [music] the ranch himself. Marcel. returns to the base taking some debris. with him and reports his findings to. Blanchard. [music]. Convinced they have something highly. unusual, possibly of Soviet origin, Blanchard alerts his superiors. Marcel. comes back to the sheriff's office with. counterintelligence agent Captain. Sheridan Cavitt. They take Brazel back. to his ranch and inspect the debris. field. Following orders from General. Clements McMullen, Blanchard obtains.

more debris from the sheriff's office. It's sealed and transported to Fort. Worth Army Air Field, where Colonel. Thomas DuBose receives it for onward. transport to Washington, D.C. After. Marcel and Cavitt leave with Brazel, [music] the two deputies return to say. they didn't find the debris field, but. they did find a burned area in one of. the pastures where sand had been turned. to glass and blackened. It looked as if. something circular had touched down. At. Fort Worth Army Air Field, DuBose and. Colonel Allen D. Clark receive the.

debris and prepare to fly it to. Washington, D.C. and General McMullen. Because of the distance to the ranch. over roads that are less than adequate, Brazel, Marcel, and Cavitt don't arrive. until after dark. They stay at an old. ranch house nearby and wait for. daylight. A special flight departs for Andrews Air. Field in Washington, D.C. at 2:00 a.m. carrying the debris and the bodies. Brazel guides two military officers to. the crash site. The debris is thin as. paper, but incredibly sturdy. The metal.

paper reminds them of tin foil. They can. crumple it, but the metal immediately. returns to its original shape. Mac. Brazel is becoming inundated with media. requests. So, Walt Whitmore, Frank. Joyce's boss at KGFL, arranges to hide. Brazel at his own home. Marcel and. Cavitt comb the field's perimeter and. surrounding areas. They collect debris. and at dusk begin the trip back to. Roswell. Later in the afternoon, civilian reports come in regarding a. second crash site. Lieutenant General. Nathan F. Twining is commander of the.

Air Material Command at Wright Field, Ohio. AMC worked closely with industry. partners, research labs, and other. government agencies to advance aviation. technology. The general alters his plans. and flies into Alamogordo Army Field. Alamogordo Army Field, also known as. Holloman Air Force Base, is located. approximately 82 mi southwest of. Roswell, New Mexico. A few years later, a film would be leaked from Holloman. showing UFOs landing on the base.

General Carl Spaatz, commander of all. Army Air Forces, tells reporters that he. knows nothing about the flying discs or. the plans from various local units to. search for them. Walt Whitmore Sr., who. asked Brazel to stay the night in. Roswell at his home, now brings in KGFL. news. That evening, the station owner. and newsman Jed Roberts records an. interview with Brazel. The interview is. scheduled to be broadcast the following. morning. Roberts didn't know it at the. time, but that broadcast would never. happen.

[music]. [music]. At 2:00 a.m., Marcel stops at his house. on the way to the base, waking his wife. and son. They examine the debris on the. kitchen floor, believing it to be a. flying saucer. They load it into the car. with his son's help. At 6:00 a.m., Marcel and Cavitt inform Blanchard about. what they've seen. Blanchard orders. guards to secure the debris field, denying access to unauthorized.

individuals. Blanchard contacts Eighth. Air Force headquarters, dismissing the. possibility of material being from a. Soviet device. The message is relayed up. the chain of command to SAC. headquarters. During a staff meeting at. 7:30 a.m., the debris is discussed. Samples of the wreckage are examined, but no one can identify it. The main. concern is whether to disclose the. discovery to the public. General Raimy. proposes a plan to divert attention away. from the incident. Walt Whitmore at KGFL. receives a phone call from the FCC in.

Washington. He's told not to air the. interview with Mac Brazel. If he does, the station will lose its broadcast. license. Later, Senator Dennis Chavez, chairman of the Senate Appropriations. Committee, called Whitmore to strongly. advise him to do as he was instructed. Blanchard confers with higher. headquarters. Jesse Marcel is ordered to. Fort Worth. Mac Brazel, the ranch. foreman who first discovered the debris. field, was arrested and detained by the. US Army. He remained in custody for four. or five days. Brazel was denied access.

to a phone, was given an Army physical, and was subjected to rigorous. questioning and intimidation while under. arrest. Sheriff Wilcox returns to the. crash site with two deputies. Military. police deny them access. At 11:00 a.m., Colonel Blanchard announces the recovery. of a flying disc. Lieutenant Walter Haut. distributes the press release to radio. stations and newspapers. At 2:26 p.m., the story hits the AP wire. It reads, [music] "The Army Air Forces here today. announced a flying disc had been found.". The base receives so many calls that it.

becomes difficult to access an outside. line. Four minutes after this, at 2:30. p.m., Colonel Blanchard officially goes. on leave. Though he actually returns to. the site [music]. to oversee additional cleanup. He. deploys techniques learned from the less. reported UFO crash that occurred in. Missouri in 1941. At 3:00 p.m., Marcel is told that he's. going to Fort Worth with [music] the. wreckage. Only a few packages are loaded. onto the plane. One, a triangular. package about 2 ft long, is wrapped in. brown paper. The other three are about.

the size of shoe boxes. They're so light. that it feels as if there's nothing in. them. The special flight, a B-29, takes. off for the Fort Worth Army Airfield. Marcel arrives in Ramey's office with. some of the debris. The general wants to. see where the debris was found. Marcel. accompanies him to the map room. Once. Ramey is satisfied, [music] they walk. back to the general's office, but the. debris is gone. In its place is a. ripped-apart weather balloon scattered. on the floor. At 4:30 p.m., General. Roger Ramey, commander of the 8th Air.

Force and Blanchard's supervising. officer, presented to the press an. alternate [music] story. He claimed the. army had recovered a high-altitude. balloon. Warrant Officer Irving Newton. is ordered from the weather office at. the Fort Worth Army Airfield to Ramey's. office. Newton, in front of a small. number of reporters and officers, identifies the wreckage on the office. floor as a balloon. He's photographed. and sent back to his regular duties. The. press takes photographs of Jesse Marcel, General Ramey, and Thomas DuBose with. the balloon. At 6:17 p.m., the FBI sends.

a teletype message from the Dallas. office to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. telling him that a balloon is. responsible for the reports. The message. disputes General Ramey's announcement to. the press. At 7:30 p.m., the AP breaks. the news that [music] the Roswell flying. disc was a balloon. Ramey appears on a. radio station and confirms this. [music]. A few hours later, an unscheduled flight. arrives. An officer hands over more. sealed boxes of wreckage. At 11:59 p.m., the photographs are transmitted to New.

York for wide distribution. But, a small. hiccup in the official story. During the. entire process, Ramey held a memo in his. right hand. In the photos, the text is. very blurry, but by the early 2000s, software had improved to the point that. enhancing the memo became feasible. But. to do this, you'd need the original. negatives right from the camera, if they. still existed. Well, Stanton Friedman. looked into this, and it turned out the. negatives did still exist. So, he bought. them and had them analyzed.

So, can you read the words? Most of the words, yes. What's it say? Does it mention a. spaceship? It sure does. Stanton Friedman spent a lot of money to. recover the original photographic. negatives from the press conference. where the weather balloon was made. public. The negatives and prints made. from them [music] were subjected to. multiple levels of analysis. In at least. one of the photographs, the front face.

of the memo is clearly visible. Early. analysis showed that there were several. words that could be deciphered which had. electrifying implications. [music]. The words urgent, victims, wreck, and. the name of Air Force General Hoyt. Vandenberg came through very clearly. Also, references to a disc to be shipped. by B-29, which did happen. The message. then seems to imply that they should. misstate the meaning of the story. It. then suggests sending out public. relations officers with weather. balloons, that this would work if photos.

were used and demonstrated to the press. It did work. Morning newspapers report that the. flying saucer near Roswell is a weather. device. Second site cleanup resumes at. sunrise to ensure civilians don't. stumble upon the airfield. At 8:00 a.m., members of the First Air Transport Unit. load crates into C-54s. [music] Armed. guards watch as three or four aircraft. are loaded for transport to Kirtland Air. Force Base and then on to Los Alamos. Los Alamos was and might still be the.

most secure military facility in the. world. Colonel Blanchard personally. takes Haut to building 84, Hanger P-3, which is heavily guarded both inside and. out. [music]. Inside, Haut observes the recently. recovered object, 12 to 15 ft long, 6 ft. high, resembling an egg with a metallic. [music] surface. No windows, portholes, wings, tail section, or landing gear. were visible. He sees a couple of bodies. under a canvas tarp. [music] They have. large heads and are child-sized.

There's been so much that has been. brought forth. by legitimate people. that there had be something to it. And. apparently that what it was was. something that. crashed landed out there in the. desert. I'm from the league. More wreckage arrives at the base, boxed. into crates of various sizes and shapes. At noon, a crate guarded by MPs is moved. to bomb pit number one. It's unusual for. anything other than weapons to be stored.

there. In Roswell, Floyd Proctor and. Lyman Strickland spot Mac Brazel by. military officers, ignoring their. attempts to communicate, which is. strange. Photographer Robin Adair. receives a call from the main office in. New York, instructing him to head to. Roswell immediately. He flies over the. sites. He sees troops, vehicles, and. military police covering large areas. A. sealed unmarked wooden crate is brought. out and loaded into a B-29, tail number. 7301, bound for Fort Worth.

[music]. It's guarded by six armed MPs, never. allowing it out of their sight. Under. military escort, Mac Brazel is taken to. the offices of the Roswell Daily Record, where he provides reporters with a news. story. [music]. Later, reporter Frank Joyce points out. that this news story is much different. than his original account. Brazel. responds that it would be bad for him if. he didn't tell the news story. At 8:00. p.m., the B-29 flight crew is back. Again, they were not debriefed, but are. told that they have flown the general's. furniture to Fort Worth. They're.

cautioned not to tell anyone, including. their families, about the flight. As far. as anyone is concerned, the flight never. happened. At the debris field and impact site, cleanup is intense. No debris remains, and there's no sign they were ever. there. Military personnel return to. Sheriff Wilcox's office. [music]. and ask for a box of debris that he'd. been storing. Wilcox surrenders it. without protest. The debriefings of all witnesses are.

underway. Participants are taken into a. room in small groups and told that the. recovery is a highly classified event. Everyone is to forget that it ever. happened. The military warns civilians. around Roswell that they can never talk. about what happened. In some cases, the. witnesses are threatened with death. should they ever speak to anyone. Over. the next few years, the military. continued to search for and even find. more debris from the crash sites, but. they stonewalled long enough that the. public lost interest. Roswell was still. talked about in local UFO groups and.

zines, but those were considered fringe. But in 1978, Stanton Friedman brought. the Roswell incident to the mainstream. In 1980, Bill Moore and Charles Berlitz. Body language guy? Yep, that guy. Yeah. They wrote The Roswell Incident, which. sold a lot of copies. Roswell was. covered on TV shows like Unsolved. Mysteries and In Search Of, and later. [music] was featured prominently on The. X-Files. By the 1990s, everyone had. heard of Roswell, which forced the Air. Force to release that report in 1995.

This [music] brings us back to the. second Air Force report released in. 1997. And in this report, we finally. learn what happened to the bodies. [music]. In 1997, the Air Force released another. report about Roswell. It was called The. Roswell Report: Case Closed. This report. rehashed the Project Mogul balloon. explanation of the wreckage. It spent.

some time trying to discredit witnesses. and UFO investigators. And it explained. why there were eyewitness reports of. bodies. The Air Force said these. recovered alien bodies were actually. crash test dummies used in high altitude. parachute tests. Oh, this is going to be good. The project was code named Operation. High Dive. High Dive dropped hundreds of. dummies from various heights to see what. kind of falls could be survivable. Uh so the aliens everyone saw were. dummies? That's the word. I said they used 4-ft tall dummies with.

big heads, huh? Nope. The dummies were 6-ft tall, but. some were discovered burned so their. limbs were shorter. Um. Or they were damaged. Damage to the dummies included loss of. heads, arms, legs, and fingers. This. detail, dummies with missing fingers, appears to satisfy another element of. the research profile, aliens with only. four fingers. Uh you know, I think the real dummies. are the people who wrote this report. Yeah, I would agree that this is not as. satisfying an explanation as the Air.

Force thinks it is. Okay, okay, okay. Let's say the Air. Force is telling the truth, which. they're not, but let's just say they. really dropped dummies all over the. desert. Okay. And these dummies were confused with I. can't believe I'm even saying it. The. dummies were confused with 4-ft tall. aliens. Right. Why didn't you just tell us that in the. other report? Oh, because Operation High Jump, the. super secret high altitude dummy. dropping project, it didn't start until. 1953, 6 years after the Roswell crash.

Uh is this a joke? Nope. Uh they're talking about 1947, but you're talking about dummies used in. the uh in the '50s, almost a decade. later. Well, I'm I'm afraid that's the problem. that. [music]. we have with time compression. Oh, did he say time compression? Yeah, that's Air Force speak for people. got the dates wrong. Are you punking me? Well, what is this? The report even quotes an eyewitness. named Gerald Anderson who found bodies. that he said looked like plastic dolls.

Credible witness? Uh, I don't know. Maybe Gerald was a. very intelligent and observant. 5-year-old. Precocious, I think they. call it. They quoted a 5-year-old witness? They did. But to be fair, Gerald was 55. when they interviewed him. Okay, okay, let me get this straight. They interview a 55-year-old man who. tells them what he saw 50 years ago when. he was five? That's right. Geez, I haven't seen an investigation. this sloppy since uh. well, since every FBI investigation in. the last 5 years. Yeah, it wasn't convincing. This is a.

common government CYA technique. You. assert the outcome, then you have your. team of investigators and experts fill. in the details that eventually arrive at. your desired outcome, no matter how. ridiculous the details are. You mean like a bat kebab from a wet. market in the middle of nowhere? Well, that theory is still being. debated. Uh, let's stay focused. Uh, it's only fair that we present all. sides of the Roswell story. Now, the. timeline I went through earlier is all. from witness accounts and sworn. affidavits. There are a lot of accounts.

that I didn't cover because I couldn't. corroborate them. But even the witness. reports I did cover aren't perfect. I've. seen videos and books and articles say. that there were as many as 600. eyewitnesses who've come forward saying. they saw ships and debris and bodies. Now, maybe that's true, but I could only. find seven. Almost every witness account. comes from a friend or a spouse or a. child or grandchild of a witness. And. other witnesses have had trouble with. their stories. Loretta Proctor, who saw. the debris when Mac Brazel brought it to.

her house, said they couldn't burn the. metal. They tried bending it and cutting. it and they couldn't do it. That's a new. story. Her earlier story mentions. nothing about debris. In fact, she. specifically said she never saw debris. of any kind. Lydia Sleppy was the. teletype operator who claimed the FBI. interrupted her broadcast and ordered. her to stop, and there is no evidence of. this at all. Well, yeah, but a lot of evidence has. disappeared in this case. That's true, but I still would have. liked to have seen a memo about the. broadcast, and it's just not there. Melvin Brown was the guard who said he.

saw bodies on two different occasions, once at the crash site and once while. guarding the hangar. The truth is, his. story comes from his daughter, Beverly, who only mentioned Roswell many years. after her father died. Well, it doesn't mean it's not true. He. was guarding something. Yeah, but he wasn't a guard. He was a. cook. Oh. Cooks don't guard top secret military. facilities. No. But but but but but they they they they. they probably kept the aliens frozen, right? So he he was probably guarding a. freezer in the kitchen. Remember I said it's a government.

technique to start with an outcome, then. try to find facts to fit? That's that. Yeah, well, I'll chalk this one up to a. maybe. Major Jesse Marcel is one of my favorite. witnesses, but take his story with a. whole lot of salt. He used to exaggerate. his military record quite a bit. He. overstated his commendations, his rank, and his credentials. He claimed he was a. pilot and shot down five enemy aircraft. [music] He even said he flew the UFO. wreckage himself, but Marcel wasn't a. pilot. There's an evaluation report from. General Raimy himself who said Marcel.

was a competent officer, but quote, "Since this officer is not a rated. pilot, his assumption of the position of. commanding general is not a. consideration." Marcel was an. intelligence officer, before that an. administrative assistant, and before. that a photo interpretation and visual. aids officer. He never flew. He also. didn't have a degree in physics, which. he had claimed during some interviews. In 2020, Marcel's grandchildren. supposedly found his diary where he. documented everything he saw. This was.

both exciting and suspicious. Marcel. gave interviews for 20 years and never. mentioned a diary. Turned out [music] he. didn't write it, and we don't know who. did, so his story just got messier. Colonel Thomas DuBose was one of the men. photographed with Marcel with the. weather balloon. Not only did DuBose say. the wreckage was not switched, but he. would get pretty annoyed when asked. about it. [music]. He said the wreckage in the photos is. the same wreckage that Marcel brought. from Roswell. Glenn Dennis the mortician. gets a lot of things wrong. And I left. out most of his testimony because a big.

piece of his story is how he had a. friend who was a nurse on the base. They. had lunch one day, she showed him a. drawing of an alien body. Then [music]. she ended up dead, but this never. happened. Then there's Walter Haut, the. public relations officer who saw the. craft and the bodies. [music]. He gave a sworn affidavit to be released. after his death, signed and witnessed by. a notary, and [music] given after a. doctor pronounced him of sound mind. A. lot of the Roswell story comes from his. affidavit that he gave in 2002. But he. was interviewed in 2000, and he had.

trouble remembering everything. His. affidavit, however, was clear and. detailed. Turns out the affidavit was. written by a UFO author based on. interviews with Haut. Haut reviewed it, didn't make any changes, and signed it. Now, does that mean the affidavit is. wrong? No, it could be 100% true. [music]. But in every story about Roswell, it's. presented as Haut's words when it was. not. It's very possible that when he. signed the document, he didn't. understand what it was. But I've seen the interviews with him, and he did say everything was true. So,

he's a tricky one. Colonel Blanchard did. go on leave right after the crash, but. he didn't oversee any cleanup operation. He went on a 2-week vacation with his. wife to Santa Fe. [music]. Sure, these records could have been. falsified, but there's proof that he was. with the governor during this time. So, a lot of witnesses do change their story. over time, and that's to be expected. It's 50, 60, 70 years. But true. believers cherry-pick the best stories. and throw away all the rest. The truth. is, we will never really know what.

happened in Roswell in 1947. The records. are gone, the witnesses are dead. And. with all due respect to UFO researchers, they only write one side of the story. Skepticism doesn't sell. It doesn't. I believe something did. happen out there, but whether it was a. secret military program or an alien. crash site, I can't be sure. Well, this turned out to be a downer. But. Go on. in 2013, a document was found in the FBI. archives. It's written by Guy Hottel, special agent in charge of the. Washington office. It stated March 22nd,

1950, and the title is information. concerning flying saucers. An investigator for the Air Force has. stated that three so-called flying. saucers had been recovered in New. Mexico. They were described as being. circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 ft in diameter. Each. one was occupied by three bodies of. human shape, but only 3 ft tall, dressed. in metallic cloth of a very fine. texture.

That was sent to J. Edgar Hoover, the. director of the FBI, who declined to. pursue it, which leads [music] to one. final twist to the Roswell story. And. it's a twist that needs its own video. And if you want me to cover it, let me. know. In 1972, a witness came forward. with new information. Information that. was always hinted at, but now we have a. lot more details. Turns out, one of the. aliens recovered from Roswell stayed in. Los Alamos until 1952. Oh, he was in the freezer? No. He was alive. Huh?

And he had a lot to say. [screaming]. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. today. My name is AJ. There's. Hacklefish. Nanu nanu. This has been the Why Files. And if you. had fun or learned anything, do. Hacklefish a favor, like, subscribe, share, comment. That stuff really helps. us out and makes him so happy. And like. most topics we cover on the channel, today's was recommended by you. So, if. there's a story you'd like to see or. learn more about, go to the. whyfiles.com/tips. And if you'd like to join a great. community, check out the Why Files. Discord. It's free to join, there's.

thousands of people on there, and it's a. lot of fun. Now, special thanks to our. patrons who [music] make this channel. possible. You guys are amazing, and we. could not do this without you. And if. you'd like to support the channel, consider becoming a member on Patreon. For as little as three bucks a month, you can keep the Why Files going, and. you get all kinds of perks. Or, buy. something from the Why Files store. Oh, oh, oh, you can buy a talking. hecklefish plushy fish doll. Yeah, or t-shirts. Show it to people. I don't really. Show them! Fine.

I did. Who is it, people? Who is it, people? [music]. [screaming]. They're adorable. Well, that's one way to describe it. What I say? Well, that's going to do it. Until next. time, be safe, be kind, and know that. you [music]. are appreciated. Hello, you nasty. [music].

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