The town of Roswell, New Mexico became obsessed with aliens and UFOs in the summer of 1947 after a commercial pilot saw several strange objects flying over Washington state.
The pilot couldn’t explain where the objects had come from, but he did supply reporters with a peculiar description of the objects. He said that they looked like “saucers skipping across water” therefore, making the term “flying saucers” a common phrase included in newspaper headlines around the world.
Just days after the pilot claimed to see flying saucers, many people were struck with surprise after a man named William Brazel reported yet another unexplainable incident. In the desert of Roswell, New Mexico, Brazel slept restlessly through an electric storm until he woke up to a sound that was definitely not a crash of thunder, but what sounded like an electrical explosion.
That morning, he walked outside of his tiny cabin to check on his animals, and noticed none of them would cross the pasture. Curious, Brazel walked onto the pasture and stumbled upon strange debris. It was light in weight, incredibly strong and was scattered among an area about 100 ft wide and three quarters of a mile long. As Brazel further investigated, he came to find that the debris looked much like aluminum but no matter how many times it was folded, it would unfold to its original form and was impossible to tear.
Brazel called a friend and frantically told him about his discoveries. But when Brazel started to speak of a horrible smell, accompanied by many discarded non-human bodies, his friend began to question Brazel’s sanity and suggested he call the US Army Air Corps for assistance. Major Jesse Marcel was the man who picked up the call and went to the pasture to investigate the peculiar details of Brazel’s story.
Marcel was completely puzzled. He collected the debris and took it to the Roswell airbase where the commander insisted a press release be issued in order to inform the public that a “flying disk” was in the possession of the Army. Shortly after, headlines splashed across many newspapers, and the world’s attention was directed toward Roswell.
Then within hours, the debris was shipped to Write Field, in Dayton, Ohio for further investigation. En route, Marcel was ordered to escort the found materials to what was then known as the Fort Worth Army Air Field in Texas, where General Roger Ramey took over.
After Marcel showed Ramey the debris, both of them stepped into a nearby room, and when they returned, Marcel found that the debris he brought to the base had been allegedly replaced with a common weather balloon. After taking many staged photos with the weather balloon, Ramey released a new statement: “There was no flying disc involved here, just an ordinary weather balloon.”
While some of these metal pieces were being featured in the media, the real fragments were still on their way to Ohio, and in Roswell, Brazel was being questioned as every shred of debris was combed from his ranch. Also, after the new statement was released every witness to any aspect of the crash was ordered by government officials to avoid the press and keep quiet about any suspicions they might have had about the possible existence of aliens.
Although this incident occurred more than 60 years ago, many people are still questioning its validity. Lieutenant Walter Haut, who was in charge of public relations for the U.S. Army, died in 2005, but left behind a sworn affidavit testifying that the real materials had been intercepted by the Army. It also says that the real materials are currently stored in a military hangar, and that he witnessed alien craft and alien bodies as well.
Just before his death in 2010, 77-year-old Dr. Edgar Mitchell, an astronaut on the 1971 Apollo 14 Moon Mission, stated in an interview that he believed the incident has been covered up, that aliens definitely exist, and that they’ve visited this planet. Mitchell grew up in Roswell, and has spoken with many people who vividly recall the secrecy surrounding the crash. From what they have told him, he has been convinced that there is life, probably more advanced than our own, on other planets. He says, “Our destiny, in my opinion, is [to] become a part of the planetary community. We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there.”
Perhaps Dr. Mitchell is right. Maybe we should be making more of an effort to connect with our distant friends and visit other planets, but why on earth would anyone want to leave New Mexico?
