Roswell Myth Or Fact?

Thesis: Although the United States government vehemently denies having recovered a crashed alien spacecraft at Roswell New Mexico, I believe not only did the crash happen; the government is trying to cover up the crash still.

Outline 1. Introduction: What happened? a. Conflicting ideas about what happened.

b. Government agencies recovered wreckage c. Tried to cover it up 2. Pro UFO a. Unidentified objects being weather balloons and radar targets.

b. Dummy explanation.

c. Alien Autopsy d. Gerald Anderson Story 3. Against the landing a. Many things in the sky excuse.

b. Project Viking excuse.

c. Moby Dick excuse.

4. Conclusion: I believe aliens did crash land at Roswell. There are so many conflicting cover up stories it has to be true.

Myth Or Fact? In June of 1947 a UFO craze swept over America with the Air Force's announcement of the capture of a "flying disk", and then the quick retraction of that statement.

Grainy B&W image of supposed UFO, Passoria, New Je...

English: Picture of Gen. Roger Ramey's Memo

Roswell, NM

Conflicting explanations of the find as weather balloons and radar targets can be found in almost every piece of literature written on the Roswell incident. I in fact believe that there were aliens recovered at Roswell and hope to prove my theory correct by showing the conflicting information given by the USAF in a scramble to cover the incident up. The rumor that government agencies had secretly recovered wreckage and bodies from a crashed UFO began circulating, around the country in 1947 when the crash took place. For a few hours after the crash radio broadcasts and newspaper headlines all over the world reported that the United States Air Force had recovered a "flying disk" that was not of this world. This, space ship story was believed by all until the rumor was quickly squashed by an USAF official saying that the crash was just a weather balloon that had fallen to earth after a malfunction. After the announcement of the weather balloon most people forgot what happened at Roswell all together. Just recently in the 80's and 90's was there a rekindled interest in the Roswell Aliens. (Clark, 121) Nowadays, UFO believers maintain that the announcement of the "flying disk" came from Col. Blanchard, one of the highest, ranking officials stationed at the Air Base in New Mexico. And of course how could one of the highest officials in the military have mistaken a weather balloon for a UFO? (Churchill, 5) There are many different stories recollecting what actually happened at Roswell. To form an educated opinion on whether an alien spacecraft actually did land in the desert in New Mexico one `must look at the situation from all different viewpoints. There is the view of the U.S. Air Force that has had a different excuse each time someone calls them on a mistake they made. First they said the unidentified object was a radar target then they said it was a weather balloon. Then when the controversy about the alien corpses arose the USAF said the bodies allegedly found in Roswell were "crash dummies" from high atmospheric testing. (Thomas, 17) Most firm UFO believers say that the government used the anthropomorphic test dummies as an excuse to cover up the fact that they found nonhuman forms at the crash sight.

The first USAF Roswell report done in 1995 focused on the actual events of 1947, and in particular, on a June 1947 New York University balloon experiment. The debris from that experiment was widely regarded as the best explanation for the "Roswell incident". (Thomas, 18) After the 1995 report the Air Force was criticized for failing to interview witnesses who claimed to have seen actual bodies of aliens, even though reports of alien bodies did not surface until decades after the original event.

In response to the criticism, the USAF examined the alien body stories. The result of this investigation is known as "The Roswell Report: Case Closed". (Clark, 119) This report presented new explanations for the alien bodies and many other elements in the Roswell case. The USAF stated that the reports of alien bodies and unidentified crafts could have had several sources, including high-altitude drops of test dummies and one particularly severe military aircraft accident.

"Case Closed" was introduced to the media and the public in a very poorly executed Pentagon Briefing on June 24, 1997. (Clark, 119) The officer who gave the presentation had not been briefed, and the reports author, Captain James McAndrew, was nowhere to be seen. The UFO Community was quick to sound the attack, with comments like "Dummies? The only dummies are the Air Force people who thought we'd buy this yarn!" (Pflock, 1994) The fact that the dummy drops did not occur until several years after the actual incident in 1947 was also widely scrutinized.

Critics of the Air Force Report still believe that the dummy drops were years too late to account for the supposed bodies found at Roswell. This is because the dummy drops ran between 1954 and 1959, several years after the alleged crash. There is only one problem; most of the witnesses linked to the alien bodies did not come out until many years after the investigation. One witness that believed these bodies to be aliens said "The mouth apparently does not function as a means of communication or as an orifice for food ingestion, and there are no teeth"¦. There was no hair on the head"¦. No perspiration or body odor" (Randle, 82) The now infamous "alien autopsy" comes into play. Glenn Dennis was the mortician who was told about the mysterious alien autopsy. The nurse who allegedly witnessed the autopsy was nowhere to be found and it appeared that she wasn't even in the country anymore. The nurse described the autopsy as being two entities that were soaked in gasoline and were very badly burned. Now the only nurse at Roswell Army Air Field in 1947 was 1st Lt. Eileen Fanton who has long since died. After looking at the military aircraft accidents in Roswell it was found that the only burn victims to come through for an autopsy were from a KC-97 accident in 1956 several years after the incident. (Park, 4) One of the greatest and most reliable stories comes from one Gerald Anderson. In July 1947 Anderson and his family believed to have stumbled upon what they believed to be the main ship near the plains of St. Agustin which is located to the east of the Roswell, Corona area. The first thing Anderson noticed was a large circular silver object stuck up in one of the trees. Next Anderson noticed that all around the sight there was a lot of burning sagebrush that had been torn up in the crash. After mentioning this he describes the "alien bodies". He said that the creatures were dead and almost looked like dolls. (Friedman, 90-92) All the testimony given by Anderson was extracted from his family diary and can be rectified with multiple storied and relevant phone bills. (Klass, 56) Major Jesse Marcel, who was one of the key players in the Roswell incident, and did not get interviewed publicly about what happened in 1947 until almost thirty years after 1947. Marcel is often quoted as saying that the debris were "not from earth" (Korf, 108). But a very revealing statement by Marcel was given in an interview conducted by Bob Pratt of the National Inquirer on December 8,1979. When Pratt asked if the debris were a rocket or not Marcel replied "Oh, no. Unh. Unh. I've seen rockets. I've seen rockets sent up at the White Sands testing grounds. It defiantly was not part of an aircraft, nor a missile or rocket" (Pflock, 1994).

The critic's main weapon against the idea of an alien landing at Roswell is the fact that there were so many things in the sky that could be mistaken for a UFO that it is hard to say whether or not a UFO was actually sighted. Most critics say that weather balloons called skyhooks are the most likely source of the sighting. This is because of their shiny brilliance and changing colors when flying high in the stratosphere, reflecting light from the sun when the rest of the world beneath is still dark. In 1942, the Air Force group stationed at Roswell launched "Project Viking" nose cones from Roswell. These scientific platforms look exactly like a UFO and have routinely generated many UFO sightings despite the largely publicized preflight publicity. (Peebles, 25) Another tool in the critic's war to decimate any possibility of the UFO sighting is the fact that tethered mini blimps were used to measure low level launch winds at Roswell for the Viking project. Seen from a distance these blimps also resemble spaceships and probably account for some of the sightings of UFO's in the area.

So far the closest any critic has gotten to dismiss the Roswell accident with an army operation was that of the New York University atmospheric tests. What was dubbed the "Moby Dick" project according to most critics it was a secret test and in July 1947 one balloon was lost and recovered somewhere near Roswell. When in fact Bernard Gildenberg who actually participated in the tests noted that: 1. The tests were not secret, 2. The project was run by the USAF and not NYU and, 3. It actually did not start until December 1951.

After putting all the facts together it is very oblivious what happened on that July day in 1947. It can be seen that after a spacecraft crash-landed in Roswell killing its occupants the United States government tried to cover the crash up. At first the officers on the scene were glad to share information on what had happened; but for some unknown reason every person that knew about it suddenly either had no comment or told some story. That sounds like something our government would do in order to hide the alien technology keeping it for us and only us. The only fault on the government's part was the fact that every story they told conflicted in some way and after one story would be dismissed a whole other story was used to explain the crash.

It is obvious to me that we are not alone in this universe. Space is the only place that is now still unknown. After all if there is other intelligent life out there is it so far fetched to believe that another race of life was able to travel to our world? I don't think so do you? Works Cited Clark, Jerome, The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial. Detroit: Omnigraphics 1997 Churchill, Martha A. A Skeptic Living In Roswell.

Skeptical Inquirer, June 1998.

Klass, Philip J. The Real Roswell Crashed Saucer Coverup.

New York: Prometheus Books, 1997 Korff, Kal K. What Really happened at Roswell Skeptical Inquirer, July 1997.

Park, Robert L. Welcome To Planet Earth.

Sciences, May 2000 Pflock, Karl T. The Roswell Prospective.

Washington D.C.: Fund for UFO Research, inc. 1994 Pleebls, Curtis. Watch The Skies: A Chronicle Of a Flying Saucer Myth.Washington DC. : Smithsonian Institution,1995 Randle, Kevin, and Donald Schmitt. The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell. New York: Avon Books, 1994 Thomas, David E. The Real Roswell Crash Saucer Coverup.

Skeptical Inquirer, May 1998.

English: Roswell International Air Center, Roswell...

Roswell, NM

Enlisted men of Base Photo drawing cameras to go u...