Page 79 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Jan-Feb 2018, Vol 27, No 1

What Really Happened at Roswell 79

What Really Happened at

Roswell

by Kal K. Korff
Host of XZBNs
Kal’s Korner
www.xzbn.net

The Roswell UFO crash “mystery” has now
been solved. No extraterrestrial spacecraft was holiday weekend in 1947 when a rancher named game as well.
involved. What did stimulate the original report William “Mac” Brazel reported to the local In the pro-UFO book The Truth About
was, however, quite interesting, although sheriff, George Wilcox, that he might have the UFO Crash at Roswell, Kevin Randle and
decidedly earthly. recovered the remains of “one of them flying Donald Schmitt note the fact that Bill Moore,
saucers.” Wilcox, according to various accounts, coauthor of The Roswell Incident (1980),
According to much widely held public opinion, then contacted military authorities at nearby interviewed “more then seventy witnesses who
the United States government successfully Roswell Army Air Field, where Major Jesse had some knowledge of the [Roswell UFO
recovered the remains of a crashed UFO along Marcel was assigned to investigate. crash] event.” Indeed, both Friedman and
with its extraterrestrial occupants near Roswell, Marcel and two Counter Intelligence Moore, around the time of the initial publication
New Mexico, in July 1947. In what is now Corps agents, Sheridan Cavitt and Lewis of The Roswell Incident, boasted that they had
known as the “the Roswell incident,” the U.S. Rickett, drove out to the ranch where Brazel interviewed more than “ninety witnesses.”
military is said to have quickly covered up the worked to examine and collect the wreckage. On While these double-digit figures are
affair and continues to shroud it in extreme July 8, 1947, the public information office at certainly accurate, the presentation of such a
secrecy even today. Roswell AAF made the startling announcement seemingly impressive number of witnesses by
If these events surrounding Roswell in that they had recovered the remains of a “flying themselves, without qualification, is misleading.
the summer of 1947 actually took place, as have disc.” The relevant issue is not how many witnesses
been claimed in several books on the subject and However, by the next day the excitement were interviewed, but rather what type of
by numerous UFO researchers, it would was over. Brigadier General Roger Ramey, who witnesses (i.e., firsthand, secondhand), and how
certainly constitute the story of the millennium had ordered the wreckage sent to him for truthful and accurate their statements were.
and be the greatest government-sponsored examination at Carswell Air Force Base (also Unfortunately, a careful reading of Bill
coverup of all time. Indeed, should irrefutable known as Fort Worth), held a press conference, Moore and Charles Berlitz’s Roswell Incident
evidence ever surface that any government on with Major Marcel present, and announced that reveals that, despite the impressive claim of
this earth possessed the physical remains of all the hoopla had been over a mistaken weather having “interviewed more than seventy
either an extraterrestrial spacecraft or its balloon, and nothing more. witnesses,” the testimonies of just twenty-five
occupants, it is an understatement to say that With Ramey’s deflating announcement, people are presented. Out of these twenty-five,
such a revelation would fundamentally the Roswell “flying saucer” story was only seven of them are firsthand sources who
transform humanity as we know it. effectively dead and would remain so for claim to have seen the alleged saucer debris, and
What does one do with the numerous decades. Then, in 1978, UFO researcher Stanton one of these accounts is suspect. Of these seven
claims about Roswell that have surfaced over Friedman happened to meet Marcel. Because people, however, only five claim to have
the years? How does one begin to determine the Marcel dredged up his recovered-saucer story, actually handled the material personally, and
truth about what really happened in 1947 and and Friedman thought he had at last found a one of them is adamant that it was not from an
sort the fact from the fiction? “star” witness who could blow open the U.S. extraterrestrial spacecraft.
The Roswell incident, and all that government’s alleged cover-up of crashed The remainder of the professed
surrounds it, is a complex web of events, not saucers and pickled aliens, the Roswell myth “witnesses” cited in The Roswell Incident are
easily understandable nor explainable until began anew, with Friedman as its most vocal either secondhand sources (whose testimonies
examined fully and in painstaking detail. In my (and visible) champion. constitute hearsay) or people who saw no
new book, The Roswell UFO Crash: What They wreckage at all or were never present at the
Don't Want You to Know (Prometheus Books “Hundreds of Witnesses” “debris field” during the critical time. In other
1997), I undertake such a dissection. The book words, they are not actually witnesses in the true
presents the results of some sixteen years of In the pro-UFO community, much fanfare has sense of the word.
research and, for all practical purposes, leaves been made over the years about the “dozens” or
no stone unturned. The Roswell “mystery” has even “hundreds of eyewitnesses” to the alleged Father Time and Flawed Memories
been solved, and there is no credible evidence UFO crash near Roswell.
that the remains of an extraterrestrial spacecraft If the near-holy reverence for the number While the pro-UFO community and the Roswell
was involved. of alleged witnesses surrounding the Roswell authors stress the number of witnesses, another

affair were limited to just the UFO buffs who factor in their firm belief that an extraterrestrial
The Original Roswell Event have conducted no direct research of their own, spacecraft crashed at Roswell is the apparent
this situation might be understandable. consistency of the eyewitness testimonies.
For non—UFO buffs, the Roswell incident However, this is not the case, for the authors of
effectively began after the Fourth of July numerous Roswell books play the numbers (Continued on Page 80)