Page 13 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - March 2012

What Happened At Roswell, NM? What Happened At Roswell, NM? The “incident at Roswell” is probably the biggest UFO story in history to date. Was it a military balloon... or an alien spacecraft? You be the judge. THE FIRST FLYING SAUCERS In 1947, US Forest Service pilot Kenneth Arnold was flying over the Cascade Mountains in Washington State in search of a missing plane when he spotted what he claimed were nine “disc-shaped craft.” He calculated them to be moving at speeds of 1,200 miles per hour, far faster than any human-built aircraft of the 1940’s could manage. When Arnold talked to reporters after the flight, Arnold said the crafts moved “like a saucer skipping over water,” and a newspaper editor, hearing the description, called the base, in Fort Worth, Texas, where it was photograph it, objects “flying saucers.” Thus, the expression examined further. “flying saucer” entered the English language, Mr. Brazel’s Unusual Behavior and a UFO craze much like the one that SUSPICIOUS FACTS followed Orson Welles’s 1938 broadcast of War * Mac Brazel refused to talk about the of the Worlds swept the country. “Almost Was the Wreckage from Outer Space? incident for the rest of his life, even with instantly,” Dava Sobel writes in his article The members of his immediate family, except to say Truth About Roswell, “believable witnesses * Brazel and the Proctors examined that, “whatever the wreckage was, it wasn’t any from other states and several countries reported some of the debris before rendering it to the type of balloon.” Why the silence? His son Bill similar sighting, enlivening wire-service military. Although it seemed flimsy at first, it explains: “ The Air Force asked him to take an dispatches for days.” was extremely resilient. “We tried to burn it, but oath that he wouldn’t tell anybody in detail it wouldn’t ignite,” Loretta recalled. “We tried about it. My dad was such a guy that he went to THE ROSWELL DISCOVERY to cut it and scrape at it, but a knife wouldn’t his grave and never told anyone.” touch it... It looked like wood or plastic, but * Kevin Randle and Donald Schmitt, It was in this atmosphere that William “Mac” back then we didn’t have plastic. Back then we authors of UFO Crash at Roswell, claim that Brazel made an unusual discovery. On July 8, figured it doesn’t look like a weather balloon. I shortly after Brazel had his famous discovery, 1947, while riding across his ranch 26 miles don’t think it was something from Earth.” “His neighbors noticed a change in his outside of Roswell, New Mexico, he came lifestyle... He suddenly seemed to have more across some mysterious wreckage - sticks, foil, The Military’s About-Face money... When he returned, he drove a new tape and other debris. Brazel had never seen pickup truck...he also had the money to buy a anything like it, but UFOs were on his mind. * The morning after the military took new house in Tularose, New Mexico, and a He’d read about Arnold’s sighting in the possession of the wreckage the media relations meat locker in Las Cruces.” Randle and Schmitt newspaper and had heard about a national officer at Roswell hand-delivered a news believe the military may have paid Brazel for contest offering $3,000 to anyone who release to the two radio stations and newspapers his silence. recovered a flying saucer. He wondered if he’s in town. The release stated that the found in stumbled across just the kind of evidence the Brazel’s field was a “flying disc,” which in the TRUST ME contest organizers were looking for. 1940s was synonymous with “flying saucer.” It Brazel gathered a few pieces of the stuff was the first time in history that the U.S. Today, if the government announced it and showed it to his neighbors, Floyd and military had ever made such a claim. had captured a UFO - even if it was mistaken - Loretta Proctor. The Proctor’s didn’t know what * A few hours later, though, the military and tried to change its story a few hours later by it was, either. And neither did George Wilcox, changed its story: it issued a new press release claiming it was really a weather balloon, the county sheriff. So Brazel contacted officials claiming that the wreckage was that of a nobody would buy it. But people were more at the nearby Roswell Army Air Force base to weather balloon carrying a radar target, not a trusting in the years just following World War see if they could help. “flying disc.” But it was too late - the II. Amazingly, the story died away. As Dava The next day, an Army Intelligence newspaper deadline had already passed. They Sobel writes: Officer named Jesse Marcel went out to ran the first news release on the front page, “The Army’s announcement of the Brazel’s ranch to have a look. He was baffled as under the headline ‘weather balloon’ explanation ended the flying everyone else. “I saw... small bits of metal,” he AIR FORCE CAPTURES FLYING SAUCER saucer excitement. All mention of the craft recalled to reporters years later, “but mostly we ON RANCH IN ROSWELL REGION dropped from the newspapers, from military found some material that’s hard to describe.” Other newspapers picked up the story and ran it records, from the national consciousness, and Some of it “looked very much like parchment,” as well; within 24 hours, news of the military’s even from the talk of the town in Roswell.” and some of it consisted of square sticks as long “capture” spread around the globe. Even the Roswell Daily Record - which as four feet. Much was metallic. * Interest in the story was so great that broke the story in the first place - was satisfied The stuff was also amazingly light - the next day, Brig. Gen Roger Ramey, with the military’s explanation. A few days later, brazel later estimated that all the scraps together commander of the U.S. Eighth Air Force, had to it ran a headline that was even bigger than the didn’t weigh more than five pounds. Marcel and hold a press conference in Fort Worth in which first one: his assistant had no trouble loading all the he again stated that the recovered object was GENERAL RAMEY EMPTIES ROSWELL debris into their cars and driving it back to the only a weather balloon and a radar target that SAUCER Roswell base. was suspended from it. He even displayed the The next day, Marcel took it to another wreckage for reporters and allowed them to Continued on Page 14