Thomas DuBose and the Switched Roswell Debris

Let’s chase a footnote or two, something we haven’t done for a while. I was reading a paper that was discussing the debris displayed on the floor in Brigadier General Roger Ramey’s office. Photographs of the debris were found decades ago and some of the

Brigadier General Roger Ramey and
Thomas DuBose (seated) looking at
the material on the floor in
Ramey's office.

negatives are housed in the Special Collections in the library at the University of Texas at Arlington. It is clear in the uncropped photographs that the material on the floor of Ramey’s office is a weather balloon and the torn-up remnants of a rawin reflector. The discussion was that the material shown there had been switched from the real debris that Major Jesse Marcel had brought from Roswell. In this latest analysis, it was said that the debris had not been switched, which, of course, means that a weather balloon had been brought from Roswell by Marcel. You can read about this here:

An Extraterrestrial Flying Disk Crashed Near Roswell in 1947: Not a UFO

The specific quote in that paper concerning all this is, “Decades later, during an interview, DuBose was asked if the original debris in General Ramey’s office had been switched with the remnants of a weather balloon [as Marcel had claimed]. DuBose answered that the material was never switched.”

Footnotes in that article, lead us to Kal Korff. That specific quote is in the middle of information that was attributed to Korff in an article that appeared in The Skeptical Inquirer Volume 21.4, found at:

https://www.csicop.org/si/show/what_really_happened_at_roswell

Specifically, the quote is this:

Q. There are two researchers ([Don] Schmitt and Randle) [parenthetical statement in the original] who are presently saying that the debris in General Ramey’s office had been switched and that you men had a weather balloon there in its place.

A. [DuBose] Oh Bull! That material was never switched!

Q. So what you’re saying is that the material in General Ramey’s office was the actual debris brought from Roswell?

A. That’s absolutely right.

Later, to reinforce this idea, Korff in that same article wrote:

Q. Did you get a chance to read the material and look at the pictures?

A. Yes, and I studied the pictures very carefully.

Q. Do you recognize that material?

A. Oh yes. That’s the material that Marcel brought into Fort Worth from Roswell.

Given the way the article is structured and the information provided, that would be the end of the trail. Korff provided no footnotes or references for the quoted material, only that DuBose denied the material had been switched. It leaves the impression that Korff might have conducted the interview, though that is not said anywhere in the article. We just have DuBose quoted as the source with no information on how those quotes were gathered.

That might have been a problem for someone not immersed in the Roswell minutia who wished to chase footnotes. I know, however, where the quotes come from originally. They appeared in Korff’s less than accurate account of his alleged investigation into the Roswell case. He wrote on page 129 of the hardback edition of his crummy book:

In a revealing interview he granted to UFO researcher and television producer Jamie Shandera, DuBose put to rest the “mystery” of the so-called substituted wreckage and has exposed it for what it is – another Major Marcel myth! The initials “JHS” stand for Jaime Shandera and the initials “GTD” denote Gen. Thomas DuBose.

In this version, which now gives us more information about who conducted the interview (including the initials of the participants rather than a “Q” and “A”), Korff wrote:

JHS. There are two researchers (Schmitt and Randle) [parenthetical statement in the original] who are presently saying that the debris in General Ramey’s office had been switched and that you men had a weather balloon there in its place.

GTD. Oh Bull! That material was never switched!

JHS. So what you’re saying is that the material in General Ramey’s office was the actual debris brought from Roswell?

GTD. That’s absolutely right.

JHS: Could General Ramey or someone else have ordered a switch without you knowing it?

GTD: I have dame good eyesight – well, it was better back then than it is now – and I was there, and I had charge of the material, and it was never switched. [Emphasis added] [by Korff in the original].

You’ll note that this is the same interview that appeared in The Skeptical Inquirer. The footnotes in the book take us to Focus, Volume 5, (New Series) dated June 30, 1990. It was also published in the MUFON UFO Journal, No. 273, in January 1991. The quotes are the same in all these various locations, so that we have traced the original back to interviews conducted by Shandera.

Here’s what we learn about those interviews. “…Gen. DuBose was recently interviewed first by telephone and later at his home by Fair Witness Project [Bill Moore’s organization to investigate UFOs] Board member Jaime Shandera.”

We now know who gathered the information, when it was gathered (meaning late 1990 and early 1991), and what it is claimed to have been said. But, unlike many of these chasing footnotes articles, there is more to the story. I have a great deal of other information that affects how this all plays out and it was information available to anyone who looked for more than just their confirming evidence...

First, according to both General and Mrs. DuBose, Shandera neither recorded the conversation held at the DuBose home, nor did he take notes. We’re left with only Shandera’s claims of what was said, and the information in quotation marks is more likely a paraphrase than actual quotes. There is no way to verify the accuracy of the quotes.

Although Shandera has been asked, he apparently did not record the telephone conversation either. He has never suggested that he took any notes during that conversation, so, once again, we have no way to verify the veracity of his claims.

On the other hand, DuBose was interviewed in Florida by Don Schmitt and Stan Friedman on August 10, 1991. That interview was recorded on video tape so that a record of DuBose’s exact words is available for review. In that interview, DuBose was asked pointedly if he had ever seen the Roswell debris and he responded, "NEVER!" That means, quite clearly, that the debris in Ramey’s office was not what had been brought from Roswell.

After the Shandera interview was published, DuBose was again interviewed and asked if he had ever seen the real debris and again he answered, "NO!" And, again, that refutes the information that is traced back to a single source, which is Shandera.

This could be construed as just another debate between two factions with no way to resolve it. However, DuBose spoke to others when asked about this particular point. Billy Cox, at the time a writer for Florida Today interviewed DuBose for an article he wrote for the November 24, 1991, edition of the newspaper. Cox reported that DuBose told him essentially the same story that he told the others except Shandera. Here was a disinterested third-party reporting on the same set of circumstances, but he didn't get Shandera's version of the events.

In a letter Cox send me dated September 30, 1991:

I was aware of the recent controversy generated by an interview he (DuBose) had with Jaime Shandera, during which he stated that the display debris at Fort Worth was genuine UFO wreckage and not a weather balloon, as he had previously stated. But I chose not to complicate matters by asking him to illuminate what he had told Shandera; instead, I simply asked him, without pressure, to recall events as he remembered them...he seemed especially adamant about his role in the Roswell case. While he stated that he didn't think the debris was extraterrestrial in nature (though he had no facts to support his opinion), he was insistent that the material that Ramey displayed for the press was in fact a weather balloon, and that he had personally transferred the real stuff in a lead-lined mail pouch to a courier going to Washington ...I can only conclude that the Shandera interview was the end result of the confusion that might occur when someone attempts to press a narrow point of view upon a 90-year-old man. I had no ambiguity in my mind that Mr. DuBose was telling me the truth.

Cox isn't the only one to hear that version of events from DuBose. Kris Palmer, a former researcher with NBC's Unsolved Mysteries reported much the same thing in 1991. When she spoke with DuBose, he told her that the real debris had gone on to Washington in a sealed pouch and that a weather balloon had been on the floor in General Ramey's office.

Don Ecker

But the most enlightening of the interviews comes from Don Ecker formerly of UFO magazine and now the host of Dark Matters Radio on KGRA digital radio. Shandera had called Ecker, telling him that he would arrange for Ecker to interview DuBose about this issue. Ecker, however, didn't wait and called DuBose on his own. DuBose then offered the weather balloon/switch version of events. When Ecker reported that to Shandera, Shandera said for him to wait. He'd talk to DuBose.

After Shandera talked to DuBose, he called Ecker and said, "Now call him." DuBose then said that the debris on the floor hadn't been switched and that it was the stuff that Marcel had brought from Roswell. It should be pointed out here that Palmer called DuBose after all this took place. Without Shandera there to prime the pump, DuBose told weather balloon/switch version of events. It was only after close questioning by Shandera could that version be heard. It is not unlike a skillful attorney badgering a witness in a volatile trial. Under the stress of the interview and the close questioning, the witness can be confused for a period of time. Left alone to sort out the details, the correct version of events bubbles to the surface.

The point here is that sometimes following the footnotes to their source isn’t enough. You have to explore other avenues of information to ensure that the footnotes are accurate. In this case, because I’m immersed in the minutia of Roswell, I knew where to look for the additional information and that additional information paints a different picture than that found if you only followed the footnotes to Korff.

Brigadier General Arthur Exon and J. Bond Johnson

The other day I was interviewed by Whitley Strieber for his radio show/podcast about my book, Encounter in the Desert. I mentioned the book just because I could and hope that some of you will be inspired to buy it.

Anyway…

During the course of the interview, we touched on the Roswell UFO crash case, and he mentioned Brigadier General Arthur Exon who had become one of the important witnesses in the case. He said that Exon was a witness that Stan Friedman had found but I said, “No,” I had discovered Exon (this is

BG Arthur Exon

something that has happened before… Friedman getting credit for something he hadn’t done, and yes, I can provide other examples).

Naturally, he asked how I had learned of Exon, and I explained that J. Bond Johnson had mentioned the name to me and I had tracked him down, calling him in 1990. But, that got me to thinking about all this and I went back to my notes and files about the interviews with Exon.

For those who don’t know, I had called him, but rather than mention Roswell, I said that I was interested in tracking some of the information about ATIC and Project Blue Book, retrieval operations or four separate incidents, figuring that once we got into the topic of UFOs, we could expand from that.

After we had discussed those incidents, which had nothing to do with Roswell and the name of the town hadn’t even been mentioned, we did finally get to the meat of the interview. Most of that isn’t all that important here. I did ask him if he had heard about the rumors of little bodies and he said, “Well, yes, I have. In fact, I know people that were involved in photographing some of the residue from the New Mexico affair near Roswell.”

And that was the first mention of Roswell in the conversation.

I asked if this was from 1947 and he said, “Yeah. It was in the late 40s.”

He then said, “What they had done… this fellow was in [the] PR business apparently in command there at Roswell at the time of the sighting was found when the rancher reported it and some of the people as you obviously know collected a good bit of the information and took it into the commander’s office and took photographs. This fellow took the photographs of the residue. I’m talking about metal and stuff.”

I suppose you all can figure out the next question I asked. “Do we know his name?”

Exon said, “His name is Johnson. He lives here in Long Beach…”

Naturally, I said, “I know him. James Bond Johnson.”

Exon said that he didn’t know him all that well but did say that he had his telephone number. I already had that as well.

Yes, I know what you all are thinking but that interview took place on May 19, 1990, before we all learned the truth about Johnson and his ever-shifting story. At the time I knew that Johnson held a commission and was a colonel in the Reserve. I hadn’t really thought about this in a long time, and in 1990, I didn’t realize the importance of the statement.

And, to be fair, I did provide copies of the transcript to several people including Philip Klass, Karl Pflock, Don Schmitt and Tom Carey. One page was missing from that I had sent Klass, and I replaced it. The point is that these people, and probably a couple more have had this information almost from the time that I collected it. Had the Air Force, during their investigation contacted me about Roswell, I would have sent them copies of the tape. In fact, I offered copies of a number of the taped interviews to them, but they seem uninterested in them. I always thought it was because they didn’t want to have to attack the reputation of a general officer.  Had they taken the tapes, they would have had all this information as well.

The other thing here is that Exon was right about knowing one of the photographers who took pictures of the residue. Johnson did take them and it was from Johnson that I got Exon’s name. I shared that information with Stan Friedman when were both in Roswell to film the segment of Unsolved Mysteries that dealt with Roswell.

What is the take away here?

Exon’s information about the photographer isn’t startling, and in fact, is somewhat depressing. Johnson took pictures of the weather balloon debris in General Ramey’s office. He didn’t photograph anything of overwhelming importance. Exon provided some additional details, but the fact of the matter is, that Johnson didn’t photograph an alien spacecraft and Exon’s statements didn’t do anything to provide additional information on this aspect of the case…

But I’ll bet my skeptical pals will suggest this is another reason that we should not place any emphasis on Exon’s statements. This is another example of how jumbled his memories were nearly a half century after the fact.

(For those who would like to but the book, Encounter in the Desert, you can find it here:

https://www.amazon.com/Encounter-Desert-Alien-Contact-Socorro/dp/1632651130/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513042152&sr=8-1&keywords=encounter+in+the+desert

Thanks.)

This and That

As many of you know, I have been reviewing a large number of UFO files and have found some things that don’t warrant a complete blog post but that are interesting. For example, Ramey Air Force Base in Puerto Rico was not named for Roger Ramey but for Brigadier General Howard Knox Ramey. This Ramey learned to fly in 1918 and by the time the Second World War broke out he had moved up the ranks. In

BG Howard Knox Ramey

January 1943 he was named the commanding officer of the V (Fifth) Bomber Command. In March 1943 while on a reconnaissance fight over the Torres Strait he disappeared. Neither his body nor any wreckage from the aircraft were found. If I had to guess, I would say that the Japanese spotted his aircraft and shot it down. 

The point is that Ramey Air Force Base was named for him, contrary to what some others have suggested. Roger Ramey’s widow told me it had not been named for her husband when I asked her about that in the early 1990s.

Here's something that a number of people might have seen but it might not have registered with them. In the Roswell Daily Record of July 9, in the article entitled, “Ramey Says Excitement Not Justified,” which, of course is his answer to the Roswell debris, there is a paragraph toward the end that says, “A public relations officer here said the balloon was in his office ‘and it will probably stay right there.’”

Although the article is in the Roswell newspaper, the dateline is Fort Worth which means the public information officer who was quoted is not Walter Haut but probably Major Charles A. Cashon, the 8^th Air Force PIO. (There are those who suggest that I haven’t carried out a complete investigation of the Roswell case, so, to prove a point, I will tell you that Cashon was not rated as flight crew and that his address in 1947 was Rt. 1, Box 220, Weatherford, TX, which was about a thirty-minute drive from the base.) This tells us where the debris from Ramey’s office went once he was done showing it to the press, though I wonder why Cashon would want it cluttering up his office and why no one bothered to take additional pictures (Oh, wait, this was 1947 when cameras were expensive and film was expensive and no one cared about a wrecked weather balloon anyway).

Speaking of balloons, Irving Newton, the warrant office who “identified” the balloon for Ramey and the press, said that he knew immediately that is was a balloon, though in interviews he said a colonel had met him before he got to Ramey’s office. Newton said the colonel told him they thought it was a weather balloon and wanted him to identify it (does leading the witness count here?) Anyway, Newton, in a February 20, 1995 letter to me, wrote, “The Rawin target and balloon in question was only used at limited locations and to my knowledge not at Fort Worth, not even all weather personnel were familiar with them, but we used them at Tinker Field (Okla City) during training and for Atomic tests…”

Atomic tests like that of Operation Crossroads in which the 509^th Bomb Group participated including Jesse Marcel. And, according to the L. J. Guthrie, of the Roswell weather station, they had been “dabbling with radar controlled balloons,” (which strikes me as a load… radar controlled balloons?) and that he believed based on the descriptions, what Brazel found could have been one of theirs. An Albuquerque weatherman said that they launched rawins with the weather balloons as well.

None of that proves much one way or another. I just thought these various items about the balloons or more specifically the rawin from Ramey’s office landing in the possession of Cashon to be interesting.

I thought I would just throw this information out there. I’m sure that I have opened the gates to all those who need to question absolutely everything even if there is nothing very controversial in the comments here. These are just little bits of information that probably add nothing to our overall understanding but I found them somewhat amusing.

Ramey Memo and Victims of the Wreck

We have been privileged to learn the importance of the Ramey memo based not on the research currently underway but on the opinion that there is no alien visitation so that there is nothing in the memo to lead in that direction. We’re told that even if it says, “Victims of the wreck,” as many UFO researchers suggest, it doesn’t mean that what fell was alien. It seems that we should just give up because we all know there is no alien visitation and continued attempts to read the memo are a waste of time.

Can the Ramey memo clarify this situation?

Actually, yes.

There are some things we can say about it now. The source of it is limited. J. Bond Johnson, the reporter/photographer who took the picture said, at one time, that he had brought the document into the office with him and handed it to Ramey. Later, realizing that this sort of negated the value of it, repudiated that claim. He hadn’t brought it in. Instead, it was a document that he had taken off Ramey’s desk and handed it to him so that Ramey had something in his hand for the photographs. I’m not sure what the rationale for this would be, other than to suggest that it was something inside the office and that makes it more important.

If Johnson hadn’t brought it in, then what is it?

It could be the draft of a press statement that Ramey planned to give or release. If so, then it would be unclassified and would probably not reveal much of anything. The draft would have been sitting on his desk for Johnson to grab, or Ramey, knowing he was meeting with a reporter to grab so that he was holding it when Johnson entered the office.

It could be a teletype message that came through the base communications center. That would give it an “official” status, but not necessarily one of great importance. Unclassified messages did come through the center and they were routine matters. Nothing that would be Earth shattering. It could easily be a summary of what was being reported in the media and provide some guidance to Ramey for his meeting with members of the press or for handling the queries that were being made.

There were also classified messages coming thought the communications center. Given the few words that can be read, it would seem that this memo deals with Roswell, and given the purpose of the reporter’s visit, that seems to underscore the connection to Roswell. If it does say, “Victims of the wreck,” does that change the tone of the discussion?

We’re told by skeptics, or rather one in particular, that the military wouldn’t use “victims,” but rather refer to them as “casualties.” If they were alien creatures, I’m not sure that would apply, but then, I don’t think that single phrase gets us to the extraterrestrial automatically anyway. It would seem that if the message does say “victims,” then the Mogul explanation is ruled out, but then I believe other facts have done that. This isn’t important.

To understand the real meaning of “Victims of the wreck,” we have to view it in context, and the context, if it can be read with any sort of clarity and consensus, would provide the information to understand the use of that term… or, in other words, that statement is not stand alone and cannot be stand alone. It must be viewed in the context of the message and if we can see that phrase with clarity, then the context probably would be understood as well.

While “Victims of the wreck,” might not take us immediately to the extraterrestrial, it would certainly start us on the path. The context would take us the rest of the way, or maybe more accurately, could take us the rest of the way. In some of the interpretations of the memo, there is enough there that the extraterrestrial would be the most likely answer... but before we get into a long discussion about this aspect, let me say that at the moment, we don’t have that context. We have many different interpretations.

And that is the problem. There are many different interpretations, many at odds with one another. We don’t have a consensus. In fact, there is not a consensus on “Victims of the wreck.” There are those who say that the phrase is actually, “Remains of the wreck,” which gives us a completely different interpretation, one that does not automatically rule out Mogul.

So, Johnson might have brought the document into the office. It might be the draft of a press release for Ramey. It might be a message that is unclassified or one that is classified. The question is if we can read the text, can this be clarified?

Yes.

There seems to be a “signature” block at the bottom of the message. If that can by read, it would provide a clue about the source of the document. If it is a “sign off” from a teletype then it probably came from the newspaper. If it’s Ramey’s signature, then it is probably a press release from his office. If it is someone else’s or a different organization, then we might be able to deduce whose and from where and that would be a valuable clue.

But here’s the real point. Until we learn if the new, improved scans provide us with some additional clarity, all of this is speculation. We really don’t know no matter who says what about the situation. I would have thought the skeptics would applaud the effort to clarify the situation. There has been little push back from the other end of the spectrum, even though a clear message might take down one of the best bits of evidence for the alien nature of the Roswell crash.

Ramey Memo Update

The best case of provenance that I have ever seen is the Ramey Memo. We have a picture of Ramey holding the document, we have been able to interview the photographer, and we know the date on which it was taken because we have not only a dated document that was transmitted with the picture, but it appeared in newspapers around the country the next day. The only point of dispute is what the memo actually says. Parts of it are easily read and others are obscured to the point where it is sometimes just a best guess. If the memo could be completely deciphered it might provide a clue about what fell near Roswell and would be some of the best documentation available.

This might be the first time that the entire negative'
has been printed in decades. Photo copyright
University of Texas at Arlington, Special Collections.

The answer always seemed tantalizing close but just out of reach. The ability of equipment and software to pull information off the photograph just wasn’t good enough to do it in the 1990s. Scans had been made years ago from the original negatives but newer equipment and better software might have changed all that. Martin Dreyer, a researcher living in New Zealand, was interested in the memo and believed that modern equipment might be able to pull something new from the negative. He began to work toward that aim.

For almost two years, he talked to various experts in photography, software and those who had great experience in recovering information hidden in photographic negatives. The consensus seemed to be that it would be possible to extract more and better information from the memo using a variety of these new and modern techniques.

The next step was to learn if the University of Texas at Arlington Special Collections would allow the negative to be subjected to another round of scrutiny. Although interested in learning what might be found, they were also concerned with the process. They didn’t want to damage negative any further. The handling of it as well as subjecting it to scans in the past caused it to acquire some scratches and a little dirt but they were assured that this new analysis would be nondestructive.

Brenda S. McClurkin was the contact at UTA and provided a great deal of assistance in getting the permissions to have the negative scanned using a variety of techniques and equipment. She arranged for the use of photographic microscope at UTA that could read the negative.

At the end of April 2015 David Rudiak traveled to the Dallas – Fort Worth area and to the University of Texas at Arlington. Working with those at UTA, as well as some independent experts in photography and forensic analysis, they made dozens of new scans under a variety of conditions hoping to clarify the memo enough that a consensus of the wording could be formed. Some of the letters were lost in the debris on the negative and in the fact that the memo was slightly folded and parts of it were not directly facing the camera. Had J. Bond Johnson, the original photographer, been a foot closer the image might have been easily resolved.

It had been hoped that the new techniques would produce immediate results but that didn’t happen. The photographic process used only cleaned up the memo marginally. There was no new and great revelation. That suggested that the application of software was needed, which, unfortunately could lead to claims that the image had been manipulated to produce specific results.

After the disappointment with the results, and after seeing the results of the Roswell Slides Research Group’s success in reading the placard in front of the image on those slides, it was decided to open the analysis to a wider audience. The original idea had been to release the best results with all the information about the resolution of the image but now that moved into a new arena. With the cooperation of those at UTA, and at their suggestion, the best of the scans will be posted to various locations on the Internet, and as soon as possible to this blog along with the links to those other images.

Again, the work has been less than spectacular. It seems that the image has been cleaned up to a small degree but not to the point where what are considered the critical areas could be read.  Work is continuing, but it is painstakingly slow and as mentioned, disappointing. The hope now is that if the images are put up in open source that the same thing that happened with the (Not) Roswell Slides can be accomplished with the Ramey memo. Maybe someone will have the right software or have a new idea about the way to attack this that will allow the memo to be read. At the moment we are not much closer to a solution than we were. It is still just beyond our grasp. 

Jason Kellahin and his Roswell Tale

(Blogger’s note: Since this has come up, I thought I’d republish, with appropriate updates, the article from my The Roswell Encyclopedia about this. I believe I was the first to interview Jason Kellahin, first briefly on the telephone, and then in his home. I did notice one thing as we walked through his house. There was a copy of The Roswell Incident on his desk, as well as a number of newspaper articles about the Roswell crash that he referred to periodically. Clearly he had been reviewing that material before I had arrived and just as clearly that influenced what he told me based on the documented facts available. That interview was videotaped and a copy was provided to the Fund for UFO Research and does not agree with the affidavit that he signed some time later.)

Jason Kellahin was an AP reporter based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the summer of 1947. He received a call from the New York office of the Associated Press telling him that he needed to get down to Roswell as quickly as possible. According to Kellahin, "We [Kellahin and Robin Adair] were informed of the discovery down there...the bureau chief sent me and a teletype operator from the Albuquerque office." Please note that he specifically mentioned the discovery down there.

I interviewed Kellahin in his home more than forty years later and he told me then, "It must have been in the morning because we went down there in the daytime. It would take a couple of hours to get down there..."

Jason Kellahin at his home.

Kellahin continued, saying, "We went down to Vaughn [New Mexico]. Just south of Vaughn is where they found the material."

The ranch, according to Kellahin, wasn't very far from the main highway (Highway 285) from Vaughn to Roswell. They turned from that highway just south of Vaughn, onto the Corona road. They were driving to the west and saw "a lot of cars and went over. We assumed that [this] was the place. There were officers from the air base. They were there before we got there." This does not agree with the affidavit that Kellahin would sign sometime later.

Kellahin described military cars, civilian cars and even police vehicles parked along the side of the road. In one of the fields adjacent to the road, at the far end of it, were a number of military officers, not more than five or six of them. Kellahin left his vehicle and entered the field where he saw the scattered debris.

"This man from Albuquerque with me [Adair], he had a camera. He took some pictures of the stuff lying on the ground and of the rancher who was there...Brazel was there and he [the photographer] took his picture."

Kellahin asked Brazel a few questions, interviewing him there, in the field. "I talked to him. He told me his name [Brazel] and we had been told it was on his ranch."

Convenience store in Vaughn, NM.

Kellahin didn't remember much about what Brazel had said. "About the only thing he said he walked out there and found this stuff and he told a neighbor about it and the neighbor said you ought to tell the sheriff...it was the next day [he] went down to Roswell."

Standing there in the field, near the debris, Kellahin had the chance to examine it closely. "It wasn't much of anything. Just some silver colored fabric and very light wood...a light wood like you'd make a kite with...I didn't pick it up. In fact, they [the military] asked us not to pick up anything...You couldn't pick it up and have identified it. You have to have known [what it was]. But it was a balloon. It looked more like a kite than anything else."

The debris covered a small area, not more than half an acre. The military men were standing close by as Kellahin interviewed Brazel but didn't try to interfere. "They weren't paying much attention. They didn't interfere with me. I went wherever I wanted to go. They didn't keep me off the place at all. Me or the photographer." Kellahin tried to talk to the military people, but they didn't give him any information. "They were being very, very cautious because they didn't know."

He didn't have much time for the interview because the military officers came over and told him they were finished and were going to take Brazel into Roswell. With Brazel gone and the cleanup of the debris finished, there wasn't much reason for the AP reporters to remain. Kellahin and Adair continued their trip to Roswell, arriving before dark.

Kellahin confirmed some of this, saying that "We went down to the Roswell Daily Record and I wrote a story and we sent it out on the AP wire...Adair developed his pictures and set up the wire photo equipment and sent it out."

The story about all this that appeared in the newspaper ended saying, "Adair and Kellahin were ordered to Roswell for the special assignment by the headquarters bureau of AP in New York."

Kellahin, when he left the ranch, had expected to see Brazel in Roswell, the next day, but said, "I don't recall that I did. I think the military was talking to him and wouldn't let him talk to anyone else to my recollection...I saw him there but...there were some military people with him."

Following the story as far as he could, Kellahin talked to Sheriff Wilcox. "When we got down there to the newspaper, he was there. I saw him there or at his office...By that time the military had gotten into it. He was being very cautious."

"It was a weather balloon," said Kellahin. "In my opinion that's what it was. That's what we saw. We didn't see anything else to indicate it was anything else."

Once they finished in the newspaper office, Kellahin returned to Albuquerque and Adair was ordered to return to El Paso to finish his job there. By the time Kellahin arrived in to Albuquerque, there was a new story for him that had nothing to do with flying saucers. Another assignment that was just as important as his last.

There are some points that must be made. The raw testimony from Kellahin must be put into context with that provided by others, including Adair. Both Kellahin and Adair were trying to answer the questions as honestly as they could, attempting to recall the situation as it was in July 1947. However, they are at odds with one another. There clearly is no way for Adair to be both in El Paso as he claimed and in Albuquerque as suggested by Kellahin.

Given the circumstances, there are some things that can be established. A number of newspaper articles about the events, written in 1947, have been reviewed. Although many of them had no by-line, they did carry an AP slug and did identify the location as Roswell. Since Kellahin was the only AP reporter there, assigned by the bureau chief in Albuquerque at the request of the AP headquarters in New York, it is clear that he wrote the articles.

The first problem encountered is Kellahin's memory of getting the call early in the morning. That simply doesn't track with the evidence. Walter Haut's press release was not issued until sometime after noon on July 8 and it didn’t go out on either the news wires until later. George Walsh of radio station KSWS remembered that Haut had telephoned the press release to him “about mid-day.” He copied the press release exactly, as Haut read it to him over the phone. Walsh, in turn called it into the Associated Press in Albuquerque. From there the release was put on the AP wire and that story was published in a number of newspapers.

There is a document, created in 1947, that provides the exact times for some of this. According The Daily Illini, the first of the stories on the Associated Press wire appeared at 4:26 p.m. on the east coast. That would mean that the stories went out from Albuquerque, sometime prior to 2:26 p.m.

That means there would be no reason for the AP to assign a reporter (Kellahin) on the morning of July 8. There was no story about the flying saucer until that afternoon. And, by the morning of July 9, the story was dead and no reason to send anyone to Roswell. The photos had already been taken of the debris in Fort Worth and the information about the nature of the debris had already released to the press. Besides, the story in the July 9 issue of The Roswell Daily Record makes it clear that they, Kellahin and Adair, had already arrived in Roswell, coming down on July 8.

Second is the story that Kellahin saw the weather balloon on the Brazel ranch. His description of the location, south of Vaughn but just off the main highway to Roswell is inaccurate (which is the advantage of having been there myself. I knew what the terrain looked like and how close, or far, it was from the highway.) The debris field, as identified by Bill Brazel and Bud Payne, is not close to the Vaughn - Roswell highway. In fact, the field where the debris was discovered is not visible from the roads around it. It is a cross country drive into a shallow valley.

More importantly, by the time Kellahin could have gotten to that field, the balloon should have been removed if it was just a balloon as described by Kellahin. In fact, according to Marcel and the newspaper articles, the balloon was already in Fort Worth if we believe what has been reported. After all, a balloon wouldn't have taken long to collect and Marcel had done that the day before.

Kellahin said in his affidavit that he had visited Brazel at the ranch house, met Brazel’s wife and young son. That is different from what he told me, and from the neighbors said and what Bill Brazel said. After meeting Brazel at the ranch house, they drove to the field where the debris was found.

Kellahin's testimony of seeing a balloon out in the field is intriguing, not because he is an eyewitness to the balloon on the crash site, but because of what it suggests. If there was a balloon, it would mean that the Army had to bring one in. In other words, they were salting the area, and that, in and of itself, would be important. It would suggest that the Army had something to hide, if they were planting evidence.

Given the sequencing of events, based on the newspaper accounts and other testimony, the earliest that Kellahin could have been in the field was late in the afternoon (around four or five p.m.) on July 8. However, by that time, Marcel and the special flight from Roswell were already in Fort Worth. If the balloon explanation is accurate, then the evidence had long since been collected and there would be nothing for Kellahin to see.

Kellahin also said there had been photographs taken while on that field. These photos, according to Kellahin had been transmitted from Roswell. The photo of Brazel transmitted, however, was one that had been taken, not in the field, but in the newspaper offices. If there were pictures taken in the field they have never been printed. Had they existed, even if of poor quality, they would have been printed. After all, what could be better than pictures of Mack Brazel with the debris in the field? Here was the most persuasive of evidence… Brazel, military officers, standing in the field with the remains of a balloon but apparently those pictures were never printed by any AP newspaper at any time.

By contrast, the seven pictures taken in Ramey's office were printed throughout the country. All seven have been located. Even the fairly rare picture of Irving Newton was printed in Texas newspapers and was used by the editors of Look when they printed their Flying Saucers special in 1966. But those that Kellahin claimed had been taken of Brazel on his ranch with the debris clearly displayed have never been found. That suggests that Kellahin's memory is flawed on this point.

The best evidence available is that Kellahin did not stop at the ranch on his way down to Roswell. He is mistaken about that. The lack of the photographs and evidence about the location of Brazel on the afternoon of July 8 suggest it. The location that Kellahin gives is in error though he does suggest in his affidavit that rather than stumbling upon the field, he was led to it by Brazel. The ranch was not close to Vaughn, and the debris field is not close to any road.

By the time Kellahin and Adair arrived in Roswell and were ready to begin reporting, some of the pressure was off. Ramey, in Fort Worth, explained that the material found in Roswell was nothing extraordinary. The FBI had issued a telex that suggested it was a balloon after discussing all this with Major Kirton in Fort Worth though it doesn’t seem the FBI bought the explanation. No longer was New York demanding pictures. In fact, several pictures had already been taken in Fort Worth.

The interview with Brazel occurred on the evening of July 8, according to the newspaper article in the July 9 edition of The Roswell Daily Record. Brazel was brought in by the owner of KGFL, Walt Whitmore, Sr. Brazel was then interviewed by Kellahin, as well as a reporter for the Roswell Daily Record. The pictures transmitted, those of Brazel and George Wilcox, are ones that had been taken in the office for that purpose. Kellahin wrote his story, which appeared in the newspapers the next day.

With the story dead, Kellahin was ordered to return to what he had been doing. He left Roswell. Kellahin believed that nothing extraordinary had been found and there was no reason for the events to stick in his mind.

The point here, however, is that if you accept any of the Kellahin testimony as fact and use it to bolster a theory, you are building on a shaky foundation. We can document who was doing what and where at the time and Kellahin’s story does not match any of that. Yes, he was in Roswell and yes, he did interview Brazel, but he didn’t see him at his ranch, there are no pictures of Brazel in that field, and the time line suggested by Kellahin is badly flawed.

General Exon and the Unholy Thirteen

When I began the Roswell investigation with Don Schmitt, I thought we’d find a solution quickly and that would be it. That didn’t happen, but as we talked with various witnesses, prowled various archives, museums and newspaper morgues, and found some limited documentation, it became clear that something had happened back in 1947.

When I interviewed retired Brigadier General Arthur Exon on the telephone on May 19, 1990, I began the discussion by saying that we were doing some research into the activities at Wright – Patterson Air Force Base. The discussion began with him mentioning that some outside agency would call, tell him they needed an aircraft for a mission, and then people would arrive by commercial air to be carried to the site of the investigation by an Air Force aircraft. This was all in the mid-1960s when Exon was the base commander. Seemed like a good way to disguise what you were doing.

Eventually we got around to the events of 1947 and Exon said:

As a result of that, I know they saw the one sighting and then where there… a good bit of the information came down. There was another location where it was, where apparently the main body of the spacecraft was… where they did say there were bodies there. I’ve been in… I’ve got special information but it may be more rumor than fact about what happened to those bodies although they were all found apparently outside the craft itself but were in fairly good condition. In other words, they weren’t broken up a lot.

I know what some of you are thinking. This doesn’t get us to Roswell and 1947 but it does mention bodies and does mention a spacecraft which means he wasn’t talking about an aircraft accident. He then said (after my question wondering if the bodies had come into Wright – Patterson which was simply “And they came to Wright – Patterson?):

Well, that’s my information. But one of them was that it went to the mortuary outfit… I think at that time it was in Denver [Lowery Field] where these people were being identified. But the strongest information was that they were brought into Wright – Pat. But whatever happened to the metal residue, I imagine it’s still there in the [unintelligible] some place.

But back in that ’47 time period, everybody was, it happened and why wasn’t there more information and who kept the lid on it. Well, I know that at the time the sightings happened it went to General Ramey who is now deceased, who was at Carswell AFB [Fort Worth] and he along with the people out at Roswell decided to change the story while they got their act together and got the information into the Pentagon and into the President.

Of course President Truman and General Spaatz, the Secretary of Defense [actually Secretary of War] who has now passed away, and other people who were close to them were the ones who made up the key investigative teams in relation to the released information. In one of my officers who did some research, who worked for me at Wright – Patterson, who had done some research on this part of his school came up with a deal that there was great concern at the time and there was fear that the people would panic if the sketchy information that they had such as what was it and where did it come from and what was their mission and so on and so on got out. So they decided to make it a national cover up. And that there probably wouldn’t be much released until everybody who was involved in it, including the thirteen people I’m talking about and their immediate staff who made up the, oh what was it, the twelve people who made up the investigative team had passed away. So they wouldn’t divulge information or information wouldn’t come out that they may or may not have been involved while they were alive.

That’s the logical thing and I know most of those people were around. I did know that they’re numbers one and two people were at the top of the staff including the Secretary of Defense and the Chief of Staff and the intelligence circle including the President’s office, I never heard of any elected officials…

I cut in to ask a very basic question. I asked, “Now, is this personal knowledge that you have of this?” Exon said:

This is stuff that I’ve heard from ’47 on to the present time, really. About why wasn’t it… about who was responsible and it was no problem to find out who was in those positions in ’47 and ’48 and I just happen to remember them because the Air Force was being formed and I was in the Pentagon and worked around a lot between the Pentagon and the field so I knew these people.

Given this information, I wondered who would have been the controlling agency. Who had the overall responsibility for this? Exon said:

I just know there was a top intelligence echelon represented and the President’s office was represented and these people stayed on it in key positions even though they might have moved out to investigate all sightings and stuff and get pictures and get information and bring it into the central repository

From that point, the discussion shifted into who might be able to provide additional information. He did tell me of a man who had been in charge of the Foreign Technology Division at one time by the name of Cruikshank. I actually found him and called him. That conversation was very short and I could think of no way to keep him talking. He was too clever. He just told me that he didn’t know who I was, he didn’t know what was still classified and what wasn’t, and he had nothing else to say. While I didn’t appreciate the short telephone call, it made perfect sense to me. It was what I would have done in a similar circumstance.

I did ask about other crashes, but Exon said that the only one he knew about was the one in New Mexico. We finished our conversation with Exon saying, “…I’d be surprised if you found much in the records of FTD or like that because it was so closely held… If it originated there it ended up being part of the unholy thirteen group… people that I know who were involved in it, they were sworn to secrecy.”

Now here’s something that I came to realize later. We all assumed, and it is almost engraved in stone, that the modern UFO era began on June 24, 1947, when Ken Arnold made his sighting and report. We assumed that nothing else was going on in the world of the UFO, but as I was working on Government UFO Secrets, I learned that the UFO investigations actually went back to the Foo Fighters. There were the Ghost Rockets in Scandinavia in 1946 and finally the flying saucers of the US. But the intelligence networks had been looking into these things since World War II, and one guy’s name surfaced throughout this. Howard McCoy was the man and he was involved in the Foo Fighter investigation, was part of the US Ghost Rocket investigation and was then charged with investigating the flying saucers that were being reported prior to Arnold. And then in September 1947, when Twining’s letter was written, it was McCoy who wrote it for Twining’s signature.

So, if what fell at Roswell was alien, the committee to study these things already existed. It might have been expanded at that point but it was not created in response to anything that happened in July 1947. This was the mistake that I think we were all making. The people who were going to study this were already worried about the national security implications of the flying saucers, though they wouldn’t have called them that until after Arnold. So this committee, these “Unholy Thirteen” as Exon called them, was already at work trying to determine what was going on. If we postulate that they were already in existence because of what had been happening before Arnold it changes the complexion of UFO history.

So, when Exon revealed what he knew, he was talking about something that existed prior to July 1947. When what he told me, and later amplified for Don Schmitt, is looked at in this context, we see something a little different. What he says makes a little more sense, when what we know today is added to what Exon said in 1990.

In the end here, we see Exon’s words with a little more clarity, and we understand a little more about what he was saying. That doesn’t diminish the importance of them, just changes the context slightly and gives us a better understanding of what he said. 

The Roswell Time Line - July 8, 1947

(Blogger’s Note: We have engaged in a lot of discussion that surround the events described below. It shows the extent of research into the news coverage, which one asked about, it provides documentation about the events of July 8, and it tries for sort out the story of the press release as it has been told and retold. It doesn’t prove that what fell outside Roswell was an alien spacecraft but it does show, to some extent, who was doing what and where. I think it answers some of the questions that have been raised. As an aside, I see that the footnotes reset after a certain point. I was unable to get them to run properly in sequence, so be aware of that as you scroll through the article.)

At about 9:30 that on July 8, 1947, Colonel William Blanchard called First Lieutenant Walter Haut in his office and dictated the “Flying Saucer” press release to him.[1] He was told to deliver the press release to the four media outlets in Roswell, that is, the two radio stations and the two daily newspapers. In what would become a discrepancy in Haut’s memory of the event, Haut would suggest at one time that he drove the release into town, and later say that he used the telephone to dictate it.[2] Either way, the press release went out to the press, and then was put on the news wire either by Frank Joyce[3] or George Walsh[4] or by both of them.

Walsh remembered that Haut had telephoned the press release to him “about mid-day.”[5] He said he copied the press release exactly, as Haut read it to him over the phone. Walsh, in turn called it into the Associated Press in Albuquerque. From there the release was put on the AP wire and that story was published in a number of newspapers.[6]

Art McQuiddy, who was the editor of the Roswell Morning Dispatch said, “I can remember quite a bit about what happened that day. It was about noon and Walter brought in a press release. He’d already been to one of the radio stations, and I raised hell with him about playing favorites.”[7]

Unfortunately for McQuiddy, the Dispatch was a morning newspaper, so there wasn’t much for him to do with the story. He said, “By the time Haut got to me, it hadn’t been ten minutes[8] and the phone started ringing. I didn’t get off the phone until late afternoon… The story died, literally, as fast as it started.”[9]

 

At 2:30 p.m. (MST), Blanchard announced that he was going on leave (which, of course, makes no real sense). He would not be available to take telephone calls about the flying saucer and would be out of touch for four days.[10]

There is a document, created in 1947, that provides the exact times for some of this. According The Daily Illini, the first of the stories on the Associated Press wire appeared at 4:26 p.m. on the east coast.[11] That would mean that the stories went out from Albuquerque, sometime prior to 2:26 p.m.[12]

 

The Associated Press version, as it appeared in a number of west coast newspapers said:

The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509^th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff’s office of Chavez County.

The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the sheriff’s office, who in turn notified Major Jesse A. Marcel of the 509^th Bomb Group Intelligence Office.

Action was immediately taken and the disc was picked up at the rancher’s home. It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned by Major Marcel to higher headquarters.[13]  

At 4:30 p.m. (EST), there is the first “add” to the AP story, which mentioned “Lt. Warren Haught [Walter Haut],” who was described as the public information officer at the “Roswell Field.” This new information suggested that the object had been found “last week” and that the object had been sent onto “higher headquarters.”

The original United Press bulletin, which went out fifteen minutes later, at 4:41 p.m. (EST), according to newspaper sources, said:

 

Roswell, N.M. – The army air forces here today announced a flying disc had been found on a ranch near Roswell and is in army possession.

The Intelligence office reports that it gained possession of the ‘Dis:’ [sic] through the cooperation of a Roswell rancher and Sheriff George Wilson [sic] of Roswell.

The disc landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher, whose name has not yet been obtained, stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the Roswell sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office notified a major of the 509^th Intelligence Office.

Action was taken immediately and the disc was picked up at the rancher’s home and taken to the Roswell Air Base. Following examination, the disc was flown by intelligence officers in a superfortress (B-29) to an undisclosed “Higher Headquarters.”

The air base has refused to give details of construction of the disc or its appearance.

Residents near the ranch on which the disc was found reported seeing a strange blue light several days ago about three o’clock in the morning.[14]

In Fort Worth, Texas (3:30 p.m. CST, 4:30 p.m. EST) Cullen Greene, an editor at the Fort Worth Star Telegram would have read the story as it came over the wire. J. Bond Johnson who worked at the newspaper in July 1947 said, “I don’t know the mechanics. We’d get those alerts. The bells would ring and it would be an attention thing. It would be an editor thing.”[15]

At 4:55 p.m. (EST) on the east coast 2:55 p.m. (MST) in New Mexico, the location of the discovery, that is New Mexico, is given. This bulletin, described as a “95” which is just below bulletin in importance, was repeated at 5:08 (EST) and a minute later, at 5:09,[16] there was another repeat of the story that said the information came from a radio reporter, but the identity of the reporter was not given.[17]

Johnson, who described himself as a reporter in July 1947[18] said, “…late in the afternoon, I returned to the office… My city editor… ran over and said, ‘Bond, have you got your camera?’ I said, ‘Yes, I had it out in my car.’ He said to get out to General Ramey’s office and… he said they’ve got something there… [and] get a picture… He said something crashed out there or whatever and they’re… we just got an alert on the AP wire.”[19]

At 5:10 p.m. (EST) or 3:10 p. m. (MST), there was a message that was addressed to the newspaper editors to let them know that the Associated Press had now gone to work on the story.[20]

 

According to the Daily Illini, “One minute later, at 5:11 [p. m. EST], the third add [additional information] to the bulletin announced, ‘The war department in Washington had nothing to say immediately about the reported find.’  That meant the AP was on the job investigating.”[21]

In was about 4:30 p.m. (CST, 5:30 EST) that Johnson arrived at the Fort Worth Army Air Field. He told Bill Moore and Jaime Shandera that it was about a twenty minute trip from the newspaper office out to the airfield.[22] He said that he routinely covered activities at the airfield, so when he reached the gate, he showed his press pass. He also had a Civil Air Patrol sticker on his car, which would have made it easier for him to enter the airfield. He had been told to go to Ramey’s office, though he normally would visit the Public Information Officer.[23]

 

Johnson said, “I posed General Ramey with this debris piled in the middle of his rather large and plush office. It seemed incongruous to have this smelly garbage piled up on the floor… spread out on the floor of this rather plush, big office… I posed General Ramey with this debris. At that time, I was briefed on the idea that it was not a flying saucer but in fact was a weather balloon that had crashed.”[24]

Johnson, according to what he said, didn’t stay long in Ramey’s office because generals were busy. He said, “As I remember, I probably wasn’t there more than twenty minutes, which was not unusual.” He took the photographs, gathered some information and left.[25]

 

He said, “It was entirely possible that I was briefed by the PIO.”[26]

This last quote could be important. The story that Johnson wrote to accompany the pictures, contained no direct quotes from Ramey, DuBose or Marcel, but did quote Irving Newton, the weather officer called in to identify the debris.[27] But the timing seems to suggest that Johnson had arrived before Newton had been called Ramey’s office so it is puzzling. Why is Newton quoted directly, but none of the others are?

At 5:53 p.m. (EST), 4:53 p.m. (CST), there was another bulletin which had a Washington dateline but was a statement by Ramey, which had to originate in Fort Worth, which said the disk had been sent to Wright Field.[28] What is critical here is the use of the past tense. The story didn’t say it would be forwarded, but that it had already been sent.

At 6:02 p.m. (EST, 5:02 p.m. CST), the AP put together the whole story and started the transmission of the “First Lead Disk.” This story, datelined Albuquerque said, “The army air forces has gained possession of a flying disk, Lt. Warren Haught [Walter Haut], public information officer at Roswell army airfield announced today.” That new lead was to be integrated into the stories that had already been transmitted.[29]

 

Dallas Morning News reporters called out to the Fort Worth Army Air Field, according to them, at 5:30 p.m. (CST, 6:30 EST) and interviewed Major E. M. Kirton, an intelligence officer at Eighth Air Force Headquarters. He told reporters that “there is nothing to it… It was a rawin high altitude sounding device.” Kirton said that the identification was final and there was no reason to send it on to Wright Field for confirmation. He confirmed that the material had been flown to Fort Worth on a B-29.[30]

Warrant Officer Irving Newton said that he was alone in the weather office and when he received a call ordering him to General Ramey’s office. Newton said that he was the only one there and couldn’t leave. General Ramey then called and told him to “get your ass over here now. Use a car and if you have to, take the first one with the keys in it.”[31]

 

When Newton arrived, around 6:00 p.m. (CST, 7:00 EST), a colonel or a lieutenant colonel stopped him and briefed him. Newton didn’t remember who it was, only that he was told that “These officers from Roswell think they found a flying saucer, but the general thinks it’s a weather balloon. He wants you to take a look at it.”[32]

Newton, in his signed statement for the Air Force said, “Several people were in the room when I went in, among them General Ramey, a couple of press people, a Major, I learned later to be Major Marcel and some other folks. Someone introduced Major Marcel as the person who found this material… While I was examining the debris, Major Marcel was picking up pieces of the target sticks and trying to convince me that some notations on the sticks were alien writings. There were figures on the sticks lavender or pink in color, appeared to be weather faded markings with no rhyme or reason. He did not convince me these were alien writings.”[33]

 

At 7:03 p.m. (EST, 6:03 CST), there was another “first lead” story from Washington, but this one hinted that there was nothing spectacular about the disc. It was now being identified as some sort of a meteorological device, or in other words, a weather balloon.[1]

Twelve minutes later, at 7:15 p.m. (EST, 6:15 CST), there was a bulletin that said General Ramey would make a statement on national radio. WBAP, a Dallas radio station, had arranged for the national hook up for Ramey[2]over the NBC radio network.

The FBI entered the picture just two minutes later, at 6:17 p.m. (CST, 7:17 EST). The FBI office in Dallas sent a message to the FBI office in Cincinnati, about the story. The message was sent to the director, J. Edgar Hoover, and to the SAC (Special Agent in Charge) and was titled, “Flying Disc, Information Concerning.” The text said:
 

Major Curtan [sic, Edwin Kirton], Headquarters Eighth Air Force, telephonically advised this office that an object purporting to be a flying disc was recovered near Roswell, New Mexico, this date [July 8, 1947]. The disc was hexagonal in shape and was suspended from a balloon by cable, which baloon [sic] was approximately twenty feet in diameter. Major Curtan further advised that the object found resembles a high altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector, but that telephonic conversation between their office and Wright Field had not borne out this belief. Disc and balloon being transported to Wright Field by special plane for examin [sic]. Information provided this office because of national interest in case and fact that National Broadcasting Company, Associated Press, and others attempting to break the story of location of the disc today. Major Curtan advised would request Wright Field to advise Cincinnati office results of examination. No further investigation being conducted.[3]

Then, at 7:29 p.m. EST (6:29 p.m. CST), came another new lead for the story. It said, “Procede [sic] Washington. Lead All Disk.” This meant, simply, that the lead on the story that had been transmitted prior to this would be changed and the new lead substituted.

This was broken with another bulletin almost immediately. It said, “Fort Worth – Roswell’s celebrated ‘flying disk’ was rudely stripped of its glamor by a Fort Worth army airfield weather officer who late today identified the object as a ‘weather balloon.’”[4]

At the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Johnson had developed the pictures quickly and on orders from Greene, he brought out a wet print. There were others waiting for him, including technicians from Dallas who had brought in a portable wire photo machine so that they could get the pictures out over the AP wire immediately.[5]

He would say that he wrote the first story about the recovery that appeared in an early edition of the newspaper. The last line of that story became important because it said, “After his first look, Ramey declared all it was was a weather balloon. The weather officer verified his view.[6]

Johnson had been given the solution, apparently before Newton arrived to provide the final, conclusive word. But that solution had been handed to the reporter for the Dallas Morning News, not by Ramey or Newton, but by Kirton, who was the intelligence officer. This would suggest that Newton was called in to provide some drama for the other reporters who did drive out to the airfield.

DuBose’s suggestion of a cover up seems to confirm the suspicions that had arisen given the timing of various press stories. The timing of statements, such as that given by Kirton to the Dallas Morning News, suggest that the weather balloon identification had been made before Newton arrived at Ramey’s office.

Even with the questions that should have been asked about how an experienced intelligence officer could mistake the remains of a flimsy weather balloon and an aluminum foil radar reflector for a flying saucer or why no one at Roswell could identify the wreckage for what it was, the cover story was accepted. According to one story, “Brigadier General Donald M. Yates, chief of the AAF weather service, said only a very few of them are used daily, at points were some specific project requires highly accurate wind information from extreme altitudes.”[7]

Newton, on the other hand, wasn’t saying the rawins were quite so rare. The Star-Telegram reported, “Newton said there are some 80 weather stations in the United States using this type of gadget, and it could have come from any of them.”[8]

That wasn’t the only point on which the stories disagreed. In earlier editions of the newspaper, it mentioned that “The disc landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week.”[9] Later is was reported, “Brazell [sic], whose ranch is 30 miles from the nearest telephone and has no radio, knew nothing about the flying discs when he found the remains of the weather device scattered over a square mile of his property three weeks ago.”[10]

That same day, in the Albuquerque Journal, Jason Kellahin reported, “Scattered with the materials over an area about 200 years across were pieces of grey rubber. All pieces were small.”[11]

Interestingly, that is not the only fact that Kellahin reported that disagreed with the official story line. He wrote, “On July 4, after hearing about ‘flying discs,’ he took the find to Sheriff George Wilcox at Roswell who referred the discovery to intelligence officers at the Roswell field.”[12]

This is an interesting statement because it is in conflict with almost all newspaper accounts that suggest Brazel had gone into Roswell on July 7. Marcel, in describing his activities, suggesting that they remained overnight on the Brazel ranch and went out the next morning, suggests a time line that put Brazel into Roswell on Sunday, July 6. After spending all day in the field, Marcel returned, arriving in Roswell, late on the evening or early in the morning of July 8, and then briefing Blanchard quite earlier.

By 10:00 p.m. (CST, 11:00 p.m. EST), the story was virtually over. Ramey had not appeared on NBC, but at 10:00 he was quoted on ABC’s “Headline Edition,” and the weather balloon story entered the public consciousness. The newspapers were reporting the error on the part of the officers in Roswell. The Las Vegas Review Journal reported:

The excitement ran through this cycle:

1. Lieutenant Warren Haught [Walter Haut], public relations officer at the Roswell base, released a statement in the name of Colonel William Blanchard, base commander. It said that an object described as a “flying disk” was found on the nearby Foster ranch three weeks ago by W. W. Brazel and had been sent to “higher officials” for examination.

2. Brigadier General Roger B. Ramey, commander of the 8^th air force, said at Fort Worth that he believed the object was the “remnant of a weather balloon and radar reflector,” and was “nothing to be excited about.” He allowed photographers to take a picture of it. It was announced that the object would be sent to Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, for examination by experts.

3. Later, Warrant Officer Irving Newton, Stessonville, Wisconsin, weather officer at Fort Worth, examined the object and said definitely that it was nothing but a badly smashed target used to determine the direction and velocity of high altitude winds.

4. Lieutenant Haught reportedly told reporters that he had been “shut up by two blistering phone calls from Washington.”[13]

5. Efforts to contact Colonel Blanchard brought the information that “he is now on leave.”[14]

6. Major Jesse A. Marcel, intelligence officer of the 509^th bombardment group, reportedly told Brazel, the finder of the object, that it “has nothing to do with army or navy so far as I can tell.”

7. Brazel told reporters that he had found weather balloon equipment before but had seen nothing that resembled his latest find.

Those who saw the object said it had a flowered paper tape around it bearing the initials “D. P.”[15]

 

While this story was winding down, with the principals unavailable for comment, that is Brazel being held by the military[16], Marcel either in Fort Worth or enroute back to Roswell, and with Blanchard on leave, reporters were unable to gather any additional information. Sheriff Wilcox would say little. It was reported, “Wilcox said he did not see the object but was told by Brazell [sic] it was ‘about three feet across.’ The sheriff declined to elaborate. ‘I’m working with those fellows at the base,’ he said.”[17]

This then, gives an outline of the events of July 8 based on the available documentation including newspaper reports, interviews conducted with the principals in the story, and a timeline that was reconstructed more than a half century after the incident. I think that you all can draw your own conclusions about what it means, but the information here is the latest available.

I will note that as I went through this I did find a couple of places where the footnotes were inaccurate. In one instance, I sourced the Albuquerque Journal when it was the Albuquerque Tribune. I have tried to make sure that everything is accurate but some questions still might arise. Those will be dealt with as they appear.

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[1] “AP Wires Burn With ‘Captured Disk’ Story,” Daily Illini, July 9, 1947, p. 5.

 

[2] Ibid.

 

[3] FBI Telex, July 8, 1947.

 

[4] “AP Wires Burn With ‘Captured Disk’ Story,” July 9, 1947, p. 5. 

 

[5] Johnson, personal interview with Randle, March 24, 1989.

 

[6] Johnson, claimed authorship of “’Disk-overy’ Near Roswell Identified as Weather Balloon by FWAAF Officer,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 9, 1947. He would later deny that he had written the article.

 

[7] “AAF Finds ‘Saucer’, But Wishes it Hadn’t,” The Boston Herald, July 9, 1947, pp. 1 – 2.

 

[8] “New Mexico Rancher’s ‘Flying Disk’ Proves to Be Weather Balloon-Kite,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 9, 1947, p. 1. This is from a later edition of the July 9, 1947, newspaper and adds details that were not reported in the earlier edition.

 

[9] This is from the United Press teletypes provided by Frank Joyce.

 

[10] “New Mexico Rancher’s ‘Flying Disk’ Proves to Be Weather Balloon-Kite,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 9, 1947, p. 1.

 

[11] Jason Kellahin, “NM Rancher Sorry He Said Anything About ‘Disc Find,’” Albuquerque Tribune, July 9, 1947, p. 2.

 

[12] Ibid.

[13] Haut, in a personal interview with Randle on April 20, 1989, said that he had received no calls from Washington, D.C. He said, “Well, I think that had I really gotten any calls from Washington, a first lieutenant getting calls from the big boys, I’d remember it.” On the other hand, in an interview with Randle on December 5, 1990, George Walsh said, “He [Haut] said the just got a call from the War Department and [they] told him in two words, ‘Shut up.’”

 

[14] As noted earlier, it was about 2:30 p. m. (MST) that Blanchard announced his leave. It seems to be a strange time to begin a leave, especially when it is about the same time that all the interest developed, based on the time lines published in 1947.

 

[15] “Flying Disc Tales Decline As Army, Navy Crack Down,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, July 9, 1947, pp. 1 – 2; Army, Navy Open Drive To Dry Up Saucer Talk,” Phoenix Gazette, July 9, 1947, p. 4

 

[16] Major Edwin Easley, Provost Marshal at the RAAF in July 1947, in a telephone interview with Randle, February 1990.

 

[17] “Disc Mystery Is ‘Solved’ For Three Hours Until Roswell Find Collapses,” Albuquerque Journal, July 9, 1947, pp. 1 – 2.

 

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[1] In other interviews, Haut would say that he didn’t remember if Blanchard had called him and given him the facts of the story or if he had dictated the finished release to him. He said didn’t remember if he had gone to Blanchard’s office, or received a telephone call about it. See Carey and Schmitt, Witness to Roswell, pp. 252 – 253;

Pflock, Roswell: Inconvenient Facts, p. 26; Philip Klass, Real Roswell Cover-up, pp. 31 -32; Randle and Schmitt, UFO Crash, pp. 68 -76; Walter Haut personal interview by Randle, April 1, 1990.

 

[2] In the documentation provided by Frank Joyce, there had been a query from Denver, to Santa Fe, asking for the text of the announcement. Santa Fe responded, “Army gave verbal ann[oun]c[e]ment. No text.”

 

[3] Joyce would suggest that after he received the press release, he called Haut and warned him that the wording of it was incorrect. It had to do with who was issuing the release and what it said. Joyce claimed he warned Haut that he would get into trouble based on that wording.

 

[4] Walsh worked at the other Roswell radio station, KSWS.

 

[5] George Walsh, affidavit signed September 13, 1993.

 

[6] Pflock, Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe, p. 62.

 

[7] Art McQuiddy, personal interview by Randle, January 19, 1990.

 

[8] Given the sequence of events, based on time lines published in other newspapers and interviews conducted with other witnesses, the telephone calls to McQuiddy probably didn’t start for two hours. He, like others in Roswell said that he received telephone calls from all over the world, mentioning London, Rome, Paris and Hong Kong.

 

[9] McQuiddy, personal interview by Randle, January 19, 1990.

 

[10] Donald Schmitt, UFO Crash at Roswell II, The Author, 1997: p. 60

 

[11] We have no information how long the story was in Albuquerque, how it was vetted, or how long it took to type it into the news wire.

 

[12] “AP Wires Burn With ‘Captured Disk’ Story,” July 9, 1947, p. 5. Although the Daily Illini story gives all times in relation to the Associated Press, the line quoted at the beginning for the article is actually from the United Press International.

 

[13] “Disc Solution Collapses,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 9, 1947, p. 1

[14] “AP Wires Burn With ‘Captured Disk’ Story,” July 9, 1947, p. 5, which only published the first line of the story, and had attributed it to the Associated Press. Frank Joyce retained the teletype copy which he had sent to the United Press. He provided copies of these documents to various UFO researchers including Randle, Schmitt, Carey, and Pflock. See also, Pflock.  Roswell: Inconvenient Facts, pp. 244 – 248; Randle and Schmitt, Truth About, pp.46 - 50.

 

[15] J. Bond Johnson, personal interview by Randle, February 27, 1989, March 24, 1990; Johnson in interviews conducted by Bill Moore and Jaime Shandera would later change much of his story. For these alternative views, see, Shandera and Moore, “Three Hours that Shook the Press,” Focus, 1990, 3 – 7; Shandera and Moore, “Three Hours that Shook the Press,” MUFON UFO Journal 269, September 1990: 3 - 10; Schmitt and Randle, “What Happened in Ramey’s Office?” MUFON UFO Journal 276, April 1991: 3 – 9.

 

[16] “AP Wires Burn With ‘Captured Disk’ Story,” Daily Illini, July 9, 1947, p. 5.

 

[17] Years later, both George Walsh and Frank Joyce would claim credit for breaking this story. It would seem that Walsh put the story on the AP wire, which did get it out nationally first. Joyce, a stringer for the United Press had to take the story to the Western Union office for transmittal to Albuquerque. Documentation suggests that the AP story hit the wires about fifteen minutes before the UP story, which gives the nod to Walsh.

 

[18] Johnson, interview by Randle, March 24, 1989.

 

[19] Ibid. For additional information see Schmitt and Randle, “Fort Worth, July 8, 1947: The Cover up Begins,” International UFO Reporter, 15,2, March/April 1990; 21 – 23; Schmitt and Randle, “The Fort Worth Press Conference: The J. Bond Johnson Connection,” International UFO Reporter, 15,6, November/December 1990: 5 – 16.

 

[20] “AP Wires Burn With ‘Captured Disk’ Story,” Daily Illini, July 9, 1947, p. 5.

 

[21] “AP Wires Burn With ‘Captured Disk’ Story,” Daily Illini, July 9, 1947, p. 5.

 

[22] Shandera. “Three Hours that Shook the Press,” MUFON UFO Journal 269, September 1990:  3 - 10.

 

[23]  Johnson, interview by Randle, March 24, 1989.

 

[24] Johnson, interview by Randle, March 24, 1989.

 

[25] Johnson, interview by Randle, March 24, 1989.

 

[26] Ibid. The problem is that the PIO would have been in the office. In other interviews, Irving Newton suggested he was there when all the pictures were taken, which would mean that Johnson saw him as well. Johnson’s claim that only Ramey and DuBose were there does not hold up when other information is considered.

 

[27] J. Bond Johnson, “’Disk-overy’ Near Roswell Identified As Weather Balloon by FWAAF Officer,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 9, 1947: pp. 1 – 2

 

[28] “AP Wires Burn With ‘Captured Disk’ Story,” Daily Illini, July 9, 1947, p. 5.

 

[29] Ibid

 

[30] “Suspected ‘Disk’ Only Flying Weather Vane,” Dallas Morning News, July 9, 1947.

 

[31] Irving Newton, telephone Interviews with Randle, October 20, 1989, March 24, 1990 and January 1991. See also, Weaver and McAndrew, The Roswell Report, Statement Thirty (Irving Newton). A similar account is found in Berlitz and Moore, The Roswell Incident, pp. 31 – 37.

 

[32] Newton, personal telephone with Randle, January 1991. See also, Randle and Schmitt, Truth About UFO Crash at Roswell, pp. 42 – 43. It should be noted that Newton was not sure about the time and had suggested it was just after he had come on duty at 2:00 p.m., but the documentation available suggests that Newton was called to Ramey’s office about 6:00 p.m.

 

[33] Weaver and McAndrew, The Roswell Report, Statement Thirty (Irving Newton).