In
keeping with my series on Chasing Footnotes, I have found a subtopic that is
almost as interesting (well, it is to me) which is finding original sources
(which, of course, is sort of the same thing). Not all that long ago I ran
across an analysis of the Roswell case in which it was claimed that Captain Darwin
Rasmussen (later Colonel) had assisted Major Jesse Marcel in recovering the alien
bodies. I have never heard anything like that and it puzzled me because, as far
as I knew, only Stan Friedman and I had interviewed Rasmussen’s cousin, Elaine
Vegh.
Now
that you all are thoroughly confused, let me explain. Back in 1990, I learned
of Elaine Vegh whose claim to fame in this arena was that her first cousin,
Darwin Rasmussen, had been a career Air Force officer who was stationed in
Roswell in 1947. According to her, she had been standing near her father when
Rasmussen reportedly said, “…never doubt that there is a cover up here. We did
pick up bodies and the Air Force does have them.”
She
also said, “He had seen what was picked up. He had seen the craft.”
First,
before the skeptics all go nuts, let me point out that this is a second-hand
story of an overheard conversation that had taken place at least a decade and a
half prior to that. As evidence of anything, it isn’t worth very much. Elaine
Vegh was probably relating the story as best she could remember, but see didn’t
see anything herself and her memory of this is somewhat clouded… I’ll get back
to this.
That
was really all she said to me. Her cousin had been part of a retrieval team; he
had seen bodies and the wrecked craft. She had nothing in the way of evidence,
there are or were no family letters or documents, and according to Vegh,
Rasmussen said, “I was there… but we were told to forget what we saw…”
Well,
Rasmussen’s picture is not in the Yearbook, but that doesn’t matter. I have a
copy of the Roswell base telephone directory published in August 1947, and his
name is in there. That puts him in Roswell at the right time. I also found his
name associated with a 509th flight crew.
Second,
this little tale has not been used very often. Friedman seems to have ignored it,
and given everything, I’m not overly surprised. It is second hand without any
corroboration. Rasmussen died in 1975 and Vegh’s father died in 1983. No one
else heard the conversation and there wasn’t much in the way of detail.
Yes,
I used it in UFO Crash in Roswell and
Tom Carey and Don Schmitt used it in Witness
to Roswell, interestingly without providing credit for the interview. Their
footnote just mentioned an interview in 1990 (March 1, 1990 to be precise) but
failed to mention that I conducted it, taped it, and supplied a copy to Don.
Anyone reading their book might conclude they had conducted the interview.
There
was a reference to Rasmussen and what he had seen at:
In
this case, it was suggested that Rasmussen had seen four bodies and Vegh did say that he, Rasmussen "... had first hand knowledge of four beings and their craft..." Here Rasmussen
is described as the Operations Officer for the 715th Bomb Squadron
which was part of the 509th. The referenced sources here are both UFO Crash at Roswell and Witness to Roswell. In Witness to Roswell he is described as a
flight operations officer and in UFO
Crash at Roswell as an Operations Officer (and unfortunately the
organization is misidentified as the 718th). I have since located
some records that showed he was assigned to an aircrew as a radar officer for
Operation Crossroads. That information, which does not relate to Roswell, can
be seen here:
Another
reference found retold the story, clearly from UFO Crash at Roswell, but the text does identify the source, and it
comes back to me. It adds nothing to it until that recent note that injected
Jesse Marcel into it by someone else.
I
can find nothing to explain where the idea came that Rasmussen had mentioned
Marcel. Tracing the tale to the source, which is probably me given that
Friedman didn’t use it, I know that Vegh did not say that to me. The conclusion
that I draw is that someone somewhere just assumed that Marcel would have been
involved and injected him into a tale in which his name had not surfaced. In Witness to Roswell Carey and Schmitt argue
that Marcel had to have seen the bodies so it is not a large step to Marcel and
Rasmussen being together at some point. This, I believe, is an assumption made by
them but is not based on any testimony.
And
finally let’s talk about that clouded memory. Vegh had said that she had
overheard the story when she was 10 or 12. In 1990, and I’m sure she would be
annoyed for me saying this, she was 62. She also said that she had graduated
from high school in 1945… which means that, if she had the timing right, this
had nothing to do with Roswell…
That’s
a point she figured out later as we discussed this. I mentioned that the crash
was in 1947 (is that such a big secret that I should have kept it to myself…
and oh, she had seen the Unsolved
Mysteries broadcast before we spoke so I wasn’t giving away anything and we
had talked about the date throughout the interview) she said, “I graduated high
school in 1945 so I must have been little older.”
So,
we see that her original memory was of her overhearing this when she was
younger was inaccurate, and I’m not sure that’s the real problem here.
Misremembering her age seems fairly trivial in the overall scheme of things.
The real problem is the lack of corroboration for the story. True, her cousin
was in Roswell at the right time, and since he died in 1975, this would have
been before all the Roswell information came out (she didn’t mention it until
1990 remember) but there is just nothing here we can prove. It is a story with
almost no real foundation, told by a sincere woman who clearly believes it, but
it is also told by a woman who did not accurately remember her age at the time.
This tale is one of those little bits of trivia that seem to dot the Roswell
landscape.
