While sitting at my table in the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, I heard a woman behind me say, “That was my father.” She was pointing to a picture of one of the soldiers assigned to the base in 1947.
I listened to her for a moment and then stood up to learn who she was and what she had been told.Her name was Carlene Green (seen here pointing to her father's picture) who was the daughter of Sergeant Homer G. Rowlette, a member of the 603rd Air Engineering Squadron. And as established by the Yearbook produced by Walter Haut in 1947, he was clearly in Roswell at the right time.
According to what she said, she learned of her father’s part in the crash retrieval just days before he died. He was on a Gurney and about to be wheeled into an operating room when he asked her to come closer so that he could speak to her.
He told her that he had been at the base when the “spaceship” crashed and that he had seen it. He said that the craft was rounded and that he had seen three “little people,” and suggested that one of them had survived the crash.
He apologized for not telling her sooner but that he had told her brother the story sometime earlier. (The Yearbook picture of Sergeant Rowlette seen here).
Finally he cautioned her to keep it all to herself, or else.
This all happened in 1988, which is, of course, ten years after Jesse Marcel, Sr. told his story and eight years after the publication of The Roswell Incident. While the story of the Roswell crash wasn’t as well known then as it is today, there were television shows that touched on it, there were documentaries about it and some magazine articles that told of it. In other words, this information didn’t appear in the vacuum that existed prior to 1980.
And yes, this is another second-hand story. It would have been nice to find it prior to Rowlette’s death in 1988 but that didn’t happen. We are left with these tales and we each must decide how important they are to the overall case. It does provide some interesting details, some of which have been suggested by others, but in the end, it is still second hand.
At any rate, Carlene Green was a nice woman who took a few minutes to share with me the information her father had given her so long ago.
Kevin: "Sergeant Homer G. Rowlette, a member of the 603rd Air Engineering Squadron...While the story of the Roswell crash wasn’t as well known then as it is today, there were television shows that touched on it, there were documentaries about it and some magazine articles that told of it."
ReplyDeleteI think this may be Homer C. Rowlett, who died in 1988 and was a resident of Roswell, NM. He likely had more exposure to the Roswell story than someone from Peoria.
I wonder if he was a Roswell native before the war, or whether, like Haut, he moved there after leaving the service. Actually, has anyone checked out how many RAAF personnel followed Haut's path and moved there?
Regards,
Don
Don -
ReplyDeleteI would add that as a former member of the 509th, he probably would have noticed anything that had to do with the crash. This wasn't a story that evolved in a vacuum.
Even though I wasn't paying much attention to UFO crash tales in 1988, I was familiar with the Roswell story...
And no, I have no idea how many of the men and women stationed at the base ended up living there after their service.
I wonder if there was a population in Roswell of those who were stationed at the RAAF in 1947 who settled there. An officer like Haut who lived in town, and in Haut's case, as PIO, a job that required contact with civilians, might very well decide they like the town and the people and move there.
ReplyDeleteBut an enlisted man living on base in a barracks? The RAAF was not a cushy billet. 1947 was a transitional period for the AAC. At the RAAF in 1947 there was no lifer culture from which one might expect some men to become residents of the base town they were most familiar with, once they retired or were discharged, for example. There might be good reasons, perhaps having married someone from Roswell.
It's just a thought that if among the military witnesses, some had moved to Roswell, say between 1947 and 1977, for no obvious reason.
Regards,
Don