Why the Roswell Press Release

 

I’m going to have to stop looking at the Internet because there is always something there that pisses me off. The latest was a video about five conspiracies that can be destroyed by asking a single question. Naturally, I clicked on it because I was sure that Roswell would show up. It was the fourth of five. I was surprised by the question that supposedly unravels the Roswell conspiracy.

That question was, “Why did the 509^th Bomb Group issue the press release saying that they had captured a flying saucer in the Roswell region?”

It is fine question but one that I have answered several times. The answer is predicated on the timing of the question, meaning that the press release was issued on July 8, 1947, only two weeks after the phenomenon had exploded in the newspapers. Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of nine strange craft flying in formation was the cause of the interest and the inspiration for the term flying saucer. In those days that followed, there were hundreds of reports of flying saucers. There were almost as many explanations for what they were as there were newspapers and military theories. The idea of an interplanetary craft was one of those but that explanation was not at the top of the list.

Ed Ruppelt, who took over as the chief of Project Grudge which evolved into Project Blue Book said that the Pentagon was in a panic over the reports. There was a certain hysteria about the flying saucers. It was because no one knew what was going on. Army Air Forces fighters had intercepted UFOs, and the UFOs had paced commercial aircraft, not to mention cars on the ground. Part of the hysteria was fed by those inventing their tales of close encounters suggesting an alien invasion. No one knew what was going on.

When Jess Marcel, Sr. returned to the Roswell Army Air Field with a carload of strange metallic debris, no one knew what it was. According to the officers I interviewed who were there at the time and would have been in a position to know what was going on, were aware of the hysteria. After all, World War II had been over for less than two years, the Soviets were throwing up an Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe that suggested that a new war was on the horizon and now there were tales of strange craft flying around the US unimpeded.  

Randle on the Debris Field in the early 1990s.

The debris recovered by Marcel suggested that the flying saucers might not be hostile or threatening. Blanchard’s thoughts were to announce they had a flying saucer, though it was only bits and pieces of one, but it was enough that they could relieve some of that hysteria. His thoughts were to remove that one aspect from the public consciousness. According to the officers I talked to, including Walter Haut, Colonel Butch Blanchard felt an obligation to report what they had found.

Walter Haut, the man who wrote the press release at his home in Roswell.
Photo by Kevin randle

It was only after the debris had been examined carefully that they realized that whatever it was, it represented a technology that surpassed that of the United States. The metal that was extremely light weight but super strong, what we now suspect was fiber optics which had yet to be invented and, of course, the thin metal that when wadded up returned to its original shape.

But the real turning point came after the press release was, well, released. That was when the rest of the craft was discovered much closer to Roswell than the debris field 65 miles away near Corona. It was here that the bodies were recovered. That changed the dynamic. That told those in charge, meaning the civilian and military leadership in Washington that what was recovered was something so extraordinary that they created the cover up to give them time to determine just what was going on. Were the flying saucers hostile? Benign? What would it mean to our civilization?

The events in Roswell were isolated because Roswell was in the middle of the desert and the military could control all the information coming out of the town. They shifted the story to Fort Worth and Brigadier General Roger Ramey. He was able to put out the fire with the display of a weather balloon and a rawin target. The tale died at that point and the press moved onto other stories.

But the answer to the question about the press release is simple. When Blanchard ordered the press release, all they had was the strange metallic debris, which was just strange metallic debris. He thought to end some of the hysteria by telling the public that they had found a flying saucer. It was nothing to worry about. Blanchard, as the commanding officer at the Roswell Army Air Field, had the authority to provide the press with information that he believed was important. He had not seen the true value of the find until the craft and bodies were located but believed it was his duty to suggest that they had the situation under control. They had a flying saucer and it was nothing to worry about.

The trouble was, he issued the press release prematurely. Had he waited twenty-four hours, it is unlikely we would have ever heard about the crash. It was a tactical mistake but not a strategic one. The situation was altered within three hours of the press release hitting the national wires. But the point here is that I know why he issued the press release based on my discussions with some of the senior officers on the base in 1947. Forty-five years after the event, they provided an answer, but the skeptical community is now hung up on Project Mogul, just one more evidence of how important the find was.

Now, can we put that question into a footnote where it belongs and get onto the more important aspects of the case?