Roswell Incident

In the first week of July 1947, ranch foreman W.W. 'Mac' Brazel discovered an extensive debris field scattered across approximately three-quarters of a mile of his employer's ranch near Corona, New Mexico, approximately 75 miles north of Roswell. The debris included unusual metallic foil that returned to its original shape after being crumpled, thin beams with strange purple symbols along their inner edges, and a material that witnesses described as similar to balsa wood but impossible to cut or burn. Brazel reported the find to Lincoln County Sheriff George Wilcox, who contacted Roswell Army Air Field.

On July 8, 1947, RAAF public information officer Lieutenant Walter Haut issued a press release — authorized by base commander Colonel William Blanchard — announcing the recovery of a 'flying disc' and its forwarding to higher headquarters. The announcement appeared on front pages across the country and internationally. Within hours, commanding general of the Eighth Air Force Roger Ramey held a press conference in Fort Worth announcing the recovered material was a standard weather balloon and radar target. Photographs of balloon material were shown to press. The original debris had already been transferred.

In 1994, following a congressional inquiry by New Mexico Representative Steven Schiff, the United States Air Force released a report attributing the debris to Project Mogul — a classified program using high-altitude balloon trains to monitor Soviet nuclear tests. In 1997, the USAF released a second report attributing witness accounts of 'bodies' to crash test dummies from high-altitude drop tests — a program conducted years after 1947, a fact widely noted by researchers. A 1994–1995 General Accounting Office investigation found that outgoing RAAF administrative records from the relevant period — July 1947 — had been destroyed, in violation of federal records law. The destruction was unauthorized and its cause was never determined.

Multiple first-hand witnesses gave testimony describing non-terrestrial materials and biological entities. These include Maj. Jesse Marcel, the RAAF intelligence officer who retrieved the debris and stated publicly that it was 'not of this world'; nurse testimony (attributed to 'Lt. Dennis' in some accounts) describing non-human bodies at the base hospital; and mortician Glenn Dennis, who reported being called by the base requesting information about small hermetically sealable caskets. Former CIA Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the first director of the CIA, later stated publicly that 'the Air Force has silenced its personnel' on the subject of flying saucers.