July 8, 1947: Roswell Incident Launches UFO Controversy (Happy Anniversary!!!)

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1947: Days after something shiny crashed in the New Mexico desert, the Roswell Army Air Field issues a press release that says the military has recovered the remains of a “flying disc.” Although quickly discounted as erroneous, the announcement lays the groundwork for one of the most enduring UFO stories of all time. The military’s initial press release was straightforward in its handling of the discovery of wreckage by rancher W.W. “Mac” Brazel.

“The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th 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 Chaves County,” the press release read.

“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 Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th 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.”

The Roswell Daily Record headlined the story “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region,” providing a historical artifact that, in retrospect, seems ready-made for fueling an episode of The X-Files.

But press accounts the following day told a much more mundane story: The military had determined the recovered debris to be the wreckage of a weather balloon and related equipment. No flying saucer — a term that had just been coined by newspapers to describe the first widely publicized UFO sighting — had been found.

While the down-to-earth explanation seemed to settle the issue, the so-called Roswell incident flashed back into the public consciousness three decades later. New interviews with individuals proffering information about the crash, and the 1980 publication of Charles Berlitz’s book The Roswell Incident, breathed new life into the story, turning Roswell into a rallying cry for ufologists and true believers.

Rumors of recovered extraterrestrial bodies and a government coverup gained such a foothold in popular culture that the U.S. government took the unusual step of producing two reports in the 1990s that set out to put the matter to rest

In assembling the massive reports, the Air Force gathered and declassified many documents relating to the Roswell incident. Weighing in at nearly 1,000 pages, The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert, published in 1994, set out to “tell the Congress, and the American people, everything the Air Force knew about the Roswell claims.”

The second government publication, 1997’s The Roswell Report: Case Closed (.pdf), came just days shy of the Roswell incident’s 50th anniversary. The report said eyewitness accounts tied to the 1947 recovery actually occurred years later, becoming tangled up in time and further strengthening the Roswell incident’s hold on the public’s imagination.

“Air Force activities which occurred over a period of many years have been consolidated and are now represented to have occurred in two or three days in July 1947,” the report said. “‘Aliens’ observed in the New Mexico desert were actually anthropomorphic test dummies that were carried aloft by U.S. Air Force high-altitude balloons for scientific research.”

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Dummies like these, dropped from ballons, spawned stories of aliens corpses, military says [Photo: USAF]

Despite the military’s assertion that the Roswell incident was a side effect of Cold War secrecy and sci-fi fantasies, the story retains a vital spot in UFO lore.
Source: www.wired.com...


So, the event that was piviotal in the USA for the kick-off of the UFO/Alien movement etc. Hard to believe so many years have passed without any additonal events that can be documented and proven.

As the years pass and people die off, Roswell will become nothing more than a tale or story. I have to say I don't believe aliens crashed nor do I believe the USAF take on things. That being said, maybe a japanese rouge unit-left over from WW2-hiding out somewhere and got there hands on an air balloon and headed off whatever island they were trapped on and landed in Roswell.

You can make the Japanese guys Mexican for all I care because the result is the same---meaning... my version is just a plausable as the UFO story. I just can't beleive the US Gov;t was that (and current is) compendent enough to keep a lid on something like this.

Anyway, I saw that today was the anniversary (of the report anyway) and thought I would share to see what comes out of you folks.

So, did Roswell happen-as a UFO landing or a normal/explainable accident (of human making).












[edit on 7/8/2010 by anon72]

it launches a controversy ??? it wasnt already a controversy ? lol

The amazing swamp gas and weather balloon that launched a worldwide awakening to the reality we are not alone! That weather balloon, or the pieces of it, oughta be in the Smithsonian!


Happy anniversary Roswell!!!! :-P

(/flippant mode...hopefully:-P)

reply to post by SeekerofTruth101


I like that idea! Put that dam think in a museum.

Look, this simple balloon has started a whole cottage industry based on UFO/Aliens.