The Roswell Coverup Essay, Research Paper
You feel the blazing desert sun of Corona, New Mexico beating down on your
already weary body. All of a sudden it starts to rain. The cool water refreshes you. Out of
the corner of your eye you see a saucer shaped flying disc in the distance. You have heard
of hundreds of these sightings all over the country. You gaze in awe because you have now
beheld the breathtaking beauty that these discs possess. The saucer you realize is coming
directly toward you at a tremendous speed. It flies over missing your head by about 10
feet. After it is over your head you realize that it did not make a sound. If you had lived in
New Mexico during the summer of 1947 this incident might have occurred. Only the
government, the RAAF (Roswell Army Air Field), and the 509th Bomb Squad knows if this
incident really took place, and if it did, were there aliens and what were the reasons for the
cover-up.
On June 25,1947, the local dentist, Dr. R. F. Sensenbaugher reported a
saucer-shaped object about 1/2 the size of the full moon flying over Silver City, New
Mexico. On June 26, Leon Oetniger and 3 other witnesses reported a large, silver,
ball-shaped object clearly not a balloon or dirigible traveling over the Grand Canyon.
June 27, 1947: A white disc glowing like an electric light bulb was reported to have
passed over Pope, New Mexico, by local resident W. C. Dobbs at 9:50 a.m.
Minutes later, the same or a similar object was sighted traveling southwest
over the White Sands Missile Range by Captain E. B. Detchmendy, who reported it
to his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Harold R. Turner. At 10:00 a.m.,
Mrs. David Appelzoller of San Miguel, New Mexico, reported that a similar object
had passed over that city, again heading southwest. Colonel Turner of White Sands
initially reacted by announcing that no rockets had been launched from that base since June
12. Later, fearing hysteria, he officially identified the object as a daytime meteorite.(Berlitz
18)
Also on June 27, Major George B. Wilcox of Warren, Arizona, reported a series of 8 or 9
discs traveling at high speed above the mountain tops. Then on June 28, A pilot flying in
the vicinity of Alamagorda, New Mexico reported seeing a ball of fire with a fiery blue tail
behind it pass beneath him and then disintegrate into the sky. (19)
On July 2, 1947, Mac Brazel was sitting at home watching TV during a
thunderstorm when he heard a crash that was louder than thunder and sounded different
from the other rumbling. There had been a lot of strange noises since they had begun atomic
research in New Mexico for World War II. After the storm, the next day Brazel and
Timothy D. Proctor were riding the range to determine which fields had received rain.
(Randle 37) During the ride, Brazel came across a field filled with debris of some sort.
Some of the debris was shiny but most of it looked like dull metal. There were big chunks
and little pieces as if something had exploded while still in the air.
The debris when examined surprised Brazel because of its strange properties. The
material was described to be as thin as the foil in a cigarette pack and just as light. It was
strong, however, that Brazel could not scratch it with a knife or even blacken it with
matches. (38)
On July 6, Brazel finally decided to go to the police in Roswell. When Sheriff
George A. Wilcox saw the debris he suggested they call the RAAF (Roswell Army Air
Field). It only took a few minutes for the military to arrive, afterwards Wilcox said that they
got there so fast it seemed like they had been waiting for the call. After all the samples were
brought in and examined no one could identify the material.
The next morning on July 7, Brazel took them out to the crash site. The crash site
was observed to be 3/4 of a mile long and two to three hundred feet wide. One of the
military officers also made the statement that it was as light as a feather but could not be
dented or flexed. Marcel (it never mentions his first name) and a CIC (Counter-Intellegence
Corps) agent spent the rest of the day examining, picking up the debris, and putting the
debris into Marcels 42 Buick convertible and the CIC agents jeep carryall box. It soon
became dark and the men said they were going back to Roswell, and that tomorrow they
would have some more men to come out and help clean up. (40)
On July 8, fifty to sixty MPs (Mi
CIC agents went to search for Brazel. They took him back to Roswell and kept him there
untill the 16th of July. While Brazel was there the military released a statement saying that
the so called UFO was nothing but a downed weather balloon, but after being interviewed by
the newspaper Brazel stated that he had found two or three weather balloons before but this
thing that he had discovered was not a weather balloon at all.
There were many rumors of bodies on the crashed spacecraft but the government
dismissed these rumors as nonsense. But of course there was Barney Barnett and his group
of archaeologists thaat claimed to have come across the spaceship and seen the bodies. It
was not, though, in Corona, New Mexico where the bodies were suposedly found. It was
Magdalena, New Mexico where there was believed to be another part that had broken off
during the explosion in the air. In February of 1990 one of the archaeoligists came out and
said that they had been suveying an area north of the Capitan Mts. He said they were
driving when they came upon what looked to be a crashed airplane without wings. As they
came closer there were three bodies. They were small, with a big head and big eyes. They
had only been there for a couple of minutes when a jeep drove up with an officer that swore
them to secrecy.(57) There were many more descriptions of the bodies. Many of them as
following:
Approximate height between three and a half and four and a half feet…
The head by human standards, is oversized in relation to torso and limbs…
Head and body are hairless although some report a slight fuz on pate…
Eyes are large and deep-set or sunken, far apart, and slightly slanted…
Although brain capacity has not been specified it is considerably larger
comparitively that possesed by human beings…
Nose is formless, with nares indicated by only a slight protuberance…
Arms and legs are extremely thin, with arms reaching nearly to knee sections…
Hands show four fingers and no thumb, with two fingers double the length of the
others…
Mouth is a small slit which may not function as an orifice for food ingestion…
Skin very tough and a grayish texture…
Blood is liquid but not similar to human blood by color or any known liquid type..
There were conflicting reports on reproductive organs, with some observers
reporting no distinguishing sex characteristics while others stated that there were distinctive
male and female bodies sexually comparable to those of humanbeings… (Berlitz 99)
If the crash and recovery of a UFO in New Mexico actually occurred then there
should be more reliable reports from more reliable sources.(Randle 221) If it was a weather
balloon, V-2 rocket, or Top Secret Test Flight than there are many questions that need to be
answered. If the debris originated from a top secret test why was the military just waiting
and not searching? Why did highly trained military officials release that they had found a
flying disc, then turn around and say that it was just a weather balloon? Why did they even
mistake a weather balloon for a UFO in the first place? Most weather balloons were said to
have been picked up in two to ten minutes. So why would a weather balloon make a 150
yd. gouge in the tough New Mexican soil and take two to three days to complete the
cleanup? If it was a weather balloon why did the military check for radiation? In 1947
there were only two rocket launch sites. On July 3, the rocket at White Sands did not even
launch ,but blew up on the pad. The other test site did not launch until July 23.
After all the evidence was analyzed and all the interviews were made. The opinion
of the people is that the incident really did happen, and that is not just a hoax. It could not
have been a weather balloon or a V-2 rocket. So what was it? Only Mac Brazel and the
RAAF will know for sure.
Berlitz, Charles & William L. Moore. The Roswell Incident. New York: Grosset & Dunlap,
1980.
Jerome, Richard. A Saucer Scorned. People. Oct. 31, 1994: pp. 93-96.
Peebles, Curtis. Watch the Skies. Washington & London: Smithsonian Insitute Press, 1990.
Phlock, Karl F. Star Witness. Omni.Fall 1995: pp. 100-105, 132
Randle, Kevin D. & Donald R. Schmitt. Ufo Crash at Roswell. New York: Grosset &
Dunlap, 1991.
Sobel, Dava. The Truth About Roswell. Omni. Fall 1995: pp. 90-99, 127