Surrounded by mystery, skepticism and intrigue, the Roswell Incident has fascinated Americans believers and cynics for decades. But what is the Roswell Incident and why is it such a controversial topic?
On July 4, 1947 an unidentified flying object ( UFO )crashed into the rocky plains region just outside Roswell, a small town in New Mexico. This strange craft, complete with reported strange markings and indestructible metal components was discovered on the property of a local rancher named W. Mack Brazel – together with his neighbors, Floyd and Loretta Proctor who witnessed this strange discovery.
It was a somewhat flamboyant culmination for the many townsfolk of Roswell who, several days prior to the incident had claimed to witness some unusual UFO activity in the area. This event is now referred to as ‘The Roswell Incident’.
This may seem fascinating in itself but the vessel was not the most important discovery made on that night. It is further alleged that lying next to the strange craft were the bodies of four passengers, three of them now dead and a fourth clinging to life. These passengers were by all accounts not from this earth, the passengers were not human!
These four beings were small and short in stature with grey, completely hairless skin and their oversized heads were complete with big black eyes. Needless to say Mack Brazel, upon making this eerie discovery, telephoned the local military base and in particular, Intelligence Officer, Major Jesse Marcel of the 509 Bomb Group who closed the site and took control of the investigation and subsequent clean-up of the crash ‘debris’.
Initially the local military were confident enough to announce the fact that they had found an authentic ‘flying saucer’ and news spread all over the nation about this alien spacecraft via the media and the soldiers who were part of the retrieval mission.
According to reports on the Roswell Incident, Glenn Dennis who was a young mortician at the Ballard Funeral Home received a telephone call from the morgue at the local air field. It is said that the Mortuary Officer wanted to obtain hermetically sealed coffins and asked how to preserve bodies that had been exposed to the elements for a few days without running the risk of contaminating the bodies.
However, a few days after the incident the vessel was seen to be the root cause of a seemingly all-encompassing cover-up by the United States government.
Suddenly, reporters from the news were told that it was not an alien ship at all but in fact an errant weather balloon that had crashed in Roswell, New Mexico. One radio station in the area was told that it would be closed down if they continued with any further news coverage and some individuals in Roswell were reportedly threatened with imprisonment or death if they revealed any information about sightings of the ship, its wreckage and its four passengers.
For forty more years the military, the government and the community at large were tight-lipped about the Roswell Incident and that seemed to be where the story was destined to end.
Then, after so many years had passed many people in the community began to talk about what they had witnessed on July 4, 1947. The story was about to be resurrected but needed concrete physical evidence to back up the resident’s claims before the government would be convinced to take it seriously.
1995 saw this proof realized when an anonymous army officer produced film footage that he had taken on the nights after July 4th and hidden ever since. The film showed in graphic detail an autopsy being carried out on one of the alleged passengers of the Roswell craft.
Now, with new evidence in hand, attention is once again focused on the crash and while all the details are still not known it seems likely that the whole truth will one day be revealed.
Most of the evidence gathered about the Roswell Incident is based on the testimony of eye-witnesses from Roswell and nearby and this is in fact the main problem with uncovering the truth about the events that took place that night.
The majority of people who have been questioned tend to relate conflicting and contradicting stories about what they observed that night.
This may be because their memories of an event that happened forty years ago have become blurred or because they are not being completely honest in their accounts with a view to getting ever-increasing media attention.
Scientific researchers have tried to obtain a better picture of the Roswell Incident by piecing together all the stories ever told and this in itsel
So, what really happened on the night of July 4, 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico?
Researchers Don Schmitt and Kevin Randle believe that the United States military had, for four days, been involved in monitoring an unidentified flying object ( UFO )on radar in Southern New Mexico.
They state that on that night this radar showed an object on the ground thirty to forty miles northwest of Roswell. This craft is thought to have been the one implicated in the Roswell Incident.
Why the military sought to cover the story up, if that is what they did remains unknown. The Roswell Incident is a mystery with many twists and turns and conflicting accounts. Will we ever know what really happened that night? I certainly hope so – we may have the right to know the truth and how it affects us all. If you want to continue your study on this fascinating subject in more detail than is can provided here, I suggest reading:
* History of UFO Crashes, Kevin Randle, 1995 Avon Books.
* The Roswell Incident, Charles Berlitz & William L. Moore, 1980 G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1988 Berkley Publishing Group.
* UFO Crash at Roswell, Kevin Randle & Donald Schmitt, 1991 Avon Books.
Do bear in mind that the jury is still out as to the truth of the Roswell Incident as reported from both sides of the fence: either it was a weather balloon or it really was an alien craft with alien passengers.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide!