1947 Roswell UFO Crash
1947 Roswell UFO Crash
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UFO Cornerstone:
If anyone mentions the word UFO, somewhere in the conversation Roswell will come up. Just as the Hill Abduction Case is used to judge alien abduction reports, Roswell is the bread and butter of Ufology. This one case will keep Ufology going, even through its darkest days. The case is never over, there is never an end to the witness lists, and the discussion goes on and on. Roswell is the very heart of the study of UFOs. This distinction is very well earned.
Quick Death:
When the first reports of a crashed alien craft reached the general public, many felt that the long awaited proof of extraterrestrial intelligence had come. The news spread world wide when the Air Force announced that they had a flying saucer in their possession. But hopes were soon dashed, as a second news flash proclaimed that it was nothing more than a weather balloon. The general public felt differently then-they believed anything they were told by officials of our government. This innocent obedience would not work a second time.
The Resurrection:
Yet, the enormous public interest in the case would be revitalized. After an almost 30 year absence from study, the Roswell case would again take its rightful place in 1976, and since then, it has been as popular as any other case study. Thanks be to Ufologists William Moore, and Stanton R. Friedman, who were studying notes from an interview that Friedman had conducted. The interview was with Jesse Marcel Sr. Intelligence Officer at Roswell Air Force Base, and Lydia Sleppy, who was employed at radio station KOAT at the time of the Roswell crash.
A Lone Rancher:
During the first week of July, 1947 sheep rancher William W. "Mac" Brazel was making his rounds of the Foster Ranch, located near Corona. Brazel served as foreman of the facility. Brazel lived on the ranch in a farm house, although his wife and children lived in Tularosa, to receive better schooling for this children. Brazel would become a major figure in the Roswell case, although he never desired the attention it sent his way.
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Brazel, home for the night, was listening to a roaring thunderstorm, not uncommon for his location, but this night it seemed worse than ever. He thought that maybe he had heard an explosion. The next morning, he was out again, checking the livestock, and riding fences for any breaks. A seven-year-old neighbor boy was with him. Riding into an open field, the two horsemen noticed a large area filled with some type of debris or wreckage. The wreckage was tiny pieces of shiny, metallic material. This material was unfamiliar to the rancher.
Marcell Notified of Debris:
Brazel collected some of the unknown debris, and showed it George Wilcox, of the Chaves County Sheriff's Office. At first, Wilcox thought little of the material, until he began to handle it. It was not like anything he had seen before. Wilcox was concerned enough to call Roswell Army Air Field. He talked to Major Jesse A. Marcel, and explained the situation of the discovery of the material at the Foster ranch. Marcell left the base to come to Roswell and see the material.
Marcell's Findings:
After interviewing Brazel, Marcell was on the way to the debris field, accompanied by Army Counter Intelligence Corps officer Sheridan Cavitt and Brazel. Marcell related the events of the search through the debris in his own words:
"When we arrived at the crash site, it was amazing to see the vast amount of area it covered... it scattered over an area of about three quarters of a mile long, I would say, and fairly wide, several hundred feet wide. It was definitely not a weather or tracking device, nor was it any sort of plane or missile."
Headlines Claim "Flying Saucer" Found:
Marcel examined the strange material, and even took some of it home with him. He informed Air Force officials of what he had seen, and Colonel Blanchard gave an order to Colonel Walter Haut, instructing him to inform the media that the Air Force had in its possession a "crashed saucer." Haut claimed that the saucer debris was sent to the 8th Air Force, under the leadership of General Ramey in Ft. Worth, Texas. Meanwhile, the famous newspaper headlines were released:
"RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region."
The shocking admission would soon be retracted, and the flying saucer became a weather balloon.
The Military's Actions: Soon, rumors were running rampant at the base, and word was beginning to filter into Roswell about dead alien bodies. Although the military had secured the site of the crash, and supposedly removed every bit of debris, there is never 100% silent obedience for an event this dramatic. Any reasonable person will wonder that if the debris came from a weather balloon, why the secrecy? Front page photographs of so-called weather balloon debris would later be disputed by Marcel as not being the same material he brought to the base.
The Story That Will Not Die:
Although the theories about Roswell are composed of many conflicting accounts, some facts are clear. Something important crashed near Corona-important enough that witnesses were threatened if they revealed what they saw. There are too many witnesses who claim to have seen the alien bodies. There is adequate evidence to assume that autopsies were done on at least one alien body, and probably more.
Numerous times, the Air Force has been adamant that there is nothing to the crash, but too many times witnesses have come forward with first hand knowledge of a crashed UFO, dead alien bodies, and a military cover-up.
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"We Retrieved ET at Roswell" by Anthony Bragalia
Copyright InterAmerica, Inc. 2010 (Permission required to print the following, in total; Fair Use is in effect, of course.)
Accounts of the downed UFO event near Roswell in July in 1947 often mention the role that the Roswell City Fire Department may have played at the crash site. Though there was indeed some connection, new information reveals that there was far greater involvement in the extraterrestria l retrieval by the Roswell military base's own Fire Department. This information shows that it was the Fire Department located at Roswell Army Air Field -not the Roswell City Fire Department- that officially responded to the call to a crash of a sky-fallen ship from the stars. Revealed here for the first time are the identities and testimonies of three brave firefighters who responded to this call- and the remarkable description of what they saw when they arrived on the scene. Recent research and interviews -and clues found buried within the USAF Roswell Report - provide astounding details about the involvement of these base firefighters.
WHY THE BASE FIRE DEPARTMENT?
The necessary role that the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) base fire department would have played in the crashed UFO event has for some reason never been considered until now. Yet it seems obvious that the Roswell military base fire department -given their very function- would have to have been involved. Military base fire departments provide firefighting, fire prevention, tactical rescue and hazardous materials spill response. One of the chief functions of a base fire department is also to deliver "first responder" emergency and medical services. During its history, Roswell Army Air Field fire department personnel responded to air crashes and accidents with some frequency. They also responded to the fires, explosions and fuel spills often associated with such aerial crash incidents.
It is then entirely consistent that the RAAF base fire department would have responded to the crash of an Unidentified Flying Object that July in 1947. During that period of time in rural New Mexico, many aerial accidents involved military rather than civilian craft. Perhaps they thought it was their own vehicle- or perhaps they knew that it could not be their own. In either case, their definitive answer surely came when they located the site of bodies and craft that could have only originated from another world.
PUTTING OUT THE FIRE AT ROSWELL
Fire and extreme heat are indeed associated with the Roswell crash event:
- Sgt. Lewis "Bill" Rickett, CIC Intelligence Officer based in Roswell (and part of Intelligence Officer Jesse Marcel's staff) was interviewed in the 1990s. Rickett said that he and meteorologist Dr. Lincoln LaPaz had later investigated the trajectory of the Roswell craft. They had found a large, round, burned-out area where the heat was so intense that the sand on the desert floor had literally turned to glass.
- Barbara Dugger, granddaughter of Roswell Sheriff George Wilcox, says that her grandfather mentioned to family a "big burned out area" at the site.
- RAAF 1st Lt. Chester Barton maintained in an interview with researcher Joe Stefula that -from a considerable distance- he saw a burned area with burned metallic-like debris from the perimeter of the site.
Of course not only would have the RAAF fire department been involved in extinguishing any fires from the crash, but they also would have provided cleanup, rescue and emergency medic treatment assistance as well as additional utility vehicles and manpower.
"BASE FIREMEN WERE INVOLVED" SAYS 1947 CITY OF ROSWELL FIREMAN
The association of the Roswell City Fire Department and the Roswell UFO crash event comes largely from the testimony of Frankie Rowe. Frankie Rowe is the daughter of (now deceased) Roswell City firefighter Dan Dwyer. In 1947, Dwyer (pictured with others, above) was with the City's fire department. According to his daughter, she was told by him that he had gone to the crash site and had seen the crash of a craft not from earth as well as that he had encountered alien beings.
As readers may remember, a little over a year ago I located and spoke with the last living Roswell City firefighter from 1947. Firefighter Smith, now 91, confessed to me that the crash event was in fact of an extraterrestria l vehicle. He affirmed this again when I asked author Kevin Randle to contact him. Smith also confirmed the involvement of Frankie Rowe's father, Dan Dwyer. This astonishing story ("Roswell Fireman Confesses- It Was a Flying Saucer!") can be read in its entirety here:
"ROSWELL FIREMAN CONFESSES- IT WAS A FLYING SAUCER!"
Another telling thing that Smith offered about the crash event was this: Smith explained that the "more involved" fire department was the fire department at Roswell Army Air Field. He did not want to detail specifically who at the base fire department was involved, but he did confirm that they were more heavily engaged at the crash site than anyone at the City fire department. Smith said that though City firefighters like Frankie Rowe's father Dan Dwyer did go out to the site on their own, it was the RAAF base firefighters that acted in an official capacity to the event.
With this confirmation of base firefighter involvement, I continued to hunt for additional clues.
USAF ROSWELL REPORT UNWITTINGLY NAMED BASE FIREMAN WHO KNEW IT WAS ET
Researcher Kevin Randle provided to me the names of some of the individuals that he could confirm were part of "Squadron A" at RAAF in 1947 as base fire department personnel. Randle has access to the 1947 RAAF Base Yearbook and other resources to help with such confirmation. The individuals Randle identified that he could find were Lt. Col. William H. Unger, Major Wilson L. Jones and Captain William E. Anderson.
It was this last name -Captain William E. Anderson- that seemed vaguely familiar to me, as though I may have read it before in relation to Roswell. For many months I thought about this. Then entirely by coincidence -when recently re-reading the US Air Force's debunking 1995 "The Roswell Report" authored by Col. Richard Weaver- I found where I had seen the name William E. Anderson before. Incredibly, there in the very Air Force Roswell report that I was reading (on page 23) was the name William E. Anderson of the RAAF fire department- explicitly mentioned in relation to the Roswell crash.
The Air Force report cites testimony from a sworn affidavit dated June 7, 1991 in which former RAAF Master Sgt Robert R. Porter attested that Captain William E. Anderson (of the base fire department) had directly told him that the crash was of a flying saucer. Porter and Anderson were both on a flight heading out of RAAF to Ft. Worth in a B-29 with cargo that contained some of the crash debris. Porter apparently trusted Anderson's word and thought that Anderson had a more intimate involvement or knowledge about the flying saucer crash incident. Interestingly, Robert Porter is the brother of Loretta Proctor, the rancher who lived adjacent to the Foster Ranch where the crash occurred. Loretta has testified that rancher Mac Brazel brought over a piece of the debris for her and her husband Floyd to examine. Porter is also Uncle to the late Dee Proctor, Loretta's son who was with Mac at the Foster Ranch where crash debris was found.
So we have an RAAF Master Sgt from 1947 implicating a member of the Roswell base fire department as being intimately aware of the fact that the crash was of a flying saucer. A facsimile of the Porter Affidavit (and his mention of Captain Anderson in Section 5) can be found here:
AFFIDAVIT OF ROBERT PORTER
THE RELUCTANT SERGEANT'S STORY
Sgt. James W. Storm was stationed at Roswell Army Air Field at the time of the crash in 1947 and worked for the base fire department. Storm went by the nickname "Stormy." Stormy's brother-in-law is Roswell area resident, retired Sgt. John Tilley. Tilley was himself stationed at RAAF beginning in December of 1947. In an interview with this author, Tilley indicated that even a half-year after the crash (when he began his time of service at RAAF) he had heard stories from others at the base who were there in July at the time of the crash. They had related to him stories about beings from another planet having crashed and that the bodies were then taken to the base.
Tilley also confirmed that the Roswell base fire department was involved in the crash recovery, based on what Stormy had told him. Tilley had a brief conversation with his (now deceased) brother-in-law decades after the crash. Stormy has blurted out to Tilley that he had escorted a covered large section of what he called "the saucer" from the crash site. Stormy made it apparent that the saucer was an object that was not known to us. Stormy added that a group of Roswell City Fire Department firemen and RAAF base firemen had used a snub-nosed tractor and low-boy flat trailer. At one point, they parked off of the road far enough so that they could not be seen by passersby. Stormy also told Tilley that his Assistant Fire Chief had been promised that if he "cooperated" and kept quiet, he would be made Fire Chief. Stormy said that the Assistant Fire Chief did in fact later become the Fire Chief. Tilley indicated to me that Stormy was a man of few words and was becoming more cryptic in his description of the event. Sensing that he told all that he would tell about the matter, Tilley chose not to question temperamental Stormy further about it.
A BASE FIREMAN DESCRIBES THE CRASH SITE
Sergeant Willliam W. "Bud" Taylor is confirmed to have been stationed at Roswell Army Air Field in July of 1947. Research shows that although "Bud" Taylor was not directly assigned to Squadron A as a firefighter, he was cross-trained in firefighting and was mobilized occasionally by the base fire department to assist when more hands were needed. Back in the 1940s, fire departments at military bases were small and few were dedicated staff. A type of "fire auxiliary" system was in place allowing the department to draw upon others at the base when needed. Bud was also a base Safety Officer, so he maintained a very close working relationship with the department.
Bud Taylor retired from service and became a very prominent and successful proprietor of a retail establishment in Roswell for many years. He passed in the late 1980s. However he did speak of the Roswell crash event privately at least once- and well before all of the Roswell books and TV shows were published and broadcast. According to his Nephew Robbie (whom I located and communicated with recently) "Uncle Bud" did mention the event -very sparsely- in the mid 1960s when Robbie was a young man. Robbie is now a respected and retired businessman who formerly headed a leading IT consulting firm.
After I dialogued with Robbie, I asked researcher Tom Carey to do so as well. According to Robbie, "Uncle Bud" had quietly and briefly related a bit about the Roswell crash event when at a family function discussing his time in the service. Bud told his nephew that in the Summer of 1947 he was stationed at RAAF and assisted the base fire department. He had been called out to the crash site and arrived to see something that he would never forget, a crashed vehicle and entities not from Earth.
Taylor provided some details:
- The craft, Taylor said, "seemed like it could have been from Earth- only from our future."
- Certain areas of the interior of the craft were entwined with a network of strange, plastic-like fibers or filaments.
- The interior was also outfitted with embedded "flat screens" or display panels.
- An ethereal violet or pink-purple color was incorporated into some of the materials of construction of the craft.
- Some of the craft structure was embossed with unusual hieroglyphic-li ke symbols that he described as being somewhat like "Asian writing."
- There were bodies. Small corpses were found that he described as being like "little humans."
Bud's nephew was not reminded of his Uncle's story until almost three decades later in the 1990s. He had become aware of the Roswell crash incident being told by others through various media. It was then that he "connected the dots" and realized that his Uncle Bud was indeed telling the truth those many years prior.
THE FIRST RESPONDERS TO ROSWELL
Men such as Bud Taylor, William Anderson and James Storm acted as base first-responder s to the first-ever crash of visitors from another planet. Little did they know at the time that their response to a local emergency would ultimately become one of global and epic importance. Their stories are consistent with one another and are independently given by their loved ones and close friends. Indeed, the participation in the crash retrieval by the RAAF base fire department was corroborated by the last living Roswell City fireman.
These men have demonstrated bravery beyond measure. Their historic involvement has now been told. All firefighters deserve much gratitude for all that they do. But these firefighters from Roswell have earned special respect for their efforts. They are the only ones in history to have ever responded to a call from out of this world.
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