On July 3rd, 1947, almost two years after the first unidentified flying object crashed in the vicinity of the Los Alamos nuclear base, near San Antonio, reports came that a second ship had fallen in Roswell, New Mexico. An incident that would later change the perception of the UFO phenomenon forever.
The crash of a second ship in Roswell which occurred some 150 miles away from the San Antonio crash in 1945, represented a grave warning and a major concern to the U.S. national security as it became evident that there is an alien presence on Earth which had a great interest in our construction and development of atomic bombs.
As a result of these concerns, the high military commanders of the U.S. decided that this presence had to be kept secret. However, even before being able to conceal the information, the news had already transcended to a high level of attention in the media and made worldwide headlines. On July 8th, 1947, the Roswell Daily Record published that in the vicinity of their town, the Army Air Force had recovered a flying saucer that fell from space.
Although the military later retracted their statement thanks to General Roger Ramey who announced in a press conference that that it wasn’t a flying saucer that was captured, but just a weather balloon that exploded in a bad storm, this revelation did little to nothing to end public concerns and conspiracy theories.
Unlike the San Antonio case where only four or five people were direct witnesses of the incident, In the case of Roswell, there were at least 450 direct and indirect witnesses.
We now know that in the early morning of July 3, 1947, at least three “unidentified planform space vehicles” have emerged on radar before three crashes were reported near the town of Roswell, New Mexico according to the leaked Majestic 12 First Annual Report document that was addressed to President Truman.
It was thought that the reason these crafts fell to the ground in Roswell was due to a bad storm. However, according to the Hottel memorandum that was sent to the FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, in March of 1950, the Air Force believed that these crashes occurred as a result of high-powered radars that operated in the area which had interfered with the crafts’ navigation systems.
Donald R. Schmidt and Thomas J. Carey have been investigating the Roswell case for over 30 years, and were able to interview 150 direct witnesses, and more than 600 indirect witnesses. The two investigators published a book in 2009 about the Roswell incident entitled, Witness to Roswell.
The Roswell Events
In Roswell, New Mexico, two spacecrafts along with five to six alien corpses were recovered between July 4th and 9th, 1947, according to testimonies. One of the crafts that was found had little damage, and carried four beings – one of which was still alive. The second craft, however, disintegrated completely and scattered to pieces after hitting the ground, with two bodies found that have suffered considerable injuries.
According to Schmidt – as reported in Jaime Maussan’s investigation, In the early morning of July 4th, sheep rancher Mac Brazel came upon a large area of unusual debris, located on a ranch near Corona, 75 miles northwest of Roswell.
Brazel was unable to identify the materials he found on the debris field and initially thought it might be part of a military aircraft that had crashed in his ranch. So, he took a sample of the material and went to his nearest neighbor Floyd and Loretta Proctor – about 10 miles away from the crash site. They too failed to recognize any feature to it, and told Brazel that it might belong to one of these flying saucers people were seeing during that summer.
The material, according to Schmidt, included a thin silver-like paper that couldn’t cut or burn, yet when crumbled or creased, it would spring back to its original shape. It was later nicknamed; the Memory Metal.
Two days later, Brazel, accompanied by Timothy “Dee” Proctor – the son of his neighbors, came back to the debris field looking for the remains of the flying saucer, and found a new crash site a few miles away. Although they didn’t find any parts of the craft there, they did find two severly injured alien bodies. It was thought that the two beings might have been ejected from the craft after hitting the ground.
According to Schmidt, what Brazel found that day affected his life forever. Especially, the smell of the dead beings; an impression that would never leave him. When Brazel was interviewed by the reporter Frank Joyce on a radio show, Brazel kept repeating “It was horrible!” in reference to the dead bodies.
“You wouldn’t believe the smell. The stench was terrible.”
Joyce suggested that it might be monkeys that were launched in those rockets over at White Sands, to which Brazel replied: “They weren’t any damn monkeys. They weren’t human.”
After discovering the bodies that day, on July 6, Brazel went to Roswell to notify the authorities. Once there, he went to see the local Sheriff, George Wilcox, who, in turn, gave notice to the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) and informed them about the remains of an aircraft that was found in Brazel’s property.
The Commanding Officer of the 509th Bomb Wing at RAAF, Colonel William Blanchard dispatched two military intelligence officers – Lieutenant Colonel Jesse Marcel Sr. and Captain Sheridan Cavitt to investigate and recover any strange objects that had been scattered in the debris field.
Jesse Marcel Sr. brought back some of the material to his house that night before returning to his Base. He woke his son, Jesse Jr, and wife up, and took them to the kitchen where he had the debris scattered on the floor. When examining the pieces, Jesse Jr. found what he described as a long thin I-beam with hieroglyphic-like symbols on it.
The next day, July 7, military personnel were sent to the crash site to collect every single piece of the debris as well as the alien bodies, and transport them back to RAAF Hangar P-3 of Building 84, which was known at the time as the Black Hangar. On July 8, the Roswell Army Air Field issued a press statement – under the command of Colonel Blanchard, that the RAAF had captured a flying saucer that crashed near Corona, Roswell.
In less than 24 hours later, General Ramey “empties the Roswell Saucer” and the weather balloon explanation came out. He ordered the recovered wreckage and the alien bodies to be flown in a B-29 Bomber from the RAAF operations building, to the restricted area in Fort Worth, Texas.
Eyewitness Accounts
Among the key eyewitnesses to the Roswell events Schmidt made reference to in his book was Joseph Montoya who – at the time, was the vice governor of New Mexico, and one of the witnesses to observe the alien bodies being recovered by the U.S. Army. According to Schmidt, Montoya told that he was taken into the hangar and was shown what he thought were children, one of which was even moaning with his hands and legs rocking back and forth. That’s when he realized they weren’t human.
According to the testimony of Ruben Anaya, Montoya would later call his political supporter friend, Pete Anaya to meet him near the Big Hangar, and tell him “Get me the hell out of here!” relating to what he saw inside the Hangar. Accompanying him was his brother, Ruben, and Moses Burrola, all – at the time, were civilian employees at the base.
Ruben told that Montoya kept warning them afterwards not to ever repeat what he told them or else he would say that they were liars and might even get themselves hurt.
Another eyewitness to the alien bodies was Eli Benjamin, a Private First Class in the 309th Air Service Squadron at Roswell, who – according to Schmidt, Benjamin described how they were called and assigned to escort a number of gurneys transporting beings in ambulance trucks to the base hospital. When they were unloading the gurneys, one of the military personnel stepped on one of the sheets, pulling it away from one of the bodies on the gurneys, and “revealing the grayish face and swollen, hairless head of a species that I realized was not human.”
Benjamin was then dismissed and told to return to his squadron. There, “I was debriefed and made to sign a nondisclosure statement regarding what had just taken place. I was told that if I ever spoke out about it, something bad would happen, not only to me, but also to my family. I heard later that the one species that was still alive was apparently taken to Alamogordo, then shipped to Texas or Ohio.”
From the military hospital, phone calls were made to the Ballad Funeral Home in Roswell, which Glenn Dennis answered to but couldn’t not understand the unusual requests of the army.
According to Schmidt, Dennis told that he received a call from the mortuary officer asking him how many child-sized – three and a half to four feet, sealed caskets they had in stock, to which Dennis answered they only have one, but can arrange to get a few more from Amarillo, Texas, the next day.
Dennis later received a second call from the officer asking him about what type of chemicals could be used for the preservation of bodily tissues and fluids. On the next call, other requests were made and Dennis was asked to personally come to the military hospital for assistance. That’s where he encountered the nurse, Miriam Bush, who told him to quickly get out of there and that something had happened. Few moments later, Dennis was accosted by the military who kicked him out of the hospital and threatened him if he didn’t keep quiet about it.
At the time, Miriam Bush worked as an Executive Secretary under Chief Medical Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Harold Warne. According to her sister-in-law, Pat Bush, she told that Miriam was approached by her boss that day and told her that there is something she needed to see. He took her to a room in the hospital in which there was what she thought were the bodies of children, but soon realized they weren’t human. She was told that most of them were dead and there had been some type of accident.
Similar to Mac Brazel, Miriam also described how horrible the smell was in the room, which was similar to decay, and when she was looking closely at the beings, she saw one of them moving its hand and realized at least one was still alive.
Pat told that her sister was very excited relating the story to her family that day. However, the next day when she came back from work, her demeanor completely changed. According to Pat, Miriam looked depressed and frightened and even made her family swear they would never talk about what she told them again.
Not so long after, Miriam got married and immediately moved away from Roswell to end up in California. According to Pat, she became a recluse and an alcoholic and had very little contact with her family.
Miriam Bush allegedly took her own life in a hotel room in 1989.
Aftermath
On July 9, 1947, the concealment of the truth about Roswell began and the government decided to repress all those who were involved or contributed to the stories.
Lieutenant Colonel Jesse Marcel was ordered to fly to Fort Worth, Texas, and pose for photographs with the debris of a shredded weather balloon to strengthen the army’s claims. Although Marcel knew that the debris he recovered from Roswell certainly didn’t not come from a weather balloon, he admitted to the press that he was wrong and exaggerating about the saucer story.
Mac Brazel was reportedly forced to change his testimony as well, who later said that he also exaggerated and it was in fact the debris of a weather balloon that he found on his ranch.
According to Schmidt, Brazel was held against his will in the Military National Guard Armory for five days after the weather balloon explanation came out. He was later escorted by the military to the Roswell Daily Record and to the local radio station to deny his story.
When Frank Joyce put him on air, Brazel would tell the public that he is sorry he overreacted and that it was just a weather balloon. Joyce later takes him off the mic and follows him out of the radio station when he sees a number of military personnel standing outside and waiting for Brazel.
Before leaving the station, Joyce asked him, “why are you changing your story now, this is not what you originally told me, to which Brazel replied, “son, they told me they would go awful hard on me if I didn’t do exactly what they said” and Brazel turned and started to walk out.
Joyce then asked him, “well, what about the little green men?” and Brazel turned back and said, “they weren’t green.”
Witnesses like Frankie Rowe were also reportedly threatened if they didn’t keep silent about what they saw. She was told that she and her parents would be killed and buried in the desert where no one would find them if she would ever reveal any detail about the incident.
In the late 1990s, Rowe told investigators that she and some firemen played with a piece of the material – the Memory metal, the day the state policemen brought with them at the fire station. She said she was there waiting for her father to drive her home after she came back from an oral surgery.
At the time, Frankie ‘s father was working as firefighter with the fire department in Roswell. She told that one day he came back from his shift and told his family that they had gone 30 miles outside of Roswell and few miles to the west, where there had been a crash of what he described as a “spaceship or a flying saucer or something.”
“He said he saw two bodies in bags and one that was walking around.” … “This third one would go back and forth between different parts of the wreckage and was walking around dazed.”
A few days later a serviceman showed up at her house to threaten her and her family if they continued to talk about it. According to Rowe, the serviceman kept telling her “you didn’t know anything, you didn’t see anything, you didn’t hear anything” multiple times. At the time, Rowe was only 12 years old, and unable to understand what the serviceman was asking her to do. She told that when he was telling her she didn’t know anything, she kept insisting she did “because we were taught you couldn’t lie.”
The serviceman then said to her, “If you don’t understand that you don’t know anything, I’ll tell you what will happen to you.”
“We still got two POW camps – one located south of Roswell, and the other in Artesia, here. We’ll send them [your parents] to one of the camps, and we’ll send all of the kids – referring to Frankie and her sister, to the other. If that doesn’t convince you, we can just take you out here and kill you in the desert.”
“It’s a big old desert, he said. Nobody will ever find your bodies.”
Frankie Rowe died in 2017, and was the last direct witness to the Roswell incident.
The materials present in this article are provided by Jaime Maussan in his ‘Nuevo’ series published by Gaia.
