| Introduction On July 2 1947, during the evening, a flying saucer crashed on the Foster Ranch near Corona, New Mexico. The crash occurred during a severe thunderstorm. (The nearest military base to the crash site is in Roswell, New Mexico; so, Roswell is more closely associated with this event than Corona.) Events take place June/July
In the summer of 1947 William Woody and his father observe a bright, arching light with a red contrail travelling south to north across the sky and disappear below the Northern horizon. 2nd July
On Wednesday 2nd July at around 9:50pm, Mr. & Mrs. Dan Wilmot report seeing an oval-shaped UFO from their house at South Penn, Roswell, moving NW, towards the crash site. Dan Wilmot estimates it as being at around 1500 feet and 15 to 20 feet in diameter (Roswell UFO).
Mac Brazel and others hear a loud explosion. 3/4th July
Mac Brazel, accompanied by 7-year-old neighbour Dee Proctor, discovers a large amount of lightweight, metallic debris (the crashed Roswell flying saucer) on a remote pasture (the debris field). Brazel was foreman of the Foster Ranch. The pieces were spread out over a large area. When Brazel and Dee drove back home, he showed a piece of the wreckage to Dee's parents, Floyd and Loretta Proctor. It was agreed the debris was unlike anything seen before. Brazel removes a large, circular piece of debris from the debris field and stores it in a shed. 5th July
Mac Brazel is in Corona and hears about the $3000 reward money for a "flying disc". 6th July
Mac Brazel showed pieces of the wreckage to Chaves County Sheriff George Wilcox. Wilcox called Roswell Army Air Field (AAF) and talked to Major Jesse Marcel, the intelligence officer. Marcel drove to the sheriff's office and inspected the wreckage. William Blanchard, Marcel's commanding officer, ordered Marcel to get someone from the Counter Intelligence Corps, and to proceed to the ranch with Brazel to collect as much of the wreckage as they could.
Soon after this, military police arrived at the sheriff's office, collected the wreckage Brazel had left there, and delivered the wreckage to Blanchard's office. The wreckage was then flown to Eighth Air Force headquarters in Fort Worth, and from there to Washington. Marcel and Cavitt accompany Brazel back to his car to go to the debris field.
The two deputies return to Sheriff Wilcox, having found an area of blackened ground. Marcel and Cavitt stay at Brazel's ranch and examine the large piece of debris stored in the shed. 7th July
Marcel and Cavitt collected wreckage from the crash site. After filling Cavitt's vehicle with wreckage, Marcel told Cavitt to go on ahead and he would collect more wreckage, and they would meet later back at Roswell AAF. Marcel filled his vehicle with wreckage. On the way back to the airfield, Marcel stopped of at home at around 1-2am to show his wife and son the strange material he had found. Both his wife Viaud and son Jesse Jnr examine the debris Jesse Snr had brought home. Jesse Jnr remembers there were pink/purple/lavender symbols along the centre sections of some of the small metallic "I" beams in amongst the debris.
Around 4:00 pm, Lydia Sleppy at Roswell radio station KSWS began transmitting a story on the teletype machine regarding a crashed flying saucer out on the Foster Ranch. Transmission was interrupted, seemingly by the FBI. 8th July
*11:00am* Blanchard dictates a press release on the recovery of a flying disk to PIO Walter Haut.
Haut goes into town to deliver his press release to the radio stations and newspapers. His first is at station KGFL, where he gives the release to Frank Joyce. Noon: The information is put on the AP wire.
1st flight in arrives from Washington DC, carrying a special team of photographers and W/O Robert Thomas. William Woody and his father, still curious about their sighting, set out on highway 285 to the North of Roswell to travel to Ramon. The Military had all side roads and tracks from 285 blocked off. A few miles South of Ramon is the turn off to highway 247 which would take you by the general area of the Foster Ranch, this exit was also blocked. They are turned away by MPs posted on outlying roads. News of the recovery spreads as the story hits the wire services. Phone lines at the base, at the sheriff's office, and at newspaper and radio news offices are tied up. The only newspapers that carried the initial flying saucer version of the story were evening papers from the Midwest to the West, including the Chicago Daily News, the Los Angeles Herald Express, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Roswell Daily Record. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune were morning papers and only carried the cover-up story the next morning. Sheriff Wilcox sends two more deputies to the debris field; they are turned back by MPs.
Cavitt and Rickett return to the Roswell base with Brazel.
Brazel is flown back to the debris field from the base; other planes from Roswell are similarly reconnoitring the area.
The UFO impact site is discovered from the air; ground troops are directed toward it. *Barney Barnett and a group of students and archeologists or rockhunters are already at the impact site and say they had seen debris and bodies; they are escorted off by the Army.* Col. Blanchard "goes on leave" from the base, but he actually leaves to visit the debris field. Material has been brought from the debris field and loaded onto a C-54; Capt. Pappy Henderson flies this 2nd flight out to Wright Field.
3rd flight out, a B-29, carries Marcel to Fort Worth Army Air Field. A few wrapped packages *of debris* are also on the plane. Clean up continues at the crash sites. Brazel is flown back to the base, then leaves and is located by Walt Whitmore, of radio station KGFL, who interviews him about the find. Blanchard visits the debris field and impact site with his staff. A 2nd flight from Washington, DC, arrives at the base; Rickett gives the crew a sealed box filled with debris; the plane returns shortly to Washington (4th flight out). The Roswell Daily Record carries "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer" story. Sgt. Melvin Brown looks under a tarp on the back of a truck at the impact site and sees several alien-looking bodies.
Glenn Dennis, a local mortician, is intrigued by several inquiries from the base about tissue preservation and the smallest caskets he has available.
Truck carrying the bodies arrives at the base. Pathologist Dr. Jesse Johnson, Jr attempts a preliminary autopsy at the base hospital. Dennis tries to visit the base hospital but is turned away forcibly; a nurse friend warns him to leave before he gets in trouble. *8:30pm* Barnett returns home to Socorro.
Capt. John Martin, Sgt. Brown, and other MPs guard a crate containing the bodies that has been placed inside an empty hangar. 9th July
Troops continue clean up at the crash sites.
At the base, three C-54's begin to be loaded with crates filled with debris (8:00am).
(Senator Dennis Chavez calls Walt Whitmore Sr. to warn him against broadcasting an interview with Brazel; a representative of the FCC threatens to pull his broadcast license.) Officers from the base locate Brazel (who had stayed with Whitmore) and return him to the base for questioning.
Brazel is taken by the military to the office of the Roswell Daily Record, where he gives a revised, sanitized version of the story. (A special secret service envoy representing President Truman arrives from Washington (3rd flight in.))
The crate with bodies is moved from the hangar to Bomb Pit Number One. (Floyd Proctor, Lyman Strickland, escorted by soldiers.) Officers from the base visit newspaper and radio offices in town and recover all copies of Haut's original press release.
Brazel is taken to radio station KGFL, where he gives a revised version of his story. Three fully loaded C-54's (5th-7th Flights out) carry debris to Los Alamos, NM, via Kirtland Field. 4:00pm. The crate from Bomb Pit Number One is transferred to a B-29 and flown (8th Flight out) to Fort Worth. The Roswell Daily Record carries a sanitized version of Barzel's story. 8:00pm. Marcel arrives back in Roswell (4th Flight in). 10th July
Clean-up continues at the crash sites.
Brazel continues to be interrogated and held at a guesthouse on the base.
Remaining debris confiscated from Sheriff Wilcox by military personnel. 11th July
MPs and others involved in the retrieval of the debris are debriefed and told to forget that it happened. This included Brazel after following his period of detention, Brazel repudiated his initial story. For over 50 years the cover up has held and still continues today. Many UFO researchers have spent their lives investigating this incident and still await the Smoking gun to find out what really happened on July 1947 on the Foster Ranch. |
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