Marcel concluded that the debris was “definitely not a weather or tracking device, nor was it any sort of plane or missile.... It was something I had never seen before, or since... it certainly wasn’t anything built by us.”
Marcel and Cavitt collected debris at Brazel’s ranch for most of the day. According to many accounts, including that of Roswell skeptics, Lewis Rickett drove out with Cavitt at some point. After filling Cavitt’s vehicle, Marcel told Cavitt to go on ahead and meet him back at Roswell AAF. He then filled his own vehicle and, late at night, began his drive back to the base. On the way, however, he made a stop at his house at 2 A.M. He woke up his wife, Viaud, and his son, Jesse, Jr., showed them the debris, and identified it as part of a flying saucer.
Marcel and Cavitt arrived at RAAF the morning of Tuesday, July 8, with two carloads of debris. Blanchard notified the Eighth Air Force headquarters in Fort Worth and ordered Marcel to go there with the debris and meet with Gen. Roger Ramey. At this point both Marcel and Blanchard believed they had obtained pieces of the mysterious flying discs. At around noon, Blanchard ordered Public Information Officer Lt. Walter Haut to issue a press release stating this. Haut gave the release to Frank Joyce at radio station KGFL, who sent it to Western Union, radio stations, and newspapers. It reached the AP wire by 2:26 P.M.; at that point, all hell broke loose throughout Roswell and, we may assume, up the military chain of command.15 The
Meanwhile, Marcel arrived with the debris at Ramey’s office. What happened next is disputed. According to Marcel, the two left the office, then came back. Marcel swore that
Ramey brought in the Associated Press, which broke the story—only three hours after the original RAAF press release—that the Roswell flying disc was nothing more than a weather balloon. Ramey also appeared on a local Fort Worth-Dallas radio station to announce that Marcel and the officers at Roswell had been fooled by a weather balloon.17
The FBI followed the events in Roswell. An FBI teletype labeled “Urgent” and headed “Flying Disc—Information Concerning” was sent shortly after the Ramey press conference to J. Edgar Hoover and Strategic Air Command in Cincinnati. Following Ramey’s lead, the author of the teletype said it was all just a balloon—sort of. The message stated that:
Major Curtain, HQ Eighth Air Force, telephonically advised this office that an object purporting to be a flying disc was recovered near Roswell, New Mexico, this date. The disc is hexagonal in shape and was suspended from a balloon by a cable, which balloon was approximately twenty feet in diameter. [Blacked out] further advised that the object found resembles a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector, but that telephonic conversation between their office and Wright Field had not [blacked out] borne out this belief. Disc and balloon being transported to Wright Field by special plane for examination. Information provided this office because of national interest in case [blacked out] and fact that National Broadcasting Company, Associated Press, and others attempting to break story of location of disc today....18
An important memo, for sure. Of particular interest is the phrase: “telephonic conversation between their office and Wright Field had not [blacked out] borne out this belief.” Not borne out the belief that this object was a high-altitude weather balloon?
By July 9, newspapers were reporting that the Roswell disc was just a weather balloon. Mac Brazel, under military guard for several days, had meanwhile been led back into town under military escort. Contrary to his initial claim, he was now telling reporters that he found the wreckage on June 14, but continued to maintain it was no weather balloon.19 Meanwhile, a poll among Roswell residents revealed that most thought that experimental military tests were behind the saucer sightings, slightly fewer blamed mass hysteria, while most of the rest attributed them to natural phenomena. The army baked it, the press served it, the public ate it.
