The original air force explanation made no mention of alien bodies, although many Roswell residents claimed either to have seen bodies or heard about them secondhand. The air force representative explained the omission simply: “It seemed rational to us that since we proved there were no UFOs, it automatically meant no aliens.” In the summer of 1997, amid the mayhem in Roswell marking the fiftieth anniversary of the crash, the air force issued its second official report on the crash. The air force now indicated that, during the 1950s, it had conducted experiments that involved dropping dummies from high-altitude balloons to study the results of the impact. Witness descriptions of the “aliens” somewhat matched the characteristics of the dummies: bluish skin coloration and no ears, hair, eyebrows, or eyelashes. The air force dummies, however, were all six feet tall. The air force maintained that people who saw these dummies probably mistook them for aliens. As for the apparent incongruity of the dates, the air force contended that the sheer span of time made it difficult for people to remember exact dates.29
Let us, with efficient dispatch, look at the combined air force argument more closely.
1. In neither report did the air force make any attempt to interview still-living witnesses of the 1947 events.
2. The air force ignored its own experts, such as Lt. Col. (Ret.) Raymond A. Madson, a project officer on Project High Dive, who told the Associated Press that there is no way the dummies could be confused with aliens. Each dummy had a reward notice, and were stamped as property of the U.S. Air Force.
3. The air force ignored the fact that no dummies fell near the Roswell crash site.
4. The dummy tests were known to the public through extensive air force publicity at the time, a fact the air force mentioned.
5. The description of Mogul’s apparatus in no way fits with the consistent description of Roswell wreckage by the people who say they were there. Can one truly consider glue-treated balsa-wood sticks to have the toughness and durability ascribed to the Roswell wreckage? Were Marcel, Brazel, Blanchard, Wilcox, and the rest unable to identify rubber, tinfoil, and balsa wood debris?
6. A Mogul balloon was not large or heavy enough to have caused the kind of widespread remains and incisions into the ground that witnesses ascribed to the Roswell crash.
7. Neither report tried to answer why the army incarcerated Brazel, interrogated him for a week, and held him incommunicado. Brazel’s detention by the military was corroborated by his family, friends, neighbors, Roswell base provost marshal, and Wilcox’s family.
8. Other Mogul launches did not exhibit the level of security that Roswell witnesses attributed to the crash recovery. For example, Mogul flight #7, launched July 2, 1947, crashed off course. Before the balloon train could be recovered, some of the balloons were stolen by civilians. In this case, however, no military squad was sent to round up the thieves.
Another example was Mogul #6, launched June 7. Albert Crary noted in his diary that rancher Sid West found the remains of this balloon train and payload. West easily identified the balloon and knew immediately who to contact. The next day, two men associated with Mogul came by to pick it up.
Considering that Mogul #4—the supposed Roswell object—was simply an unlisted test flight, carrying no classified equipment, it is strange that so many witnesses should have attested to such stringent security around it.
ROSWELL: CONCLUSIONS
Roswell has been the Holy Grail of UFO research. It has offered hope to those seeking to prove a UFO cover-up, but has yet to deliver the goods. In retrospect, Roswell’s hammerlock on public discussion about UFOs has been unfortunate. Through the lens of the pop media, the Roswell case has become a kind of litmus test for the legitimacy of the entire UFO phenomenon. The case for the UFO is much broader and stronger than a fixation on Roswell warrants. While Roswell debate is important on its own merits, it has brought an unmerited sense of finality to the UFO debate in general.
Another problem with placing all of one’s chips on Roswell is the unlikelihood that the true nature of the crash will ever be established—to the
