UFOlogy in the 20th Century

 
 
 

Decade_of_Roswell

 
 
< Prev | TOC | Next >

 

Roswell, the Weather Balloon that Wasn't

  • On July 2, rancher Mac Brazel heard a large explosion on his Corona, New Mexico property
  • On investigating, he and a ranch hand found a wide swath of metallic debris that had no resemblance to Earthly machinery
  • A thin, lightweight metal foil was found that could be crumpled by hand, but momentarily unfold to its original shape without creases
  • Metal beams were found with unknown "hieroglyphics"
  • Rumors that corpses and a live pilot were found began to circulate
  • July 8, the Air Force arrived to retrieve the wreckage under tight security; local authorities are shut out of the investigation
  • Lt. Warren Haught, a public relations officer, called the incident a crashed extraterrestrial craft
  • July 9, the story was retracted; crash called a "weather balloon"
  • Interestingly, this story was generally dismissed by Ufologists until the 1980's
  • Another consequence was Project Sign, the first USAF attempt to collect and evaluate UFO reports


copyright © Joe Johnston & Mike Lord