The Roswell Crash Incident (1947)
The Roswell incident involved two distinct crash sites, rather than one.
According to these accounts, two unidentified flying objects met their end near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947, only to have their true nature obfuscated by the U.S. military under the guise of ordinary weather balloon accidents.
If we follow the timeline of the events, the first crash site where Mac Brazel found unusual debris on his Foster Ranch is often simply referred to as the “Foster Ranch crash site,” “Brazel Ranch crash site,” or sometimes the “Corona crash site” (named after the nearest town).
The supposed second crash site is often referred to as the “second Roswell crash site” or the “Roswell debris field.” This is often referred to as the “Roswell crash site”.
Here’s what is often described as being found at each crash site:
1. Foster Ranch Crash Site: This site was discovered by rancher Mac Brazel. He reported finding a large area of bright wreckage made up of rubber strips, tinfoil, and rather tough paper, along with sticks. He brought some of the material to Sheriff George Wilcox of Roswell, who in turn alerted Roswell Army Air Field. Major Jesse Marcel, an intelligence officer, was sent to the ranch, where he collected enough of the material to fill a vehicle. The debris was described as being lightweight and metallic, with some pieces resembling foil or parchment that would return to their original shape after being crumpled. No bodies – human or otherwise – were reported found at the Foster Ranch crash site.
2. Plains of San Augustine Crash Site
The Plains of San Augustine have long been known as the site of a second UFO crash that occurred around the same time as the infamous Roswell incident in 1947. According to various testimonies, this location is where a more intact craft, along with extraterrestrial bodies, was recovered. One of the most prominent witnesses, rancher Barney Barnett, claimed to have stumbled upon the wreckage of a disk-shaped craft and observed small, humanoid bodies at the scene. These accounts surfaced years later, largely based on secondhand reports, and have fueled ongoing speculation about multiple crash sites connected to the Roswell event.
Alongside Barnett’s account, there are claims that a group of archaeology students witnessed the crash and were quickly removed from the scene by the military. The book The Roswell Incident, authored by Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore, was the first to bring these stories into the public eye.
Additional theories have emerged, such as those proposed by Chuck Wade, suggesting that a high-powered radar unit stationed near Los Alamos may have been responsible for downing multiple UFOs in the region, including the one at the Plains of San Augustine. The radar interference caused a series of crashes between 1945 and 1948.
The official stance from the U.S. government is that the debris recovered by Mac Brazel at the Foster Ranch was from a weather balloon, specifically a high-altitude balloon from a then-secret operation called Project Mogul, which was designed to detect Soviet nuclear tests. Regarding the supposed second crash site and recovery of alien bodies, the U.S. Air Force released a report in 1997, “The Roswell Report: Case Closed,” explaining that the “bodies” were likely test dummies used in high-altitude parachute drop tests conducted in the 1950s.
Following these events, two contrasting reports surfaced from the local military command. The initial account suggested that the debris belonged to a crashed “flying disc”, thereby sparking widespread conjecture about extraterrestrial activity. However, a subsequent report sought to refute these claims, suggesting that the unusual debris was merely the remnants of two separate weather balloon accidents.
The Roswell incident quickly became the focus of intense public interest and speculation, and has since been the subject of numerous books, articles, and television shows. Despite the efforts of the military to dispel the rumors, the story of the Roswell crash has continued to captivate the public imagination, and remains one of the most widely debated and controversial incidents in the history of UFO research.
In the 1990s, the U.S. government declassified and released a set of documents regarding the Roswell incident, encompassing reports and testimonies from military personnel who were tasked with the recovery of the debris. These documents brought fresh insights into the decades-old event. While they didn’t directly support the theory of an extraterrestrial event, they confirmed that the incident wasn’t simply the result of a conventional weather balloon crash, as initially claimed in 1947.
The documents disclosed information about classified projects such as Project Mogul, involving advanced high-altitude balloons for spying purposes, which was suggested as a more plausible source of the wreckage. Moreover, explanations were provided for sightings of alleged alien bodies, attributing them to anthropomorphic test dummies used in military experiments.
The U.S. Air Force released two reports in 1994 and 1997 that aimed to definitively explain the events in Roswell in 1947.
The first report, titled “The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert,” concluded that the debris found at the crash site came from a then-secret project called Project Mogul. Project Mogul was a top-secret project by the U.S. Army Air Forces involving high-altitude balloons carrying low-frequency sound sensors, intended to detect Soviet nuclear bomb tests. The report stated that the unusual properties of the debris (as described by Major Jesse Marcel and others) were consistent with the materials used in Mogul balloons.
The second report, “The Roswell Report: Case Closed,” addressed the claims of alien bodies sighted at the crash site. The report suggested that these “aliens” were probably anthropomorphic test dummies that were carried by high-altitude Air Force balloons for scientific research. The dummies, used in projects like Operation High Dive, were the same height and shape as the descriptions given of the alleged aliens.
In recent years, the Roswell incident has become the focus of renewed attention and investigation, and many UFO researchers and enthusiasts continue to search for answers about what really happened on that fateful day in July of 1947. Some believe that the Roswell crash was an extraterrestrial event, and that the military covered up the true nature of the wreckage in order to keep the public from panicking. Others believe that the crash was simply a case of misidentification, and that the debris was from a weather balloon or other mundane object.
In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the Roswell crash, with numerous books, documentaries, and conferences dedicated to exploring the incident and trying to uncover the truth. There have also been new eyewitness testimonies, government documents, and physical evidence that has been uncovered, which has added to the body of knowledge surrounding the event.
One of the most compelling pieces of the puzzle comes from testimonies of first-hand witnesses who recount the event differently than the official military narrative. For instance, Major Jesse Marcel, the intelligence officer who was sent to Brazel’s ranch to recover the debris, shared a different version of the story. He claimed the materials found were “not of this world,” featuring anomalous properties such as ultra-lightweight metals that could neither be bent nor burned. Marcel also recalled finding indecipherable symbols on the debris, resembling some form of hieroglyphics, further adding to the mystery of their origin.
Several witnesses over the years have also claimed to have seen not only the wreckage but alien bodies. Glenn Dennis, a mortician at Ballard Funeral Home in Roswell, had a particularly significant testimony. He stated that he received a call from the Roswell Army Air Field, asking about child-sized coffins and preservation techniques for bodies exposed to the elements. Later, a nurse at the base reportedly described to Dennis an alien autopsy involving humanoid bodies from the crash site. However, this nurse disappeared shortly after the alleged disclosure, and her existence remains unconfirmed.
In 1991, Walter Haut, the public affairs officer who had issued the original press release about the crashed “flying disc”, signed an affidavit stating he had witnessed not only the crash debris but also alien bodies. Haut described them as childlike beings with large heads and elongated bodies. His testimony, however, wasn’t revealed until after his death in 2005.
Moreover, in 2012, retired CIA agent Chase Brandon claimed to have found a box labelled “Roswell” in a restricted section of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. He alleged that this box contained photos and material confirming that the event was, indeed, an extraterrestrial incident.
One of the key figures associated with the Roswell incident was Lieutenant Colonel Philip J. Corso, who wrote a book titled “The Day After Roswell”. In his book, he claimed that he was assigned to a secret government program that funneled Roswell crash debris to private industry to reverse engineer the technology. According to Corso, these artifacts led to advancements in integrated circuit chips, fiber optics, lasers, and other technology we use today.
Corso claimed that he had been in charge of a cache of alien technology recovered from the Roswell crash while he was serving on the National Security Council under President Eisenhower in the 1960s.
A declassified FBI memo known as the Hottel Memo, written by Guy Hottel, the head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, in 1950, added more fuel to the fire. This memo, which reported a story from an Air Force investigator about the recovery of three “flying saucers” and nine humanoid bodies in New Mexico, has been touted by some UFO researchers as proof of a cover-up.
The Children of Roswell, a group of second-generation witnesses, have come forward over the years to share the stories that their parents told them about the event. Many of these testimonies support the narrative of a UFO crash and recovery of alien bodies. These testimonies not only add to the evidence suggesting that something extraordinary happened at Roswell but also speak to the enduring legacy of the event on the town and its inhabitants.
In the summer of 1947, the Southwestern United States became a hotbed for alleged extraterrestrial activity. The Roswell Incident, near Roswell, New Mexico, drew immediate public attention with the U.S. military’s hasty retraction of their initial “flying disc” announcement, sparking enduring rumors of UFO debris and alien bodies. Not far away in Aztec, New Mexico, a similar event purportedly occurred a few months later in March 1948, although its accounts largely remained hidden until Frank Scully’s 1950 book, “Behind the Flying Saucers.” Finally, the Kingman UFO Crash in May 1953, near Kingman, Arizona, followed a similar narrative to Aztec, with significant details surfacing decades later. These incidents form a triad of highly debated UFO crashes that, despite their unique circumstances, share intriguing commonalities that continue to captivate ufologists.
Often when there is smoke, there is fire. It is time to disclose what really happened at Roswell.
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