In The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell, we discover that the alien bodies were retrieved by a "special group", who placed them in body bags. This disagrees with the Brown story and I am not sure how a cook can be a member of a "special group" trained to handle any sort of bodies. The bodies were shipped to Roswell and Dr. Jesse B. Johnson examined them and participated in the autopsies. Randle and Schmitt identify him as the Base Pathologist and several members of the 509th bomb group supposedly confirm his position but they never state who confirmed this. Lorenzo Kimball, who was the medical supply officer at the time of the Roswell incident, ridicules this part of the story. He states,
There was a physician named Jesse B. Johnson assigned to the Base Hospital. However, he was a 1st Lt., not a Major, and he was a radiologist, not a pathologist. He had no training as a pathologist and would have been the last member of the medical staff to have performed any autopsy on a human much less an alien!! He is identified as a 1st Lt. in the 509th Yearbook. After I learned of these assertions, I called Doctor Jack Comstock, who, as a Major, was the Hospital Commander in 1947, and in 1995 was living in retirement in Boulder, Colorado. I asked him if he recalled any such events occurring in July of 1947 and he said absolutely not. When I told him that Jesse B. was supposed to have conducted a preliminary autopsy on alien bodies, he had a hard time stopping laughing - his response was: PREPOSTEROUS!!
Major Comstock lived in the Hospital BOQ, located in the hospital complex. Any unusual activity was immediately reported to him by members of the medical and nursing staff. He told me (this was in 1995 prior to his death in February 1996) that NOTHING of this nature occurred in July 1947 at the Base Hospital. (Kimball Online)
So it appears that the individuals confirming such a story were lying or Randle and Schmitt chose cooks, clerks, and automobile mechanics to verify their beliefs. Randle and Schmitt manage to get his rank correct in UFO Crash at Roswell but upgrade him to Major in The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell. This is probably to make it appear that Johnson had more seniority. The rank listed was probably his rank when he left the service and not the one he held at the time of the "Roswell Incident". Frank Kaufmann told Karl Pflock that there were two other doctors, a Major Sanford and Major Sullivan, who performed the examination of one body. As usual, these gentlemen were conveniently dead and could not substantiate Frank’s claims.
It appears that no alien autopsies were performed at RAAF as claimed in the books. However, it appears something was happening to the bodies because Glenn Dennis, a local Mortician for the Ballard Funeral Home, remembers receiving a call on July 9 or 10. Glenn recalls that there was an officer wanting to know about "small hermetically sealed caskets, chemical composition of blood, and the effects on tissue breakdown when it sits out in the sun for several days" (Friedman and Berlinner 115). The officer also stated they had three bodies that had been out in the sun for "several days" and that there were three because "two were mangled, one was in pretty good shape" (Friedman and Berlinner 116). Dennis took a slightly injured "airman" back to the base infirmary (Dennis also drove an ambulance part time) where he saw two MPs standing outside the door. While going up the ramp towards the emergency exit, he noticed two ambulances. They contained objects in them which looked like the bottom half of a canoe. His description of the metal is as follows:
It didn't look like aluminum...you know what stainless steel’s like when you put heat on it? How it'll turn kinda purplish, with kind of a blue hue to it?...a row of unrecognizable symbols - several inches high - on the metal devices. (Friedman and Berlinner 117)
After he navigates through the security net in the hospital, he ran into a nurse who stated, "How the hell did you get in here?" and "My God, you are going to get killed!"(Friedman and Berlinner 117). Glenn then states that a "Big Red-headed Colonel" said, "What’s this son of a bitch doin’ here?" (Friedman and Berlinner 117). The colonel immediately sends Glenn home with a military police escort. These kindly soldiers follow Glenn home to make sure he does not cause any more trouble.
The sketches Dennis made based on his memory of what the nurse drew (Hesemann and Mantle 39)
The next day, Glenn gets a call from the nurse, who had seen him in the hospital. It appears that Glenn may have even known the woman because she seems to be able to confide in Glenn. She quickly arranges for a meeting with Glenn at the officer’s club. There she talks about aliens being examined and that the local predators had picked at the bodies (interesting to note how this description is far from what Kaufmann states the condition of the bodies were in). While they conversed, the nurse drew some pictures of the aliens for Dennis. Glenn states he kept them. However, a search of the funeral home’s records and Glenn’s personal files revealed nothing. However, he remembers what they looked like and quickly reproduced the sketches from memory for Friedman and others. Dennis recalls how the nurse and doctors had just left the operating room because the bodies smelled so bad. She had stated, "you couldn't get within a hundred feet of them without gagging" (Friedman and Berlinner 118). The doctors, in order to hide the smell, ordered the air conditioning secured and the bodies moved to the hanger. In order to work on the bodies, the doctors eventually chose to freeze them. Shortly after Glenn’s meeting with the nurse, she is suddenly and mysteriously transferred to London, England. Glenn, the nice guy that he is/was, tried to contact her but the mail he sent was returned and marked DECEASED. According to Glenn, she died in an airplane crash of some kind overseas.
The story told by Glenn changes somewhat as he is interviewed by new authors. Randle and Schmitt talked to him a short time after he discussed it with Friedman. His description of the debris in the truck is now clearer:
What I saw reminded me of the front part of a canoe…about three feet long and lying up against the side...tipped [so that] the open part was against the floor. There were some inscription on [a] border around part of it...three inches maybe...going along the contour of the wreckage. At the time... it reminded me of Egyptian writing. (Randle and Schmitt Truth 19)
Now he recalls the nurse now telling him, "Get out of here as fast as you can" (Randle and Schmitt Truth 19). Before Glenn can run away, he is stopped by an officer who is "prematurely graying" and orders the Military Police to grab him (Randle and Schmitt Truth 19). An additional officer appears and he is described as a red headed captain (Maybe it is everyone's favorite Capt. Armstrong!) who has no name but is real mean and nasty. Glenn recalls him saying, "I’m not through with that SOB yet. Bring him back" (Randle and Schmitt Truth 19). Next to the red-haired captain is a black sergeant. The Captain tells him that he never saw anything and not to tell anyone about it. Dennis gives a smart remark to which the Captain responds, "Don't kid yourself, young man. Somebody'll be picking your bones out of the sand" (Randle and Schmitt Truth 20). The black sergeant adds, "Or you'll make good dog food" (Randle and Schmitt Truth 20). The nurse episode is pretty much the same. He adds a few details about the bodies but not much more. Randle and Schmitt add this line in their book, "She then seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth" (Randle and Schmitt Truth 28).
Later on, Glenn Dennis finally reveals the name of the nurse as Naomi Self. The authors went looking for Naomi but could not find her in the yearbook. So Glenn said it was not Self but Sipes. Again, after careful research, the authors could not find a Naomi Sipes. Finally, Dennis states that the last name did not even begin with an "S" and he would not reveal her name in order to protect her confidence. Who is Glenn trying to kid? Why bother providing a name at all? Yet the authors put a lot of faith in Glenn’s story.
Glenn’s story was so compelling that Congressman Schiff, of New Mexico, directed the investigation of the Roswell matter by the Government Accounting Office (GAO). The GAO then directed the US Air Force to look into the Roswell matter. This produced the 1994 report revealing the Project MOGUL story. However, Captain James McAndrew felt there was something to the Dennis story but he did not feel that Dennis was describing something related to Roswell. The investigation into the Dennis story was chronicled in the 1997 US Air Force report Case Closed.
According to the US Air Force, there were only five nurses at Roswell in 1947. One fits the description Dennis gave. The nurse’s name was 1st Lt. Eileen M. Fanton. The comparison is there. According to Dennis, she was, "real cute, like a small Audrey Hepburn, with short black hair, dark eyes, and olive skin" (HQ USAF 82). The AF report states that in 1947, Eileen Fanton was single, 5'1", and weighed 100 pounds, had black hair, dark eyes, and was of Italian descent. Dennis had made remarks that she was catholic. Her records revealed this as well. The AF investigation also revealed that she served in London, England from 1952 to 1955. Even more amazing is that she left Roswell on September 4, 1947, unannounced to be admitted to a hospital in Texas. It appears that Fanton is a very close match for Glenn’s mysterious nurse but there appears to be nothing mysterious about the events in her career.
1st Lt. Eileen Fanton (HQ USAF)
Glenn also mentioned a head nurse he talked to, when he was trying to contact "Naomi". According to him, she was a Captain Wilson and they called her "Slatts" because she was tall and thin. Again, the USAF investigators looked into the head nurses and found a Captain Lucille Slattery who was stationed at RAAF Hospital from August 1947 to September 1950. After interviewing several retired nurses who knew Captain Slattery, the USAF discovered she had the nickname of "SLATTS"! However, she was only 5'3" tall. The nickname fit but not the description, so the AF dug further and discovered a Major Idabelle Wilson (who was a Captain Miller before being married and promoted) had served from February 1956 to May 1960. She was 5'9" tall and she was head nurse at RAAF (now Walker AFB). When contacted, she stated she never heard of Glenn Dennis.
Glenn’s description of driving an "airman" to the hospital is interesting as well. This rank did not exist until 1952! The "black sergeant" common in some of the Roswell tales is unlikely in 1947, since the USAF did not integrate their units. It would also seem unlikely, that at the time of the incident, a black man would talk to white person in this manner. Glenn’s description of the tall, red-haired Colonel is fitting for a Colonel Lee F. Farrell, who was the hospital commander from 1954-1960 and was 6'1". Other recollections included a pediatrician, who supposedly worked on the alien bodies. Glenn’s description fit Frank B. Nordstrom, who was at Walker AFB hospital as chief of pediatrics from 1951-53. When contacted, he had no recollections of Dennis.
Colonel Ferrel (HQ USAF)
The assorted people in Glenn’s tale seem to span a 10 year period. Dennis could easily have spun them into his yarn to add some "real life" characters. Did the events he described occur? Looking at the history of RAAF, it is possible. Glenn’s three mangled bodies could have come from another event and the USAF looked into air crashes that could have produced the bodies Glenn described. After reviewing all the events from 1947-1960, the found one event that could have resulted in his descriptions. On June 26, 1956, a KC-97G refueling tanker crashed 8.8 miles south of Walker AFB. The resultant fireball killed the crew and burned the bodies. According to records, an identification specialist flew in from Wright-Patterson field in Ohio to help with identifying the remains on the following day. The burned and fuel soaked bodies emitted such a powerful odor that they had to be moved to the REFRIGERATION COMPARTMENT at the Commissary so the bodies could be identified. A local pathologist was used to help in the autopsies of three of the bodies the day after the crash. The local pathologist was at the Ballard Funeral home, which is where Glenn Dennis supposedly worked at that time (But it was not Glenn - it was DR. Alfred Blauw! Even more amazing is the head of Walker AFB hospital was Colonel Ferrell, the same person fitting the description Glenn gave for the Colonel in the hospital.
The descriptions of the bodies in the autopsy reports closely match what Dennis described. Some of the bodies had been disemboweled (makes them look like animals were tearing into body) and one individual had a face missing (which would look like one of Glenn's sketches in the book UFO Crash at Roswell). The similarities of this event and the "testimony" of Glenn Dennis are too close to be mere chance. This is what Dennis was describing 30 years after the event, which he purposefully or inadvertently used to enhance his Roswell story.
Glenn's biggest supporter has been Karl Pflock but on January 6, 1997, Karl Pflock sent an open letter to Glenn, which was published on the Internet. In it, Karl makes similar observations to the Air Force report regarding the blackened bodies. Particularly, he states,
...a colleague of mine showed your sketches to an M. D. who is an expert in aircraft-crash trauma. The expert's first words were, 'What crash are these from?' He said they had all the earmarks of bodies subject to crash trauma and intense fire… (Devereux and Brookesmith)
Karl felt that he had seen bodies from an airplane crash at RAAF. Glenn's drawings are not indicative of alien bodies but instead are indicative of bodies subject to an airplane crash.
Still, there are other parts of the stories that Dennis gave which are unexplained. What about the ""Canoe-shaped" objects that were often considered some form of "escape pod" for the aliens? The key to this incident is the reference to the "Red Headed Captain", who chewed out Dennis. The AF already had a red headed captain who was involved in balloon/dummy testing in the 50's. Captain Kittinger was a real honest to goodness hero and he happened to be involved in a ballooning accident with two of his fellow officers on May 21, 1959. He was training Capt. Dan Fulgham and Capt. William Kaufmann (No relation to FRANK!!!) that morning with a high altitude balloon gondola. Upon landing, the gondola tipped over and spilled the pilots on to the ground. Fulgham's head was pinned between the ground and the gondola, shattering his helmet. A chase helicopter and several ground vehicles were tracking the balloon and the helicopter picked them up for transport to Walker AFB hospital. Upon arrival, the base security clamped down on the helicopter and its crew because they felt it was a surprise security inspection from SAC. These were often unannounced and the security forces were evaluated on their response (This was a B-52 nuclear bomber base at the time). The ground support vehicles for this operation were two M-43 3/4 ton field ambulances and one M37 3/4-ton utility vehicle (sometimes called a "Weapons carrier"). They all parked outside the hospital and one of the ambulances had been converted into a communications vehicle. The photographs of this same vehicle are displayed in the book and there are two panels at the bottom of the vehicle that look somewhat like Glenn's "bottom of a canoe". They were painted Air Force blue (Glenn said they were bluish-purple) and above them was the lettering "Push Handle to Lock" (possibly Dennis's hieroglyphics) which would not be readable from a distance (They had to significantly enlarge the photograph to show this).
Canoe shaped "escape pods" with "alien writing" (HQ USAF)
Captain Fulgham suffered an unusual injury in this accident, which was described as an "extensive hemotoma" or blood filled swelling to the scalp and forehead. According to Kittinger, "His whole face had swollen up and his nose barely protruded" (HQ USAF 119). Even though he looked pretty bad, Fulgham did not feel much pain and even stopped outside the hospital to smoke a cigarette! If one felt this was an alien, it would be interesting the commercial that it could have produced. It would have made Joe Camel cringe! Fulgham spent a short time in the hospital at Walker AFB was then sent to Holloman AFB and three days later was sent to WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB aboard a special flight! Kittinger arranged the flight on a C-131 hospital aircraft and recounts the events of their arrival:
They dropped the ramp and I looked down at the bottom and there was Dan Fulgham's wife. Dan couldn’t see... so I grabbed him by the arm... Dan's wife sees me leading this blob down the staircase... and she looks right at me and says, ‘Where’s my husband?’ I said, ‘Ma’am, this is your husband’. I presented her this blob that I was leading down the ramp. And she let out this scream you could hear a mile away. He was such a horrendous looking thing that she had no idea that the thing I was leading down that ramp was her husband. (HQ USAF 120)
All of these events can be questioned by the pro-crash crowd as not being in 1947 or near to that date. To state that these ACTUAL EVENTS AND PEOPLE do not come close to what Glenn stated, demonstrates a desire to ignore facts and embrace fantasy.
Captain James McAndrew is listed as the author of Case Closed, but the whole work is due to research by many individuals in his department. His response to Glenn Dennis's interpretation of these events and putting them into the alien story is a very strong rebuke:
Other descriptions, particularly those believed to be thinly veiled references to deceased or injured Air Force members, are difficult to view as naive misunderstandings. Any attempt to misrepresent or capitalize on tragic incidents in which Air Force members died or were injured in service to their country significantly alters what would otherwise be viewed as simple misinterpretations or honest mistakes. (HQ USAF 125)
In other words, Glenn Dennis and all those who benefit (Glenn did benefit serving as President of the board of directors for one of the UFO museums in Roswell because of his fame) from the tragedy of others are despicable individuals who do a disservice to their country, their community, their family, and themselves.
Captain McAndrew's statements mirror my thoughts concerning the continuous portrayal of the men in uniform as devious, mean-spirited, and cold-blooded killers. According to the authors, they want everyone to believe that there was a core of military personnel who would threaten, and supposedly did, in some cases, murder innocent civilians. A majority, if not all, of these men had served in World War II and saw/heard of the horror of the death camps. They knew how the German soldiers had used the excuse of simply "following orders". I submit that this is a military paranoia scam suggested by the authors and that the witnesses seize on this to create a scenario where they are the victims of brute military force. However, despite these obviously distressing and extremely unusual events, NOT ONE WITNESS CAN RECALL A SINGLE NAME that can be verified nor has anyone come forth stating that they were part of the group using these bullying tactics. These witnesses are, at best, exaggerating or, at worst, lying.
As stated before, it was Dennis’s convincing story that generated the investigation by the GAO. What did the GAO turn up after sifting through numerous records related to events at Roswell in 1947?