By 1997, the lines had been drawn as far as the Project MOGUL explanation ran. Many UFOlogists began to examine the evidence and conclude that MOGUL did fit the bill and were willing to accept it as such. However, they seemed to exist in a minority and the majority still felt that a crashed saucer was the cause for the incident. Enter Kent Jeffrey, an airline pilot and part-time UFO investigator. He headed up the Roswell Initiative, which would petition the government to release all records on Roswell. At the same time Jeffrey chose to perform his own investigation into the Roswell quagmire. His leanings were apparently towards a saucer crash but his investigations revealed the same results as Pflock, Todd, and the USAF. He is satisfied that the project MOGUL explanation did fit and he uncovered a few new details to confirm this theory.
Kent Jeffrey focused mainly on Jesse Marcel Jr. and Irving Newton. Both are known to have handled the debris but did they handle the same debris? Jesse never recalls seeing any of the special tape with purple figures on it. His recollections are that the figures were painted or embossed on. Jeffrey explains how he resolved this inconsistency:
In one of my conversations with Newton, quite by chance, a new and important revelation came to light. He was describing the color of the symbols on one of the balsa sticks and mentioned how it was faint and had somewhat of a mottled appearance because of "the way that the dye had bled through onto the surface of the stick." This was a very important piece of information. The symbols that Newton saw on the debris in Ramey's office were on the surface of the stick, not on tape! The tape had apparently peeled away, probably because of several weeks’ exposure to sunlight while it lay out in the desert. This serendipitous revelation immediately cleared up one of the biggest questions in my mind about the Roswell case -- how could Jesse Marcel, Sr., or Jesse Marcel, Jr., for that matter, not have recognized flower patterns on tape? The answer is now crystal clear. The symbols they saw were not on tape. What they saw were images of the original symbols from the dye that had bled through before the tape had peeled away. Jesse, Jr.’s testimony about the symbols definitely not being on tape was absolutely correct. (Jeffrey 11)
He also had the same artist attempt to draw the figures that both Marcel Jr. and Newton recalled seeing in July 1947:
During the sessions in Washington, D.C., the professional illustrator who was present drew a very accurate depiction of what Jesse, Jr., remembered -- the "I-beam-like" member with the symbols on it. After learning what a good recollection of the symbols Newton had, I arranged for him to work with the same illustrator so that we might have side-by-side sketches from the same perspective for comparison.
As it turned out, the resemblance between the two sketches was remarkable. Even the artist commented that "it sure seemed like these two men were describing the same thing." Probably most amazing was the closeness of the color that the two men remembered. Other than Newton's color being more faded, the colors are nearly identical. (Jeffrey 11)
The only difference between the two men's description of the material is that Jesse Jr. felt the material was I-shaped and metal. In all the interviews with his father, he never mentioned I-beams or metal beams. He always referred to them as wood-like. All the others who handled the material seem to agree that the beams more resembled wood than metal. Jesse Jr.’s recollection of the actual material is in contradiction with many of those, who handled the debris. However, Irving knew it was wood. Irving Newton added that the wood was white in color, which seems to be the color in the photographs. This sounds like wood that had been out in the desert for a long time and had been bleached by the sun. These revelations once again confirm that NO SWITCH had occurred at RAAF and that the material in the photographs did come from the Foster Ranch.
Kent also spent some time talking to the still living crews of the 509th and asked many about the Roswell Incident. He talked to 15 B-29 pilots and 2 B-29 navigators and this is what he was able to determine:
The few men who did recall hearing something about the incident at the time of its occurrence said that the inside word was that the debris was from a downed balloon of some kind and that there was no more than "one wheelbarrow full." Not one single man had any direct knowledge of a crashed saucer or of any kind of unusual material. Even more significantly, in all of their collective years with the 509th Bomb Group, not one of these men had ever encountered any other individual who had such knowledge. (Jeffrey 9)
Kent Jeffrey referred to Roswell as a "Red Herring" and for this, he was branded a traitor to UFO research. Sadly, if someone claims to have an opinion differing from that of the popular UFO crash scenario, they are considered to be part of the cover-up. There were allegations that Jeffrey was a plant or a spy for the cover-up. A propped up panel of "UFO Scientists" berated his work, taking the same route as Randle’s as a reason to not accept the flight #4 scenario (too many witnesses recall superstrength materials and Jeffrey ignored this). However, each person on this "panel" had vested interests in the Roswell scenario. Carl Sagan, in his book, The Demon Haunted World, demonstrated that he was convinced of the flight #4 scenario. It appears that only "UFO scientists" are willing to ignore the evidence pointing towards Professor Moore’s wayward flight of balloons and reflectors. Jeffrey, working on his own initiative and, despite having preconceived notions about Roswell, was able to arrive at the truth. Writing a book that will make money did not motivate him. Kent Jeffrey was interested in the truth and found it.
The main reason the UFO groups continue to believe that the debris came from a spaceship is because they feel that other witnesses have to be considered. These witnesses don’t talk about sticks and foil. They claim to have seen actual spaceships and alien bodies. Their tales are fantastic and if taken at face value seem to indicate that a spaceship did crash near Roswell that July. They represent the myth that is Roswell and it is their stories that are the most entertaining.