At this point, Mac Brazel has apparently decided that his debris is something odd and he wants to get an expert opinion on the matter. The nearest major community was Roswell and he decided to make the drive to town. The trip would take the entire morning and Mac showed up around lunchtime. The date of this drive is in some dispute but contemporary records clearly show that he brought it in July 7. The Roswell Daily Record, Roswell Dispatch and Fort Worth Star Telegram all state that Mac brought the material in on the seventh. Despite this evidence, all the authors contend that he arrived on Sunday the 6th. This is because Jesse Marcel sets up a time line that can not be possible unless Mac arrives on the 6th. This is flawed because the 6th was a SUNDAY on the 4th of July holiday weekend. Yet, according to the story being told, everyone was at work! Bill Brazel claims that Mac had driven into town to sell his truck. To do so on a Sunday would mean that the car dealerships would have to be open. Today we find this not too odd but in 1947, Sunday was still a very special day. There is more evidence that Mac came by on Monday. Frank Joyce states that Brazel came into town the DAY BEFORE Walter Haut issued the infamous press release. This would have been the 7th. Jesse Marcel, despite being inconsistent with his time line, confirms this, "We heard about it on July 7 when we got a call from the county sheriff’s office" (Berlitz and Moore 69). Therefore, it is almost certain that July 7th was the day that Brazel came to town.
Once he arrived in town, Mac Brazel dropped by the sheriff’s office and talked to Sheriff Wilcox. According to the Roswell Daily Record, Mac told the sheriff about his find "kinda confidential like" (Brookesmitth 158). Apparently Mac was not very sure about what he had found and wanted to keep it off the record. About the same time Mac shows up, Frank Joyce, the announcer/reporter for the radio station in town (KGFL-ROSWELL), made a phone call to the Wilcox’s office. Frank was trolling for stories to talk about and was probably looking for mischief-makers and the like. Instead, Wilcox tells him about Brazel’s "flying disc" debris. Joyce indicates that Wilcox was skeptical of the claims. However, Phyllis McGuire, Wilcox’s daughter, states the sheriff was extremely excited about the discovery. Which version is correct? It is hard to say but Joyce’s version seems to match the overall sequence of events. If it had been extraordinary as McGuire claims, Wilcox would have been more aggressive to call the Roswell Army Air Base (RAAF). Instead, he nonchalantly hands the phone over to Brazel, who proceeds to tell his story to Joyce. According to Joyce, the story was very different than the story that appeared in the paper two days later. Yet, when pressed for details, Joyce replies, "W.W. is dead and I don’t want to put words in a dead man's mouth" (Randle and Schmitt UFO 135). The "ho-hum" attitude of Joyce and Wilcox indicate that the story was not that special. Remember that Joyce is a reporter, as well as a radio announcer. Surely, a good reporter would have asked Brazel to come on over and talk to the folks on the radio. Instead, Joyce states they should call RAAF! Why? Probably because the story told by Brazel sounded like he had found debris from an Army Air Force device. After all, RAAF would know about such devices that fell out of the sky and could gather it up to return to the proper authorities. Had Brazel mentioned aliens or super-strength metals that could not be destroyed, Joyce’s response would have been completely different.
Sitting in the officer’s club that day, eating his lunch, was Jesse Marcel Sr., the intelligence officer for the 509th bomb group at RAAF. Somehow, Jesse manages to get contacted by Sheriff Wilcox and he proceeded over to the Sheriff’s office. According to the July 9th edition of the Albuquerque Journal, "The sheriff said he called Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th bomb group intelligence office at once and the officer accompanied Brazell back to the ranch to recover the object" (Albuquerque Journal Online). Phyllis McGuire stated, "…it seemed as if the military were waiting for the call because they got there so fast" (Randle and Schmitt UFO 39). Lewis Rickett, a Counter-Intelligence Corps agent at RAAF, seems to confirm this by stating Colonel Blanchard, the 509th Commanding Officer, Sheridan Cavitt, Rickett’s boss, and Jesse Marcel all showed up at the Jailhouse. However, Jesse describes a more casual attitude. He finishes his lunch before driving over. The contemporary accounts indicate that only Jesse went to the Jailhouse that afternoon.
When Marcel arrives at the Sherriff's office, he is confronted by the story told by Brazel. Being a person in authority, Jesse decides that the debris is important enough to retrieve and contacts his commanding officer, Colonel Blanchard for any additional guidance. Brazel promises to show him the field but can’t right away because, according to Jesse, he "…had some things to do first and could he meet me somewhere in an hour or so" (Berlitz and Moore 70). Meanwhile, Marcel apparently convinced Blanchard that it would be a good idea to check the situation out. Marcel is to be accompanied by the base Counter-Intelligence Corps officer, Sheridan Cavitt. Who decided Cavitt would go is not clear. Even Cavitt can not recall exactly what happened. Jesse says he invited himself or maybe it was Colonel Blanchard, who wanted Cavitt to tag along because of the security that may be involved in case the object was from secret test. Both Marcel and Cavitt meet Brazel in town using a Jeep with carryall (sort of a trailer for the jeep) and Marcel’s staff car. Brazel, apparently eager to show the debris to these important military men, then heads off back to the ranch with these two gentlemen trailing behind.
At this point, there is an interesting side note concerning Mac’s trip into town. According to many of the authors, Brazel brought some of the debris into town. The debris is then shipped to Fort Worth, where Colonel Dubose had it shipped to Washington D.C. This is based on a statement made by Dubose, who said that some debris was shipped from Roswell a few days before the 8th of July. However, contemporary accounts state otherwise and indicate Dubose’s statement is in error. According to the July 9th edition of the Roswell Dispatch,
The furor started MONDAY (emphasis added), when W. W. Brazel, a rancher living on the old Foster place, 25 miles southeast of Corona, came into the office and reported finding an object which fitted the descriptions of the flying discs….NO MEMBER OF THE LOCAL SHERIFF’S OFFICE SAW THE ARTICLE [DEBRIS] AT ANY TIME (emphasis added). (Klass 91)
The July 9th edition of the Albuquerque Journal confirms this, "Wilcox said he did not see the object…" (Albuquerque Journal Online). Both papers may have gotten this information straight from the newswires which at 3:42 PM Mountain time on the 8th stated: BRIZELL DID NOT BRING THE OBJECT TO THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE, BUT MERELY DROVE THE 75 MILES FROM THE RANCH TO ROSWELL TO REPORT HIS FINDING (Pflock 142). Confirming all of this is Bill Brazel, who has recently stated, "Dad had to go to Roswell on business, and got in touch with the military while he was there. HE DID NOT TAKE ANY OF THE MATERIAL WITH HIM (My emphasis)" (Rodden 30). Final clarification of how Dubose made an error is found in his affidavit:
(5) In early July, I received a phone call from Maj. Gen. Clements McMullen, Deputy Commander, Strategic Air Command. He asked what we knew about the object which had been recovered outside Roswell, New Mexico, AS REPORTED IN THE PRESS (My emphasis). I called Col. William Blanchard, Commander of the Roswell Army Air Field and directed him to send the material in a sealed container to me at Fort Worth. I so informed Maj. Gen. McMullen. (Pflock 257)
Since the press did not break the story until the afternoon of the 8th of July, there is no way the shipment of debris could have come before then. Dubose made an error in his recollections of the time this debris was actually shipped to Fort Worth.
Therefore, we now know that Mac Brazel drove into town on Monday (not Sunday) to conduct business and talk to authorities about the debris he had found. There he stopped by the Sheriff’s office to discuss the debris he had picked up over the weekend. Sheriff Wilcox and Frank Joyce apparently decided that what Brazel had found, belonged to the military and got him in contact with RAAF. Brazel, after conversing with Marcel, convinced Marcel to follow him home to take a look at what he had found. Marcel, after conversing with his Commanding Officer, drove up to the ranch with Sheridan Cavitt as an escort. What they were about to discover would be the genesis of a myth, which would change the town of Roswell forever.