Vultures in the desert

Just in time for the 60th anniversary of the "Roswell Incident", a new book was released promising to reveal the truth about the UFO crash at Roswell. The authors were long-time Roswell investigators Tom Carey and Don Schmitt. Schmitt's legacy with Roswell is legendary, having written two books on the subject with Kevin Randle. Much of what he wrote, according to Randle, was less than accurate and not very reliable. Additionally, Schmitt was less than honest about his background. Despite this problem Carey joined with Schmitt to write the book, "Witness to Roswell", which promised, as always, to "unmask" the Roswell cover-up.

Undeniable truth does not mean undisputed fact

Early on, we are fed the same "undeniable truths" that have been circulating over the internet for many years. While some of them are facts that are not disputed (i.e. the press release was issued and Ramey held a news conference), many of the others are disputed and, in some cases, are highly questionable claims that have never been substantiated. Facts are considered "truths" that nobody can dispute. Schmitt/Carey's "undeniable truths" are not facts. It is true that people claim they experienced or saw something. However, it has never been established as fact that what most of them say happened did happen. Carey and Schmitt miss this connection. It is a trick making uninformed people think they are reading about something that is factual.

Of course, we are given one example right away of how Schmitt and Carey try and confuse the reader with items they try and portray as facts. On the inside of the cover we have this following quote:

"....something big did happen at Roswell." (Carey and Schmitt Witness)

This is all that is printed and it is attributed to a quote in a Jack Anderson article that appeared in the Albuquerque Journal on June 1, 1995. I could not obtain a copy of this paper but the same Jack Anderson article appeared in other newspapers on May 31st and June 1st. Not surprisingly, I discovered that the quote was incorrect and edited to the point of misrepresenting what had been written. The actual quote that appeared in several different papers was:

"But we do believe that something did happen at Roswell," said one source close to the investigation."Something big. We don't know if it was a plane that crashed with a nuclear device on it ... or if it was some other experimental situation But everything we've seen so far points to an attempt on the part of the Air Force to lead anybody that looks at this down another track." (Anderson)

The quote is not exactly as stated by Crary and Schmitt. Either Anderson's article was botched/edited by someone at the Albuquerque Journal, or Crary/Schmitt took creative license with the quote. Their selective and reworded quote implies that something extraordinary did happen. The actual full quote implies that some of investigators at the GAO BELIEVED that something "big" did happen but they were not sure and it could have been some experiment (which could include Project MOGUL). Again, something is displayed as FACT when, in reality, it is only an opinion. With these kinds of opinions being portrayed as "undeniable truths" and facts, one begins to immediately wonder exactly how factual the rest of the book is.

The ear and eye of the believer

The first thing that jumped out to me was how Schmitt and Carey interpret negative testimony. When a witness talks about how he saw alien bodies and helped pick up strange debris, there is no questioning of how accurate this testimony is. However, if a witness reports nothing, they are suddenly looked at critically. For instance, we read about Fred Willard, who happened to be the private pilot and driver of then Lt. Gov. Joe Montoya. Montoya supposedly had seen the alien bodies and received driving assistance from Anaya brothers and Willard. When Willard was asked about this, he openly denied any knowledge of this. Schmitt and Carey, who expected a willing participant in their conspiracy story, now write the following about this interview:

“At this line of questioning, Willard’s entire demeanor began to change. He began to appear unstable in his chair. His lower lip began to quiver uncontrollably, and his right hand started to tremble as he tired to stir his coffee cup. We were looking at someone whose life appeared to be passing right before him (and us) as we sat there. Willard never answered the questions or spoke coherently again that day. We left the restaurant feeling truly sorry for him, but also feeling that our questions had indeed been answered” (Carey and Schmitt Witness 92)

One must ask how many people in their 70s and 80s have stable hands or quivering lips when they talk. Schmitt and Carey want everyone to believe their interpretations of Willard's state of mind. Had Willard told them about alien bodies, these observations of Willard's behavior would never had made it into print and he would have been considered a hero. Instead, he is portrayed as a cowardly old man fearing for his life.

Another technique used in this book is to collect every wild story that they could find, throw it into the Roswell "pile", and hope some of it is considered credible. This technique accepts any story no matter how wild or how impossible it is to verify. For instance, at the end of Chapter 20, where we read:

We have had a conversation with a gentleman who lives in Dayton. His daughter had come home from college for the summer and had taken a job as a lifeguard at a local swim club. According to his daughter, she had made the acquaintance of another female lifeguard. In discussing their respective families, the friend of his daughter confided to her that her father was an officer worked at Wright-Patterson AFB in a scientific capacity, and that he had just received a promotion to work on a project that was analyzing pieces of metal from a UFO that had crashed in New Mexico back in the 1940s! (Carey and Schmitt Witness 192)

This is the kind of bread and butter stuff that feeds the Roswell legend. Here is an unknown person, who has a daughter, who knows a friend, who's father works on crashed alien spaceships. There is no follow-up and not the least bit of effort in verifying one iota of this statement is true. Can this be considered a reliable witness worth publishing? Apparently, when it comes to Roswell, the answer is yes. The motto here is, "If you believe hard enough, all the stories in this book are true". However, just because people believe they are true does not make them so.

What did you do in the great World War 2 daddy?

William Tecumseh Sherman once said, "I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts." A lot of what is written in this book is innuendo and rumor portrayed as fact. Most of the individuals in this book could not be found in the list of the hand-picked 509th veterans at Tinian in August 1945. Part of the Roswell legend is that these men were highly-trained and hand-picked specialists who were members of the only US atomic bomb group. Yes, they were part of the group but many were not hand-picked. Most were just guys that came out of their training and were assigned there based on basic qualifications and the needs of the 509th. This is especially true for the junior enlisted men since they would serve as replacements for those "hand-picked" veterans who retired, left the service, or moved on to their next assignment.

Perhaps some can recall the statement in the movie Patton, where the general tells his troops that they would not have to tell their grandchildren that they shoveled **** in Louisiana during the war. The humdrum activity of a peacetime army is anything but glorious. Base activity is low with most of the men conducting repetitious training exercises and normal maintenance duties. Being stationed at Roswell must have been somewhat boring considering that the town nearby did not have much "excitement" to offer when the men went into town. Certainly places like Hawaii or California, which would offer more outside entertainment would have been preferred by many servicemen, who had just completed their basic/advanced training. When asked about what they did in the USAAF/USAF, many of them would simply have said that they had worked on airplanes, were clerks, drove trucks, stood guard duty at the gate, cooked at the mess, etc. This is not very exciting and could pretty much bore the casual listener. However, because they were based at Roswell during this time period, many could now talk about crashed spaceships and alien bodies even if they never saw or heard of such a thing when they were there. It now seems the only requirements for being part of the Roswell legend is that you can place yourself in or around Roswell in 1947 and that you state you saw something extraordinary.

Of all the new individuals in Schmitt/Carey's book, who were supposedly based at Roswell, most were "Privates" (E-3 and below) and Corporals (E-4). A few senior enlisted men were mentioned and most of those were E-5's. Additionally, there were a couple of officers mentioned but they were second hand testimonies from family members. The E-3 and E-4's of most military commands usually are the newest personnel and many probably had less than two years of military service. Almost all of these people state they were deeply involved in the Roswell recovery in some way. Either they picked up/handled debris, handled or saw the bodies, transported important personnel, or played some other key role in the Roswell crash story. This had to have been the worst best kept secret ever with so many low-ranking personnel with access to the aliens and materials. It is also important to note that none reported the boring routine of standing guard at the "cordon" on route 285 or having to guard the base (remember the entire MP company and MPs from the air service group were off-base so somebody had to guard the gate and planes) while others performed the more exciting task of gathering exotic debris and alien bodies. Also, none reported being part of the "goon squad" that ripped up offices, ranches, and threatened civilians with their lives. Of course, if you want to insert yourself into this legend as a key player, you don't want to be a villain or state that you didn't see anything important.

Carey and Schmitt have an answer to the problem with senior officers and enlisted not talking about the incident. They state that the people most likely to talk are usually the junior enlisted personnel because they have no pensions to collect. What they fail to realize is that they also are the most likely to embellish stories and their roles in them. Schmitt and Carey have learned to rationalize contradicting testimony by using this conspiracy defense. Of course, this makes the majority of servicemen who were interviewed, reported nothing unusual, or denied that anything unusual happened, something to be ridiculed, denigrated, or accused of being part of the cover-up.

"Need to know"

As noted, most of the new military witnesses presented by Schmitt and Carey were junior and mid-level enlisted personnel. The officers are mostly absent in their writings. Perhaps the reception Kent Jeffrey received at a 509th reunion scared them away from talking to officers. Jeffrey reported that he interviewed fifteen former B-29 pilots and two former B-29 navigators and none reported anything unusual. Jeffrey reports Jack Ingham was particularly vocal about his feelings on the subject. According to Jeffrey,

To them, the crashed-saucer nonsense, along with all the hullabaloo and conspiracy theories surround it, make a mockery of and is an insult to the 509th Bomb Group and its men. (Randle 173)

How many individuals were interviewed with the same opinion that were not described in the book? It is probable that Schmitt and Carey would just lump those individuals into the "reluctant" category of personnel not wanting to tell the truth because of fear of their pensions. Maybe they had "quivering lips" and "shaky hands" too and, therefore, indicated they were "hiding something important".

We have additional excuses for why there were many who saw or heard nothing about the crashed spaceship. Kevin Randle explains his reason that these pilots and navigators knew nothing:

What is seen here is evidence of orders coming from the headquarters of Strategic Air Command that the officers of the Eighth Air Force and the 509th Bomb Group were not to discuss this matter among themselves. Those who were not involved would not be told about it because of the high classification. And those former members of the 509th who believe that had something like this happened they would have heard about it must rethink their theory. Many military units have secrets that are shared only with those who have a need to know. (Randle 331)

With Randle's military background, this explanation sounds correct but it never really works this way in practice. Yes, need to know details are very difficult to obtain. However, speaking from being on board a submarine that ran several top secret missions, most of the crew and all the officers knew what was happening despite not having a "need to know" and being told not to inquire about details. Additionally, it was not uncommon to hear "sea stories" from other people who were on similar missions on other submarines. Those inside the submarine community were familiar with what most submarines were doing during the cold war even though they were not directly involved. In the Roswell crashed spaceship scenario, the pilots/navigators whom Randle takes issue with may have not been directly involved but it would be highly likely they would have heard something or noticed the excessive activity (Carey and Schmitt indicate air activity was extremely high and the base went into "lockdown" during this time period) that was associated with the cleanup and transport of a crashed UFO with alien bodies.

In fact, several of Schmitt/Carey's "new witnesses" claim to have heard the wild rumors about the crashed spaceship and alien bodies circulating freely about the base. So open were these rumors, that civilians on base were aware of them as well as those out in town.

Sgt. Fulford: "C'mon tell us. What crashed? You must know. They word in town is that it was a spaceship with bodies of little spacemen." (Carey and Schmitt Witness 102)

John Bunch of the 603rd Engineering Squadron: "We all knew that something was going on, but we didn't know what...The base went into lockdown, and they checked us real close going in and out." (Carey and Schmitt Witness 102)

PFC Helnes: "All the talk was a crashed saucer--right up to the time that I left the base in mid-1949." (Carey and Schmitt Witness 102)

Patricia Rice: " I can say without much exaggeration that the news of the crash got around that town of 25,000 people in about 25 minutes!" (Carey and Schmitt Witness 97)

PFC Benjamin: "Word was given to my squadron to be on the alert for special duty." (Carey and Schmitt Witness 137)

Why didn't Jeffrey's pilots and navigators know about these wild rumors? Certainly, if they had heard any of these rumors or saw the increased activity (including locking down the base!) that day, they would have inquired and definitely would have discovered what all the secrecy was about.

Another testimony that contradicts the accepted legend is the story of Captain Lorenzo Kimball, who was at the hospital. He reports that the whole idea of alien bodies was just plain nonsense. Once again, Randle applies the "need to know" explanation. The "need to know" excuse does not work because practically everyone on and off base already knew something was happening. Roswell investigators have used this phrase to explain away inconvenient testimony from credible sources.

According to Randle, the members of the Eighth AF were not to even discuss this among themselves. According to Crary and Schmitt, this was not the case. Let's look at how some of the senior officers at the Eighth Air Force and the 509th kept a secret so important that death threats were made to ensure it was never told:

General Ramey freely displayed a message concerning the spaceship crash in a press conference.
General Ramey freely talked about it with another officer in a nonsecure setting within earshot of an enlisted man.
Col. Blanchard discussed it with the ex-mayor of Roswell, William Brainerd, who wasn't in the military and definitely had no need to know
Jesse Marcel freely displayed the top secret materials to his family
Jesse Marcel and Walter Haut freely showed the debris to a PFC clerk, Lloyd Nelson, in the public affairs office of the 509th. Nelson had no need to know and they then had the nerve to tell him not to tell anyone about it because it was a secret! When it came to operational security, Marcel and Haut were sieves if this story is true.
Lt. Col. Harold Warne, the Roswell hospital administrator, showed his secretary, Miriam Bush, the alien bodies despite her having no need to know.

Remember, these men were threatening people with their lives and careers. However, they somehow felt the "need to know" did not apply, freely displayed materials/bodies with unauthorized individuals and discussed it openly with people who should never have even heard a whisper about what supposedly happened. Why weren't they "disposed of" or their careers ruined? Where was the "need to know" excuse in these cases? What is wrong with this picture?

If you aren't with us.....

One theme common in this book (as well as most of the other pro-crash books/websites) is how a witness is described if they say they did not remember anything or did not remember something the way somebody else told it. They automatically became "the evil guys" or "the guys trying to keep a secret". By labeling them, it becomes easy to dismiss what they have to say.

We first encounter this example with the Fred Willard interview. Because he did not know anything, he was presented by the authors as trying to keep a secret. However, it continues throughout the book:

George Houck did not confirm the story told by Earl Fulford and stated that he did not remember the events described. Carey and Schmitt comment, “Houck however, has retreated to the final fallback position of a defendant not wishing to incriminate oneself, but not wanting to “take the fifth” either, by simply telling Fulford, “I can’t remember” (Carey and Schmitt Witness 104).
Major Jack Comstock, chief surgeon of the Roswell base hospital (and an ex-POW during WWII), could not remember secretary, Miriam Bush, who would later commit suicide "under mysterious circumstances" because she supposedly saw the alien bodies. Carey and Schmitt state, “The truth she possessed about Roswell had died with her—death being the great silencer... (Comstock) "I have no memory of such a person", denial being the second greatest silencer” (Carey and Schmitt Witness 123). Would somebody, who was in his eighties or nineties, remember every secretary that he may or may not have had contact with?
Lt. James Eubanks, navigator for the crate flight from Roswell to Fort Worth, stated he did not remember anything in a phone call. He then, supposedly changed his phone number in an effort to evade any more questions. It could be that Eubanks did not want his name associated with something he felt was not true and did not want to answer any more phone calls about it.
Lt. Felix Martucci, bombardier for the same flight, was "unresponsive" in interviews. Despite trying an "ambush interview", they never were able to get him to confirm or deny comments he supposedly made. Again, a probable reason could be the same as Eubanks.
Thadeus Love's widow is portrayed as a woman who would not disclose anything because her husband asked her not to before he died. Carey and Schmitt conclude, "What is the explanation here? Never say anything about a weather balloon?" (Carey and Schmitt Witness 163). Maybe she just did not want to be bothered and her husband did not want any wild stories that were not true circulating about him after his death.
One of the biggest villains of most Roswell investigators is Sheridan Cavitt. Schmitt have all sorts of quotes about him but we are left grasping where they come from since they are not footnoted. They apparently are simply stories they heard in casual conversation with Rickett and others. Cavitt signed an affidavit for the USAF in 1994 saying all he saw was some balloon debris. Trying to ambush Cavitt or get him to say something contrary to this, Schmitt and Carey dogged Cavitt up to the day he died. They even promised his son that if he signed a statement telling their version of the truth, they would not reveal it until after he died. This is very similar to what they did with Walter Haut. Cavitt seems to have been a bit sharper even at his advanced age and never relented to the pressure they were applying through his son. As a result, he did not sign the document they created that would contradict what he had signed previously. Because of this Carey and Schmitt decide to paint Cavitt in an unpleasant light:

Sheridan Cavitt remains a testimony to the fact that when you know too much, you forfeit your very freedom...This couldn't have been more evident than what was described to us by his attending physicians just days before he died. "He sat next to his bed [in the hospital] with room full of immediate family who were reminiscing and exchanging personal stories. But not Mr. Cavitt. He just sat there not saying a word. It was though he was afraid that he would say something." (Carey and Schmitt Witness 206-7)

According to the book, the attending physician(s) wanted to remain anonymous making one wonder who they were talking to since most doctors don't reveal personal information like this. Perhaps it was just an orderly or nurse. A possible explanation for his reported behavior (which may or may not be true) is that he was not much of a talker and liked to listen to his family members or, maybe at his advanced age, faded in and out thinking about old memories. In The Roswell Dig Diaries, these same medical personnel are quoted by Carey and Schmitt as stating that he refused pain medications. This is meant to indicate he did not want to divulge anything secret. Again, we question the sources and all sorts of people do not want pain medications for their own reasons. Carey and Schmitt only present the point of view they want everyone to believe.

Lastly, Schmitt and Carey have a cover-all comment for those not willing to remember their version of events:

Most deny any knowledge of the Roswell Incident or use the “I can’t remember” dodge….” (Carey and Schmitt Witness 175)

One can interpret the statement to say, that if a 70 or 80-year old says they don't remember these events, it is "dodge" or "denial of the truth" and they are not being honest. Perhaps it would have been better if they wrote, "If you aren't with us and tell us what we want to hear, then you are part of the cover-up and and are going to be portrayed as such".

No paper, No proof, No problem

Back in 1997, Kevin Randle wrote in his book, The Randle Report, that he had new evidence that suggested a massive cover-up had occurred at Roswell that summer. The base adjutant at the time was Major Patrick Saunders. Saunders had been interviewed in 1989 and said that he knew nothing about the alien bodies or crashed spaceships. He also implied the whole thing was a big joke. However, before he died he had purchased copies of the Roswell books and wrote on the flyleaf of one copy of The truth about the UFO crash at Roswell, "Here's the truth and I still haven't told anybody anything!" (Carey and Schmitt Witness 226). He also signed it. This appeared to indicate that the book was true. Most of what was written in this book was based on the testimony of Frank Kaufmann, Glenn Dennis, and James Ragsdale. All three of these gentlemen have since been discredited and their stories are now considered falsehoods. As a result, one might need to call into question what Saunders wrote. However, Randle and Schmitt now seem to have taken this statement as not referring to the whole book but the page it was written upon. On that page was written:

Files were altered. So were personal records, along with assignments and various codings and code words. Changing serial numbers ensured that those searching later would not be able to locate those who were involved in the recovery.... (Carey and Schmitt Witness 226)

So now we are led to believe that Saunders personally did all these things. Have any altered files ever been found? Have any personnel records ever been found to be altered other than Frank Kaufmann, who obviously altered his? How many individuals were impossible to track down or their records mysteriously lost? Were any records of any flights shown to be altered? From what Carey and Schmitt state, a flight log for the "crate flight" exists. Why wasn't it altered? As far as I can tell there is not a single piece of evidence to suggest these things actually occurred. However, Schmitt, Randle, and Carey now indicate that Saunders did all these things based on this statement and a second hand recollection of one of the Saunders children saying he remembers his father talking about altering records. Nowhere have I seen Randle or others state that they determined the provenance of this book or even tested it to see if it is actually Saunders handwriting. If it is his handwriting, we are not even sure what the context of the writing was. Perhaps Saunders may have been writing it as a joke for a friend that never received the book. There can be several explanations for the writing but the crashed spaceship proponents are happy to leave it as an admission that a cover-up occurred.

There is not one bit of paper associated with events that July that indicated an alien spaceship was recovered or any widespread use of manpower outside the base occurred. As a result, crashed-spaceship proponents can now claim that Saunders was the greatest cover-up genius ever since a crashed spaceship must have occurred. However, we are given evidence that there was a paperwork trail in this new book:

Eli Benjamin recalls signing a non-disclosure statement.
A court-martial of PFC Earl Downs occurred because of somebody in his watch trying to pocket a scrap of the debris. There are suggestions of other courts-martial being held associated with the Roswell alien spaceship crash although we have no clue who was charged.
Eli Benjamin reports an officer suffering some sort of mental breakdown, which would have had some form of documentation associated with it.
CPL William Quigley had to sign some form of non-disclosure statement.

In all of these cases, there would have been paperwork associated with these events that could not be thrown away. If Saunders were engineering a paperwork cover-up, why would he have personnel sign documentation? If you add all the additional personnel flying in and out of Roswell (as reported by Schmitt and Carey), it would be almost impossible to hide such records since so many different commands would be involved. What about all the courts-martial surrounding the events? Certainly there would be a record of these somewhere. Again, we are led to believe these things are true but they are just rumor being portrayed as such.

There are two possibilities for the lack of a paper trail for Roswell:

The event was as described in the 1947 media and as accepted by skeptics/the USAF. A simple misidentification would require no massive use of manpower and resources. Most reporting through the chain of command was via telephone and, because of the mundane nature of the debris and rapid resolution of the mystery, required minimal documentation.
Patrick Saunders and the rest of US military were the greatest cover-up artists ever. They could foresee that regular civilians would have the ability to look at the paperwork and record via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which was not passed as a law until 1966. They also had the uncanny skill in hiding every little item that could be found via FOIA that would suggest that a crashed spaceship occurred. They were also able to compartmentalize the information so well that those studying the subject of UFOs for Project SIGN, GRUDGE, and BLUEBOOK would be unaware that an alien spaceship had been recovered. Meanwhile, the upper chain of command would read dozens if not hundreds of written reports regarding the recovery of a crashed alien spaceship and never hint at it's existence in formal communications.

One might want to consider which would be a more reasonable explanation for a lack of paper trail.

The Grinch left nothing behind

Throughout the Roswell legend, the same thing is repeated. All the materials that were found at the crash site(s), was cleaned up and shipped to Wright field. Schmitt and Carey take this to a new level. In the latest version of events, it seems like everyone knew about the event long before the US military. Every rancher that could find it came to the Foster Ranch and picked up there own little souvenir:

Ranchers such as Clint Sultemeier, curious enough about the story, would drive over to the Foster Ranch (of which Brazel was custodian) and actually retrieve a number of souvenirs...Glaze Sacra would load a number of "weightless" pieces of metal into his pickup and head discreetly home. Danny Bosell's parents, who owned a ranch 25 miles to the east, drove 45 minutes to see for themselves what everyone was talking about. (Carey and Schmitt Witness 47)

Based on this information we have to wonder why Loretta Proctor told researchers long ago that her husband and her did not have the time or gas to drive to the crash site. Were these ranchers far less busy? Did they have a greater amount of gas? It must have looked like the county fair with so many trucks coming and going from the debris field. Certainly, the Proctors would have to go and take a look.

Because of these new revelations of ranchers stealing fragments before they got out to the site, the storyline about Roswell has to take a shift. Before it was a covert clean up operation. Now it turns into a desperate Gestapo-like effort to obtain every fragment that touched the earth. They use industrial strength vacuum cleaners to suck every fragment up and they now have to go into all the homes and take back every scrap:

Ranchers were forced to inform on one another. Ranch houses were and ransacked. The wooden floors of livestock sheds were pried lose plank by plank and underground cold storage fruit cellars were emptied of all their contents. Glass Jars were scattered, broken on the ground. (Carey and Schmitt Witness 51)

The source for this statement is Fawn Fritz, Bill Brazel's daughter. It sounds a lot like the story she would later state in the chapter about her father returning the scraps he retrieved to Captain Armstrong (whom there is no record of):

There were six soldiers, who came right into the house. They pulled drawers from dressers, emptied closets, and proceeded to pry up floorboards in Dad’s bedroom. They completed trashed the house…From the house they went to the cattle shed and started to slit open each feedbag and let it pour over the ground… They even emptied a water holding tank. (Carey and Schmitt Witness 74)

We are not told what age Fawn was back in 1949, when this event is supposed to have transpired. However, we are told that Bill and his wife were newlyweds in 1947. My guess is that Fawn could not have been very old to remember much. In fact, Bill Brazel told a different story, which contradicts Fawn's story, in 1997:

They were real nice about it. No threats or anything. (Rodden 31)

Exactly how Fawn remembered this story about the goon-squad tactics is hard to tell but it definitely is a new addition to the Roswell legend that will be eagerly accepted by those interested in a crashed spaceship recovery.

Apparently, these soldiers were very good at finding every last scrap since nobody has been able to locate one of these souvenirs or any debris at the crash site(s). These techniques developed at Roswell should have been the gold standard when recovering material because they were so effective. Any top secret airplane crash should have used these exact same techniques so as to not allow analysis of any classified materials used.

However, history reveals that the Roswell cover-up techniques were not employed in any crashes involving Top Secret aircraft after 1947. Peter Merlin's description of an SR-71 crash and recovery is a wonderful example. This was in 1963, only 16 years after Roswell. The same tireless effort to retrieve every scrap of material was apparently attempted but they did not bother to:

Create a huge cordon or security area
There was no use of industrial grade vacuum cleaners
There was no effort to recruit hundreds of soldiers/airmen from a nearby AFB to scan every inch of desert thus insuring classified materials were not left behind.
Materials were left behind despite an effort to pick up every scrap of material and repeated trips back to the crash site.

Peter has conducted several of these exercises involving crashed top secret aircraft and he always was able to find some pieces of the aircraft as well as other evidence of the crash. Why were the Roswell soldiers, with little experience in doing so, successful in finding every scrap of material? Why weren't their methods used in these events described by Merlin in order to prevent discovery of what really crashed there? Finally, it is interesting to note that Peter Merlin did conduct a sweep of the Foster ranch back in the 1990s. He and his friend, Tom Kinzel, found nothing but an aluminum TV dinner tray. Of course, they could have been looking in the wrong place since crash locations for the Roswell alien spaceship often shift like the wind.

Another mystery crash location!

The book refrains from giving an exact location for the new crash site. In fact, in all the Roswell books (with the exception of the section Prof. Charles Moore wrote and Dr. Doleman's topographical map in The Roswell Dig Diaries), the locations are always mysterious and not precisely noted. One would think with the advent of GPS locators, the exact longitude and latitude could be logged. It appears that it is better to be vague so one can not specifically disprove a location as a potential crash site. Nobody wants real science to interfere with the Roswell story. This is what happened at one of the sites when the Sci-Fi channel had Dr. Doleman dig for debris and a gouge. No concrete evidence for a gouge was found (the only anomaly was later determined to be probably due to coyote/fox burrow), no alien debris was located, and aerial photographs from 1954 were examined to look for evidence of a crash. Again, no gouge was located despite claims that the gouge existed for several years (Peter Merlin's search for an SR-71 crash site revealed an impact crater that lasted forty years)! When compared to a 1946 photograph, the 1954 image looked very similar as if nothing happened there at all. Of course, to crashed spaceship proponents, this just means that the military was very good at covering their tracks and they probably "retouched" the photographs.

The book now states that there are three locations associated with the UFO crash. Apparently, the first location was the initial debris field described by Marcel. The second location was nearby, where some aliens were ejected from the spaceship as it "skipped" off the ground and created a gouge. The final resting place for the spaceship was to the southeast. The new location is mentioned three times in the book. All have vague descriptions.

"The site had been accidentally discovered 35 miles northwest of Roswell in Chaves County earlier that day by a group of civilian archaeologists who telephoned the sheriff's office and fire department in Roswell from a service station in the nearby hamlet of Mesa." (Carey and Schmitt Witness 84)

"MPs of the 1395th were posted along the western edge of Highway 285 from Roswell in the south all the way to the hamlet of Ramon in the north in order to prevent civilians from reaching the crash site 5 miles west of the highway." (Carey and Schmitt Witness 100)

“The rest of the ship or an escape vehicle, along with the remainder of the doomed crew, remained airborne and continued in and east/southeast direction for another 30 miles before crashing in a flat area with low, rolling hills 40 miles north/northwest of Roswell.” (Carey and Schmitt Witness 127)

Again, we are left grasping at straws. Is it 35 or 40 miles northwest or north/northwest of Roswell? The location described in the three statements seems to point towards an area about five miles west of Mesa, NM but that is only a guess. To help clarify the crash site, Carey and Schmitt give us a map in the appendix. This has to be the worst map ever. It looks like they took a picture off a computer monitor and give credit to someone named John Kirby. They would have been better off drawing the map on a restaurant napkin. The map is so poor that it shows the debris field at the Foster Ranch as being SSW of Corona when it was SSE! Based on their writings and this map one can conclude that Schmitt and Carey have no idea where the actual final crash site is located but want everyone to believe they do. This despite having dozens (if not hundreds) of eyewitnesses, who were supposedly there. Haut signed an affidavit suggesting he had been to one of the sites and attended a meeting where the details were described. Was it too hard to have these numerous witnesses, including Haut, to take investigators out into the desert and pinpoint the place(s) they saw the crashed spaceship?

The amazing spaceship

The continuing evolution of the Roswell legend/myth includes many descriptions of the alien spaceship. That spaceship, which was something that could be easily recognized by anyone who saw it, has constantly shifted in size and shape. Even in this new book, we receive several descriptions of the spaceship:

Walter Haut - It was approx. 12 to 15 feet in length, not quite as wide, about 6 feet high, and more of an egg shape.(Carey and Schmitt Witness 216) (NOTE: Schmitt reported in August 2007 that they put this affidavit in front of Haut and he read and signed it implying they came up with the dimensions/shape and not Haut)
Leola Van Why -“My husband told me that it was a UFO that had crashed, that it was a round disc” (Carey and Schmitt Witness 129)
Earl Fulford - "About the size and shape of a Volkswagen Beetle" (Carey and Schmitt Witness 102)
Richard Talbert (a young newspaper boy at the time)- "I saw a silver, oval-shaped something that was approximately 4 to 5 feet wide by about 12 feet long and 5 to 7 feet high" (Carey and Schmitt Witness 99)
Paul McFerrin (a pre-teen in Roswell) - "an egg-shaped object" (Carey and Schmitt Witness 99)
Jobi MacPherson - "...something else that had a conical shape to it, like a pod or something." (Carey and Schmitt Witness 100)

Some of these don't quite agree but the general size and shape has to do with how it was transported. Based on the new book's description, the craft had been transported by tractor-trailer to the base. As a result, it could not be much larger than the size being described above. This is a far smaller and different vehicle than described previously:

The Roswell Incident - "It's like a big crumpled dishpan." (Berlitz and Moore 15) and "some sort of metallic, disc-shaped object about twenty-five or thirty feet across." (Berlitz and Moore 60)
UFO Crash at Roswell - No general description by any witnesses but the story about a big crumpled dishpan still is repeated.
Crash at Corona - "A kind of disc" (Friedman and Berlinner 87) and "a circular silver object stuck in the ground" (Friedman and Berlinner 90).
Truth about the UFO crash at Roswell - "a crashed airplane without wings" (Randle and Schmitt 7) and "long, thin with a ‘batlike’ wing" (Randle and Schmitt 174). Add to this, the shape Frank Kaufmann drew for them, which was sort of like the shape and size of a large delta-wing aircraft.

Kevin Randle would later describe the object as "heel-shaped" in subsequent books so it could match the Kaufmann description and the Rhodes photographs, which was has often been related with the Roswell incident. One would think the shape of the spaceship would have been consistent over the past thirty years but it seems that this is not the case. This probably has a lot to do with skeptics pointing out that Kenneth Arnold never reported disc-shaped objects. Investigators figured they needed to look for testimony that suggested a shape similar to what Arnold reported or something other than a disc. It truly was an amazing spaceship that it could take on so many shapes and sizes.

Another amazing thing about this spaceship is that it put out so much debris but maintained it's shape/integrity. We are led to believe that thousands of small pieces (most no greater than a few feet across) were shed by the craft as it crashed/bounced/exploded over two other locations besides the final resting place, which also had debris. One has to wonder how a craft made up of such indestructible parts could even shed such material. Even if these thousands of pieces fell off, why do most of the witnesses report a mostly intact craft with hardly any damage evident? Schmitt and Carey suggest that the craft that was retrieved might have been an escape pod. This might explain the nearly intact vehicle but it does not explain the debris field contents, which only contained I-beams, one small black box, sheets of metal that varied in type/size (but none over a few feet across), and fiber optic type cables. Where was all the types of debris one might expect from an exploded spacecraft of immense size such as a propulsion core, cockpit materials, high-end electronics, large sheets of metal, etc.?

Back in 1998, crashed spaceship proponent Robert Galganski stated that an NYU project balloon train could not produce the debris field described by Marcel. He had produced a model that suggested that roughly seven thousand square feet of material would be needed to recreate Marcel's debris field (Note: I do not agree with his interpretation of Marcel's testimony but for the sake of argument, I will assume he is correct). If one were to take the latest size for the spaceship (oval shape fifteen feet long) and tried to compute the surface area of the craft, the amount of surface area would be inadequate to produce even one debris field as computed by Galganski. Considering the craft was mostly intact by all accounts and that much of the volume was occupied by six occupants and the crafts propulsion system (which was not found separate from the craft according to the book), there isn't much shell material left to create Marcel's single debris field (the new book says there were three). Even if we add parts and pieces that might have fallen out from inside, we still wonder exactly where all these fragments came from. Was the spacecraft continuously losing material as it broke up and then regenerating itself?

It appears that something is wrong with spaceship being described by Schmitt and Carey. The shape/size has varied as much as the actual crash site locations over the years. Additionally, the new debris fields being described are so immense and numerous that it would take a craft the size of a jumbo jet to produce that quantity of debris and not something the size of a small car. Schmitt and Carey's amazing spaceship does not fit the story making one wonder about the story itself.

It's about time...It's about space....

The book introduces us to Schmitt/Carey's timeline of events which suggests that the balloon explanation was in place before the press release. According to Schmitt and Carey that within an hour of the press release being issued, the news media was already reporting that it was a weather balloon and reflector. To them this seems unlikely because the Roswell timeline has the press release being issued around noon, the plane leaving at 1-2PM (according to witnesses 50 years after the event), and the press conference occurring around 5PM. However, the truth is that the timeline is probably wrong. Examining the press reports, teletypes provided by Frank Joyce, and an examination of the photographs, we discover a more probable timeline that easily explains Carey and Schmitt's conspiracy theory.

From the news media accounts of the time, we know that the B-29 left Roswell at 10AM. The Abilene Reporter of July 9th states that, "The weather device was flown to Fort Worth Army airfield by B-29 from Roswell Army airfield at 10 A.M. Tuesday at the command of Brig. Gen. Ramey." (Disc 1). Additionally, the newswires indicated that Marcel was already on his way to or in Fort Worth when the press release was written/issued. This would indicate an earlier departure time than 1-2 PM.
According to the news wires, the media did not know about the event until 2:41PM Mountain time.
Shadows seen in the Fort Worth photographs suggest that the time that one of the photographs were taken was around 3:15 PM Fort Worth time (note: Daylight savings time was not in effect for Fort Worth so times are somewhat confusing when creating a timeline).

The 10 AM departure time indicates that the B-29 would have arrived around 1 PM local time. This is roughly the same time the press release was being issued by Walter Haut. For some reason the press release did not make it to the news wires for a couple of hours. Indications are that the newsmen in Roswell wanted to make sure that Haut did have authorization to release the information. This means they would have to wait until he came back to work from lunch to get in touch with him. Between 1-3 PM Fort Worth time, Ramey had communicated with everyone and had seen some of what Marcel had brought in the B-29. He decided to arrange the press conference when he became aware that the news media was going to hear about the event. This took a bit of time to get the media in place, which would have included contacting a local news media outlet for a photographer. About the time it made it to the wires, Ramey was having the photographs taken in his office and talking to the media about it being a weather balloon. Therefore, the early departure of the B-29 easily explains why the media was already changing the story within an hour of the press release hitting the news wires.

More on the switcharoo

One of the most important aspects about the Roswell case is that the photographs taken at Fort Worth were not of the real debris. Most of the confusion has to do with interviews conducted with Jesse Marcel Sr. and Thomas Dubose. Starting with Jesse Marcel:

Jesse originally told William Moore that one of the photographs taken of him showed him with the real debris and the others were staged. However, he never was asked or described how they became staged.
Jesse said in the movie, UFOs are real, that the press saw some of the actual debris.
Jesse, when confronted with the photographs of him with the debris, would state that all the photographs were of staged material and none of the photographs were of the real debris.
Jesse told Walter Haut that the debris had been switched with weather balloon materials when he and General Ramey went into another room to look at a map.

Thomas Dubose was not much better in his responses, which at times were cryptic and confusing.

He said in his affidavit that the weather explanation was used to get the press of their back. However, he never stated that a "switch" had occurred. He only stated that they explanation for the debris in the photographs was used to stop the press investigation.
He said in his affidavit that he knew nothing about the incident until he got a phone call from Strategic Air Command (SAC) inquiring about the event being reported in the media, which did not occur until July 8th.
He also told Randle and Schmitt that the debris from Roswell was shipped two days before the press conference via a B-25 or B-26 (I am not even sure that a B-25/26 even existed at Roswell during this time period). This debris was in a sealed plastic bag that he gave to Colonel Clark, who flew it on to Washington D.C. He never saw the debris inside the bag.
He told Jaimie Shandera, in a controversial interview, that the photograph showed the debris brought into Fort Worth by Jesse Marcel Sr. and that no switch ever occurred. He also would state that this debris was put into a mail pouch, sealed, and given to Col. Clark, who then flew to Washington D.C.
He told Billy Cox that somebody just dropped a balloon from some height and they used that for the photographs even though the debris showed shredded and weathered reflector and balloon materials that had been exposed to the sun for a long period of time. They did not show some balloon and reflectors that were just dropped a few hundred feet and then used for a photo session.
He told Don Schmitt that the debris "couldn't have come from Fort Worth, We didn't launch balloons!" (Carey and Schmitt Witness 94). It is interesting to note that this quote comes from a 1991 interview that was absent from the earlier Roswell books and never mentioned before.

Because of these confusing statements, nobody can really pin down the truth about the events that occurred that afternoon. The common crashed UFO theory is that Mack Brazel brought debris with him into Roswell that Sunday. This debris was retrieved by Marcel and sent to Fort Worth. Col. Clark then flew it to Washington D.C. On the 8th, Marcel brought a B-29 full of debris he picked up to Fort Worth. When he brought some of the debris to General Ramey, it was switched and balloon materials were substituted for the actual UFO debris, which was taken away and sent on to Washington or Wright field. Any testimony that suggests otherwise has been discarded as unreliable (the Moore interview of Marcel and the Shandera interview of Dubose).

One key element of this theory was that the balloon and reflector materials came from Fort Worth. However, we now hear that Dubose denied this. This was confirmed by Irving Newton, who stated they did not use those reflectors at Fort Worth. As a result, we now get a new theory that the reflector and balloon came from Roswell and were in the packages that Sgt. Robert Porter described early on as being loaded onto Marcel's B-29.

Some have suggested that the White Sands Missile Range near Alamogordo was the source, and others say it was Wright Field or even Fort Worth itself. More likely, however, for the most obvious reason, which flies in the face of those who would maintain that Marcel and Blanchard himself would not have recognized a rawin target balloon, is that the balloon and target did indeed come from the bases at Roswell. Why? Because the RAAF was launching such balloons from atop Roswell's tallest buildings on the average of twice a day in connection with the base's frequent test drops of unarmed atomic bombs.(Carey and Schmitt Witness 118)

This is interesting because, according to Philip Klass, quoting an April 1991 article of the International UFO Reporter, Schmitt had stated, "He [Dubose] just knew that it wasn't from Roswell, and that's the important point (emphasis added)" ( Klass 94). As always, the testimony of Dubose seems to have been vague enough for anyone to draw their own conclusions.

If the debris supposedly came from Roswell, there are new questions about the source of materials. It implies that the weather unit at Roswell retained balloon materials that had been sitting out in the sun for some time and that they had a supply of ML-307 radar reflectors on hand. The weathermen at Roswell did put up weather balloons on a regular basis but not for the reasons cited by Schmitt and Carey. They did so because that was what their job required of them, which was to regularly monitor the winds around the base. For some strange reason, Carey and Schmitt immediately couple all and any weather balloons to radar reflectors. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Weather Observers can and did track balloons without the use of RADAR reflectors. This is explained in TM 1-235, The Weather Observer. They were tracked visually with an observer using a theodolite and a timer to calculate position and direction of motion. Night balloon launchings included a small lantern tied to the balloon. This was how it was done before RADAR even existed and that was how the Roswell weathermen tracked their balloons in July 1947 because there is no evidence that the base had a RADAR. Robert Todd was able to obtain documentation that suggested that there was apparently no RADAR present on base in June of 1947 and there appeared to be no effort to install any in the near future. Without any RADAR, there would have been no need for the ML-307s being in the base supply system or being used at all. As per usual, Schmitt and Carey state they were being used at Roswell but provide absolutely no documentation to suggest that this is true.

According to a Robert Sheaffer interview with Herbert Summer, a Roswell air base weather observer in 1947, he was not aware of anything unusual happening. One would think that one of the weather observers that used weather balloons at Roswell would be aware of the upper chain taking a balloon and a reflector that nobody ever used before. He would also find it odd that they would want one that was exposed to the sun for several hours/days or saw them laying it out in the sun to become discolored. This theory is just as unrealistic as the one with the materials coming from Fort Worth. However, it is interesting to note that crashed spaceship proponents are now suggesting the origin of the materials in the photographs came from the Roswell airbase. Now if they can only make the connection that these were the materials brought in by Marcel himself.

Break out that brownie!

What has always amazed me about the Roswell story is how people were able to see the debris and handle it for some time. Yet not one person ever bothered to photograph it. I realize that amateur photography in 1947 is not what it is today but there should have been an adequate number of cameras at Roswell that year to insure that something was photographed. It would not be out of the ordinary for at least one of the families to have a camera with some film in it at the time they saw the debris or visited the Roswell ranch (Bill Brazel says the gouge existed for a long time). Bill Brazel had his little collection for over a year and never bothered to take one picture! Jesse Marcel Sr. brought the debris to show his family. One might think his wife and son would have insisted at a photograph being taken with such a monumental find. Nothing of the sort happened and Mrs. Marcel reportedly swept some of the leftover debris on the floor out the door to clean house.

According to the present Roswell legend, Mack Brazel brought some of the debris into town and showed it to Sheriff Wilcox. He also talked to newsman Frank Joyce about it on the phone. This was before the military got involved and there was no secrecy. Why didn't anyone think of taking a picture of it? Frank Joyce, a newsman at the radio station, should have jumped at the chance to see the debris and get a town photographer to take a picture. Instead, he tells him to talk to the air base and did not even bother to go down to the office to take a look. This makes Frank Joyce probably the worst newsman ever. Mack Brazel made the world's greatest discovery, brought evidence into town, and there was no fanfare, no news flash, no exciting pictures, nothing at all from the newsman at KGFL. Instead, Joyce simply went back to business as usual.

Stranger still are the actions at Roswell Army Airfield. Blanchard did not bother to have the object photographed either. Surely they had a photographer on base. Instead, the debris was simply placed on the plane and sent to Fort Worth. Had it been something truly extraordinary, one might think that a photograph would have been taken.

In the new book, we discover that the Army drove a huge 18-wheeler through town with the UFO attached covered by a tarp that was not quite strapped down allowing everyone to see part of it. Several jeeps with machine gun armed MPs escorted this vehicle to make sure everyone knew what was in the truck was really important. Again, this is big news in a sleepy town. Based on the information in the new book, almost everyone in town knew something was going on and news reporters/photographers should have been "Johnny on the spot" ready near the base. They should also have known that something was going on north of town. Not a single mention of the convoy is mentioned in the papers anywhere. Not a single photograph by a news reporter or amateur photographer exists even though we are led to believe that rumors of a crashed alien spaceship were running about town like wildfire. Is there something wrong with this "picture" or what?

Even the military seemed to be in short supply of experienced photographers at Roswell or anywhere else in the western United States. Instead, they went to Anacostia Naval Station near Washington D.C., where highly experienced and expert photographers, CPL Al Kirkpatrick and SGT Fred Benthal just happened to be. These two men were flown to Roswell in B-25 so they could photograph the debris field and alien bodies. According to the book, Benthal and Kirkpatrick flew all day and got to Roswell late. They then went to the Foster ranch crash sites the next day where Benthal photographed alien bodies. One might think that if the US military were interested in photographs, they would fly an expert military photographer who was an officer and had high security clearance instead of a couple of simple soldiers who's main body of work seemed to be that "he helped setup the photographic equipment for filming the two atomic bomb tests..." (Carey and Schmitt Witness 130). According to the photographic record of Operation Crossroads, over 50,000 still films were used and they were developed at Anacostia. It also states that the military was so shorthanded they had to find ex-servicemen who were skilled photographers for the test. Nevertheless, I am sure that there are hundreds of other enlisted men who could have truthfully claimed the same important resume' of being involved with Operation Crossroads and "helping setup cameras" that allowed them to photograph alien bodies. Apparently, they were not as skilled as a corporal and a sergeant. I guess if they had sent an experienced officer/senior enlisted man, the story never would be told because, as pointed out by Schmitt/Carey, these guys normally don't talk. Lucky for Schmitt and Carey, the military goofed that day and allowed a couple of trustworthy junior enlisted men to see the greatest secret ever kept.

Saving Private Zoidberg

Schmitt and Carey introduce a multitude of eyewitnesses that tell stories that can not be verified. However, there are two that stand out in that they proclaim they played a pivotal role in the events at Roswell that summer.

The first presented in the book was Staff Sergeant Earl Fulford of the 603rd engineering squadron. He had been in the Navy during WWII but then shifted to the Air Force for some reason after the war. Fulford apparently was in Naval aviation in order to have a skill that would transfer to the Air Force. He then was transferred to Roswell in 1946. Sgt. Fulford tells everyone an interesting tale where he was involved in some key events.

He saw a friend, Staff Sergeant George Houck leave the morning of the 7th driving a "low boy" 18-wheeler.
He heard rumors being circulated by civilians about a crashed spaceship.
He saw Houck return with the "low boy" that afternoon. On the vehicle was a large shape covered by a tarp.
On July 9th, Fulford is volunteered to go with a group of guys (who's names are not mentioned) in order to pickup debris from the Foster Ranch.
On July 14th, Fulford is awakened at 2AM to operate the forklift and load a crate that weighed practically nothing onto a waiting C-54.

It seems that Fulford was always in the right place at the right time. However, his story had a few holes that Schmitt and Carey try and plug. The most devastating is the fact that George Houck was alive. Houck did not remember things as Fulford told them and did not remember Fulford! Unable to convince Houck that Fulford's story was true, Schmitt and Carey attempt to get Fulford to "refresh" Houck's memory. Fulford claims that Houck would not discuss it and told him "Some things should not be discussed Sergeant" (Carey and Schmitt Witness 104). Of course, there is no recording of this phone call and Fulford could just as easily have made it up.

The whole story about the truck transport seems to be more myth than fact. Why would the military bother to have this top secret payload driven through the center of town during broad daylight for all to see? Why not go via an alternate route on the outskirts of town or after sunset/late at night when many people would have been indoors/asleep? It seems that the military wasn't the least bit concerned about letting the people of Roswell know what was happening or raising their curiosity. The military's efforts to minimize curiosity and hide the secret were just plain awful. Again, this scenario makes the "need to know" excuse ridiculous. Other than wild rumors being repeated as fact in this book, there seems to be no real evidence that suggests that such a vehicle move actually occurred to transport an alien spaceship.

The second self-made hero is PFC Elias Benjamin, who, for the first time in his career, was placed in charge of a critical detail that brought the alien bodies to the base hospital. Benjamin describes the events in the following order:

On July 7th, Benjamin was ordered to go stand armed guard duty at the hanger the aliens were located at.
Upon his arrival, Benjamin saw an unnamed officer from his squadron being restrained after suffering some sort of mental breakdown.
A Major or Lt. Colonel ordered PFC Benjamin to take charge of the detail and transfer some gurneys that held something that was covered to the hospital.
He took charge of the detail and delivered the "items" to the base hospital.
When the gurneys were unloaded, many officers and doctors took off the sheets and began to examine an alien body.
He signed a non-disclosure agreement. He and his immediate family were threatened if he ever told anyone.

Notice some key points in this testimony. Despite this being an extremely dramatic moment in his career and remembering a lot of details, Benjamin fails to remember one person involved besides himself. The officer was supposedly from his squadron. The 390th Air Service Squadron was not some huge group of thousands of men. The Tinian roster lists about 190 members and less than 20 were officers. One would expect that he would recall the name of the officer who broke down under pressure as he would have been the talk of many enlisted men over the next few months. Additionally, he does not recall the name or rank of the senior officer that directed him to take charge of the detail. There were not a lot of Majors or Lt. Colonels at Roswell. One would think he could recall one who gave him this great responsibility. For that matter, I don't even understand why a PFC was placed in charge of an important assignment that was originally given to an officer. Weren't there any senior enlisted men capable of taking charge? His selective amnesia is complete when Benjamin does not mention any of the names that were part of the detail that took the bodies to the hospital or any of the medical personnel from base that were there. It is almost as if Benjamin lived in a vacuum at Roswell. He knew nobody on base and never saw any of these people again.

Both of these individuals inserted themselves into the heart of the Roswell saga. Their roles were not just bit parts, they became key players. They played the part of heroes in the Roswell story. However, one must keep in mind that it is very hard to prove you saved Private Ryan at Normandy during your military career if you didn't do it. It is much easier to say you saved Private Zoidberg from Decapod 10 because nobody really expects proof of that feat.

Spinal Tap

In addition to the new military witnesses, Carey and Schmitt present the incredible story of Dr. Lejeune Foster (or is it La June Foster as spelled in The Truth about the UFO Crash at Roswell), who had a practice in San Diego at the time of the incident. Schmitt and Carey describe her as an expert on the human spinal cord even though they do not provide any information other than the name. Was she a neurologist? Did Dr. Foster write any earth shattering studies on the human spinal chord during her medical career that would make her an expert? Did Dr. Foster study at a medical institute specializing in the spinal chord prior to starting her practice? They also state that she had worked undercover for the FBI implying this assured her of a top secret clearance. Because of her supposed expertise in the human spinal chord and top secret clearance. Dr. Foster was flown to Washington D.C. that July so that she could study the aliens spinal cord. Why the military did not have their own experts on the human spinal chord at Walter Reed hospital or some other institute nearby is hard to understand? Considering the vast amount of highly specialized medical staffs on the east coast in 1947, it is amazing that Dr. Foster, an apparent unknown running a small practice on the west coast, was the only person qualified to examine aliens in 1947.

Researching this story is not that easy. A quick search of selected newspapers revealed nobody by this name. I also could find no medical references on the web but my search is probably incomplete. However, one would think that somebody so skilled and respected would have written a few medical articles on the human spine somewhere that would show up. That does not mean she did not exist or was not a doctor. Perhaps the name is misspelled (since we have two different spellings in two different books). However, I am questioning her credentials because we are not provided any by Schmitt and Carey. Perhaps the name of the clinic she ran would be worth noting or her qualifications as a doctor. Was she just a general practitioner or some sort of specialist? Again, we are not given any details to follow-up. It is almost as if they do not want to give details because it might be revealed that she was not qualified to perform such an examination.

Schmitt and Carey do provide us with a little bit of information of what Dr. Foster learned:

Dr. Foster was asked to examine the spinal canal that protects the spinal cord itself. Of special interest were the spinal nerves that carry impulses to move muscles or carry information to the brain from the sense organs in the skin, muscles, ligaments, and internal organs. Dr. Foster observed differences in the number of vertebra, not so much with bone structure, but the absence of specific internal organs. She did not elaborate further. (Carey and Schmitt Witness 143-4)

This sounds a lot like a detailed medical summary of some kind. One might think that Schmitt and Carey stumbled across her notes or diary but that is not where such detail information came from. It comes from an interview with the unnamed son of the good doctor's unnamed housekeeper! Exactly what medical knowledge did the housekeeper have and how was he/she able to convey it in such detail to his/her offspring. Not surprisingly, the names are anonymous. Schmitt and Carey present all this as some sort of proven fact when it is little more than a wild rumor or tall tale told third-hand over five decades after the event!

Pocket aces!

Near the end of the book, Schmitt and Carey introduce second hand testimony of two decorated WWII veterans that were highly successful in their military careers. At first glance it looks convincing but, when examined skeptically, the testimony begins to look weaker. The major problem is that it is not the personal testimony of the pilots in question and it comes from the family members recalling stories that these men told late in their lives before they died.

The first individual is Meyers Wahnee, who was a B-24 pilot during WWII. He was also a full-blooded Commanche Indian. In 1947, we are told (without any confirming documentation) that Captain Wahnee was a security officer stationed in Fort Simmons, Colorado. At the time of the Roswell incident, Wahnee was ordered from Colorado to Roswell so that he could oversee the shipment of a wooden crate to Fort Worth aboard a B-29. This story he revealed to his family in the last year of his life (he died on July 4, 1982). We hear the story from his daughter Blanche. Apparently, Waynee was selected because of his Native-American heritage. According to Crary and Schmitt,

During WWII, Native Americans were often utilized in situations that required the implementation of extreme security, the thought being that Native Americans could be trusted to keep their mouths shut. (Carey and Schmitt Witness 236)

It is true that Native-Americans were entrusted with secrets during the war but it was because they could transmit messages in their native language, which was difficult, if not impossible, for Japanese troops to decipher. It had nothing to do with them "keeping their mouths shut". This is another "myth" being presented as some sort of fact that the uniformed reader will be more than willing to believe.

One significant problem I discovered with this story has to do with the fact that Wahnee was stationed at "Fort Simmons, Colorado". I have yet to identify any army base named Fort Simmons in Colorado! The closest name has to do with Simmons AAF in North Carolina, which was named in 1955, and a Fort Simmons that existed during the Civil War near Washington D.C.. I realize that a lot of bases have closed since 1947 but I could find no reference to a Fort Simmons in Colorado or any other state in the on-line databases of former military bases! It appeared that the base did not exist until I asked for assistance from others. Bruce Hutchinson stumbled across a transcript where a veteran described being based at Fort Simmons army hospital in Denver. A more thorough look revealed that there is a Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Aurora, Colorado, which is a suburb of Denver. So, there appears to be a confusion among older veterans in the actual name of the hospital. This indicates that Wahnee may have been stationed at Fitzsimons army hospital in July 1947 and not some mythical "Fort Simmons" there is no reference to anywhere. Fitzsimons was not a real military base but a hospital being used for wounded troops recovering from their wounds in battle. Wahnee was a POW during the last year of the war and may have had injuries that he needed to recover from, which would explain his being stationed there. The bottom line is that Schmitt and Carey never bothered to check up on this.

Another problem with the story is that it has changed in less than a decade. In 1999, Schmitt and Carey wrote an article for the International UFO Reporter documenting their findings up to that point. The pertinent section reads:

We are in contact with the family of the late Meyers Wahnee, who was a pilot and air crew commander of the 714th Bomb Squadron, 448th Bomb Group. His picture is stamped on the back, "Official Photo, Air Force Photo Services, Roswell, New Mexico." The "Chief," as he was called, told his family of the 1947 Roswell events during the last year of his life (he died in 1981). He told them that the incident was true and that he was involved. He said that there were three separate sites. Bodies were found and first flown to Texas. Of special interest to us here, besides his mention of a third site, is his testimony to his wife and two children about "decomposing body parts" found among the debris at the Foster ranch. "It really happened," he told them. We can speculate that he felt free to talk about the events in 1981 because Roswell had become widely known. (Carey and Schmitt Mack)

So, in 1999, Wahnee was stationed at Roswell (or it is implied as such) and he saw decomposing bodies. Now in 2007, he is flown in as a security officer and the bodies are already sealed up. The idea that the 714th bomber squadron was stationed at Roswell is completely incorrect as it was not part of the 509th Bomb group (the 715th did transfer from the 448th to the 509th but not the 714th). It appears that Schmitt and Carey have not researched a lot of what has been told to them very well. Either Schmitt and Carey misunderstood details they were told or the person in the family who is telling this story is just not reliable.

The story about him being a "top-tier security officer" (Carey and Schmitt Witness 203) also makes little sense. First, if he were a top-level security officer, he would not be stationed at an army hospital (assuming this is where he was in 1947) but someplace important. Second, Wahnee was a pilot at wars end and had just be sent home after 435 days captivity. Following a recovery period, he probably would have been sent back to piloting, which is what he eventually did do (he flew in the Korean war). He may have served as a officer in charge of security as he awaited reassignment as a pilot. This would not make him a "top-tier" but just a "temporary". I am sure he would have done this job well but it does not mean he was the first guy somebody would call if they wanted to transport alien bodies. What was wrong with the officers at Roswell? Weren't they trustworthy enough? Flying in a junior officer from Colorado just expanded the number of people who needed to know (oops there is that "need to know" excuse again)! Additionally, the flight described appears to be the infamous crate flight (the one that "made history") yet none of the witnesses, who have come forward, ever mention a full-blooded Indian officer being on the airplane in their original testimonies. One would think that he would have stood out and such a detail would have been remembered. There is not one bit of concrete evidence presented to suggest that Capt. Wahnee ever took a flight from Colorado to Roswell.

The second individual is Marine Lt. Col. Marion Magruder, who was the Commanding officer of a night fighter squadron stationed in Okinawa towards the end of the war. Some individuals have mistakenly referred to Magruder as an ace but he was not as that requires five confirmed kills. I am sure that Magruder was an excellent fighter pilot but would be offended by being referred to something he was not. Magruder's brush with Roswell occurs when he was attending the Air War College at Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama. According to Schmitt/Carey, the class was supposed to last from July 1947 to June 1948. Shortly after starting the class, the entire group was flown up to Wright field to offer their opinion on an "urgent matter". There they examined the Roswell debris and saw the lone surviving alien in captivity at Wright field. Magruder's sons told this story based on what their father told them in the 1980s and 90s.

What was the purpose of flying a Marine light colonel up to Wright field? What expert "opinion" could he offer that was not offered by the experts of the Foreign Technology division there? Additionally, what was the "need to know" (oops there it is again) for a class of students at the Air War College? This has to be the worst "best-kept" secret ever. It seems like everyone that was in the military in 1947 was invited to examine the debris and aliens.

One significant problem I note with the story as told is that the class for the Air War College 1947-48 did not start until September and not in July. The first class started in September 1946 and graduated in June 1947. One would expect that the same would occur for the second class. This appears to be verified by the following statement about one of the graduates of the 1947-8 class in the Nevada State Journal of June 8, 1948:

Col. Dale O. Smith, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Smith 229 Maple St. Reno. has been graduated from the Air War College, highest ranking air force school at Air University, at Maxwell field, Ala.

The course that Col. Smith completed began in September 1947 and was the second given at the school.("Smith" 6)

Therefore, it would have been unlikely for the entire class to have seen the events in question. I am not certain as to the reporting time prior to the class starting but if it is anything like my Naval career, two-three weeks would have been the normal for the usual administrative tasks being taken care of prior to the class starting. To give credence to this story, Schmitt and Carey could have provided us with written documentation showing Magruder was stationed there in mid-July 1947. So far all they have shown was a class photograph. They don't show any documentation to suggest that the classes were canceled for a time period in July so that the class could go to Wright field and they do not show that classes were even active in July 1947. They also do not show any evidence of a flight going from Alabama to Wright Field during that time period. Lastly, they never bothered to talk to any surviving class members or their families. If they did, they did not mention it. They probably would have received a negative response, which they would have interpreted the way they interpreted all negative responses.

September 2008: Recently, Kevin Randle, and others, have questioned my checking of the class dates for the 1947-1948 Air War College class. In an effort to be open, I did not alter the commentary of Magruder above and, instead, addressed the issue in the Magruder addendum at the bottom of this page.

These stories about the "pocket aces" are not so credible if examined closely. The second hand nature of the testimony is suspect since those telling the story are repeating what they heard years before with the potential for important details being altered, forgotten, or confabulated. Not surprisingly, Schmitt and Carey offer no supporting evidence that can support the claims being made and, apparently, made no effort to do so. They simple expect everyone to accept these stories as facts, which they are not.

Frontier justice

One of the remaining contentious witnesses from the 1990s was Frankie Rowe, who bawled her way into Roswellite's hearts. Her story about the goon squad threatening her family immediately made her a sympathetic figure that had to be believed. However, when her story was checked by Karl Pflock and Stanton Friedman, they could not verify it. Records for the fire department did not show a trip outside of town and none of the firemen still alive could remember such a trip involving a crashed alien spaceship. Despite these problems, excuses were made to allow for her testimony to stand as part of the Roswell legend.

At the time, one would have thought the investigators would have presented her the Roswell yearbook and see if she could identify the individual in question. This did not happen until Carey and Schmitt held a kangaroo court lineup in preparation to writing their book. Carey and Schmitt explain:

In researching Frankie Dwyer Rowe's story over the years, we followed the evidence trail to conclude that he MP who most likely confronted Frankie Rowe that day was a former Brooklyn, N.Y. policeman by the name of Arthur Philbin, who was a security officer with the 390th Air Service Squadron that was part of the 509th Bomb Group in 1947. Lt. Philbin, in addition to being tall and dark with wide shoulders , ran the guard house on the base and had a reputation of being an all-around tough guy....We also never mentioned his name to Frankie Dwyer Rowe...We knew that Lt. Philbin's picture was in the 1947 RAAF yearbook. He is shown on a page along with pictures of 16 other officers-enough for a line-up by any standard. We then made a photocopy of the pertinent page from the yearbook and mailed it to Frankie Dwyer Row with the simple question, "Do you recognize anyone on the enclosed page as the person who came to your house and threatened you back in 1947?" A few weeks later, we received an envelope in the mail bearing Frankie Rowe's return address. Inside the envelope was the folded, photocopied page that we had sent to her...There was simply a single circle drawn around one of the pictures--The picture of Lt. Arthur Philbin. (Carey and Schmitt Witness 171-2)

Sounds convincing but how good was the lineup? How many of the individuals LOOKED like Philbin? Were there any comments on the page about the persons name, place of origin, or duties? Of course, Rowe was able to look at the pictures for some time before making a selection without anyone else being present. This would be plenty of time for Rowe to figure out which person she was being asked to choose. These kinds of line-ups are discouraged by detectives and lawyers alike. It is too easy to prime the witness to pick the desired individual (i.e. placing a 6-foot suspect in the line-up with others who are significantly under 6-foot). As always, Schmitt and Carey do not provide the page Rowe circled in the book, which means we have to take their word they tried to be fair. Schmitt and Carey also tell us that Philbin was an "all-around tough guy" in order to vilify him further. They do not footnote this or tell us where they got that information. They could easily have just made it up. Lastly, Schmitt and Carey comment they wish they could have interviewed Philbin so they could turn the screws on him. Philbin conveniently died, unable to defend his name. The year of death is not given and one begins to wonder if Schmitt and Carey did not wait until Philbin died so they could smear his name without the need to confront him. This might explain why they waited over a decade to perform this little exercise. However, even if he were alive and did not do these things, his only defense would be to deny the things happened or that he did not remember. We already know how Schmitt and Carey interpret that response. Philbin would have faced a lose-lose situation no matter what he did. He now is cemented in Roswell legend as Frankie Rowe's devil. I find it amusing how Schmitt and Carey talk about people's rights being violated throughout the book. In this case, they did not even give Philbin a presumption of innocence. The only thing missing was the lynching party.

The never ending search for the "truth"

A decade ago, Schmittt lost his credibility when Kevin Randle pointed out that most of the errors discovered in their books was due to Schmitt's sloppy research. Additionally, his lies about his occupation and educational background, suggested that anything he wrote could not be considered accurate. In 1995, Kevin Randle wrote an open letter to many in UFOlogy, where he stated:

"...I do not believe anything that Schmitt says and neither should you...I'm not sure he understands the truth. And this has slipped into his research....If it is work he claims to have done himself, I have no confidence." (Klass 158)

Perhaps one needs to heed this warning when reading this book. Despite this, Schmitt has managed to recreate himself in the crashed spaceship proponents eyes. This book has been accepted as fact by many already despite not even questioning the techniques used or if they checked any specific details.

Don Schmitt and Tom Carey have presented us the truth as they see it. However, their version of the truth is nothing more than rumor and stories, that can't be checked, being presented as fact. Recall that Glenn Dennis, Gerald Anderson, Frank Kaufmann, and James Ragsdale were honest credible witnesses as well and swore that they were telling the truth. By rationalizing problems with their testimony, investigators allowed them to appear as star witnesses and contaminate the witness pool with lots of ideas for new stories. It took years for investigators to finally admit they were not so credible and their testimony was discarded. Like the mythical Hydra, which grew back a head (or two) when one was lopped off, new "credible" witnesses began to show up to fill the void left by the discredited ones. Are they any more "credible" than the discredited ones before them? What prevents these "new" witnesses from just repeating new versions of the tales previously told? It is these "astonishing eyewitness reports" that serve as the carrion of Roswell. They feed these sensationalist writings about crashed spaceships and alien bodies. One can expect more revelations from the vultures that continue to hover near the dying veterans of the 509th waiting for some vague utterance that they can twist around into another "undeniable truth".

Works cited

Anderson, Jack. "GAO probes Roswell incident". The Intelligencer. Doylestown, PA. May 31, 1995. P. A9

Berlitz, Charles and William Moore. The Roswell Incident. New York: Berkley, 1988

Carey, Thomas J. and Donald R. Schmitt.. Witness to Roswell. Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career Press, 2007.

Carey, Thomas J. and Donald R. Schmitt.. Mack Brazel reconsidered. Online. Internet. Available WWW: http://www.nicap.org/rosbraz.htm.

"Disc found near Roswell is weather balloon, kite." The Abilene Reporter-news. Abilene, Texas. July 9, 1947 P.1

Friedman, Stanton and Don Berlinner. Crash at Corona. New York: Marlowe & Company, 1997

Klass, Philip. The REAL Roswel Crashed Saucer Cover-up. Amherst: Prometheus, 1997.

Randle, Kevin. The Roswell Encyclopedia. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2000.

Randle, Kevin and Donald Schmitt. The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell. New York: Avon, 1994.

Rodden, Jack. "The Ranchers Son." UFO Magazine and Phenomena Report November, 1998: 30-31.

"Smith completes Air College course". Nevada State Journal. Reno, Nevada. June 6, 1948 P. 6

ADDENDUM TO THE MAGRUDER STORY

Recently Kevin Randle decided to take on my evaluation of the Magruder story in his Blog. While he does not mention me by name, I can't think of anybody else making the argument about the dates. He takes me to task for rejecting/dismissing Magruders testimony based solely on the start date for the Air War College class. If you look at what I wrote, I stated this was a significant problem that I thought I had discovered and provided a reference that suggested the start date for the class was in September 1947. However, I did not "reject" the testimony based solely on this item. Since nothing had been presented for the stories authenticity (other than a picture of a bunch of officers in front of a building), it gave reason to doubt/question the story as told.

Personally, I look at all these Roswell stories as tall tales until they are proven authentic, which is why I consider myself a skeptic. This is the opposite of what Schmitt and Carey did in their book. They accepted any story and published them with very little, if any, investigation. In this case, there is nothing that is presented to suggest the story is true. There were 96 other class members and not one said, on their deathbed or during their lives, that they saw an alien or even hinted at it. I guess the approach Randle suggests is that we are to accept the story of Magruder as possible simply because Don Schmitt and Tom Carey said so. This kind of thinking allowed Frank Kaufmann to tell his tall tales for over a decade. I leave it to the reader to figure out which approach is better.

Getting Back to the original issue, Randle's claim is that I "rushed to judgement" on poor Magruder. When I initially read the story and did a basic fact check, I saw that the air war college's first class had started in September 1946. To me it seemed logical that the second class would start at the same time. When I discovered the 1948 newspaper article, which was probably based on a press release issued from the school, I felt that was adequate to confirm my original assumption. My error was one of not continuing with this line of examination and verifying the information further. In an apparent attempt to demonstrate that Magruder was present at the Air War College in July 1947, Randle began to check up on my objection by examining USAF biographies listed on the internet. However, he only used three students at the Air War College for 1947-48 in his blog entry. All were different, with one listed as July, another August, and one was "Summer of 1947". When I read this, I was surprised because I was fairly confident about the September date. So, I used the search function on the USAF website and read Dr. Mowbray's history on the Air War College. I easily found 16 USAF officers who were present in the class. Unfortunately, the dates in these biographies did not resolve the issue entirely:

No specific month

Gabriel Disosway - He entered the Air War College at Maxwell Field, Ala., in 1947
Thomas Moorman - One year later he became air weather officer at Headquarters Army Air Forces and remained in that position until he entered the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
Dale O. Smith - From the summer of 1947 to the summer of 1948, Smith attended the Air War College as a student.

June

Richard A Grussendorf - He returned to the United States in June 1947 and entered the Air War College at Maxwell Field, Ala.

July

Kenneth B. Hobson - He entered the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in July 1947.
William M. Garland - General Garland entered the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in July 1947.
Karl Truesdell Jr. - Entering the Air War College in July 1947, General Truesdell graduated a year later...
Kenneth H. Gibson - He remained in that capacity until July 1947, when he attended the Air War College.
Ethelred Lundy Sykes - Entering the Air War College at Maxwell Field, Ala., in July 1947, he graduated the following June...

August

Hunter Harris - In August 1947, he entered the Air War College at Maxwell Field, Ala., graduating in June 1948.
John S. Hardy - In August 1947 he entered the second class of the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.,
Noel Francis Parrish - In August 1947 he entered the Air War College at Maxwell Field, graduated the following June
Edward N. Backus - In August 1947 Colonel Backus attended the Air War College,.....
Willard W. Smith - General Smith became a student at the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in August 1947...
Harvey Thompson Alness - Entering the Air War College at Maxwell Field, Ala., in August 1947, General Alness graduated the following year...

September

Gordon Harrison Austin - In September 1947, General Austin entered the Air War College at Maxwell Field, Ala., graduating in June 1948.

Many were listed as reporting in August 1947 or later. Some of the July and June dates could easily have been associated with when the officers left their previous commands and not when they actually arrived at Maxwell field. However, if the classes had started in July, why would so many officers be reported as starting in August and September? This seemed to be a good indicator the classes started in September and not July. Rechecking the biographies convinced me that my initial assessment was correct. However, I know now that these alone would not convince people wanting to believe the Magruder story because Randle has already displayed his trump card to demonstrate I was wrong.

In an effort to obtain more information, Tony Bragalia had contacted Dr. James Mowbray at the College, who had written a history on the subject. According to Randle, Dr. Mowbray stated he was sure that the classes were in session in July 1947. With that comment, Randle classified my research as "shoddy" (A term I used several times to describe his research in my articles about Roswell) because I did not call Dr. Mowbray or the Air War College. One thing worth mentioning is that Mowbray gave this information based on a phone call where he relied on his memory and not after an examination of any records. So it is possible that Dr. Mowbray could have been wrong.

I was taken aback when I saw Mowbray's answer but I still felt that what I had learned to date was correct. In order to try and resolve the issue, I decided to poke around some more on the subject of Magruder and the Air War College. I contacted the AWC alumni association believing they may have the records I was interested in because Randle stated the records office at Maxwell was being renovated and was unavailable. Instead of asking some obscure question about historical accuracy, I only asked for the commencement/graduation dates for the class of 1947-1948. Unfortunately, they just forwarded my email to the AFB records office, which is where Randle hit a wall on his request for similar information (at the time of this writing I am still waiting). However, before I could get the information and publish it on this web page, Randle made another post on his blog that revealed "the rest of the story".

Randle's new entry states the class DID start in September 1947 as I originally wrote! Somebody found Magruder's records and forwarded the information to Randle. They revealed that Magruder arrived in August 1947 just like most of the biographies indicated. However, more important was the revelation that Magruder apparently did not even attend the Air War College but the Air Command and Staff school (which also started in September 1947)! I had been trying to pursue this possibility when I read that Mowbray had written in his history that no Marines entered the Air War College until 1949. Additionally, the class photograph in Schmitt/Carey's book showed only 43 individuals in it. The class of 1947-48 at the Air War College had 97 students according to Mowbray. Alone, the number of people in the photograph meant little. However, coupled with Mowbray's note about the first Marines entering the air war college in 1949, indicated to me that there may have been confusion on what school he had been attending that year. Somebody also saw the note by Mowbray about the Marines and posted it in response to Randle's second blog entry (kudos to them for reading Mowbray's history). Of course, I have to wonder why these indicators were not noticed by Randle, and others, before he made his first Blog entry where he criticized my "shoddy" research.

The one thing I think is important to mention in all of this is that, had I not brought up the question about the class date, I don't think anybody would have bothered to even look into the story. Randle's original blog entry seemed more about proving a skeptic and "debunker" wrong than about checking to see if the story was true. Several Roswell proponents were blindly parroting the story (including Bragalia) told by Schmitt/Carey on the various Roswell web pages that populate the internet. Why did it take over a year for all these high-powered intellects to suddenly decide to check the story? Based on what Randle has stated, it did not take any great effort. I guess it only took a little motivation, possibly provided by this web page, to do so. If only Schmitt and Carey displayed that kind of initiative before they included this story in their book.

As I stated previously, Schmitt and Carey just print any story, no matter how wild or ridiculous and publish it as fact. If this story did not check out, what does it say for all the other stories in the book? Roswell proponents, eager to accept anything that supports their crashed spaceship scenario, should have listened to Randle's previous warnings about Schmitt's inability to conduct reliable research. As far as I am concerned, the Magruder tale has now been shown to be very unlikely and probably never happened. Meanwhile, all the Roswell proponents should heed Kevin Randle's words before believing any testimony regarding crashed alien spaceships at Roswell, "Isn’t (it) time for us to stop embracing every tale we are told that appeals to us simply because it appeals to us?"