I will be honest: it hurts my feelings when people attribute the Roswell incident to Project Mogul.
We know this: Something crashed in the desert outside Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. After he found a large amount of metallic debris on his property that July, a rancher named Mac Brazel delivered it to the Roswell sheriff, who contacted the Air Force. Upon seeing the material, Colonel William Blanchard — a decorated airman, then-commander of the Roswell Army Air Field — authorized a press release announcing the Air Force capture of a flying saucer, prompting the Roswell Daily Record to publish the headline “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.” (I own a reprint of this edition — purchased, of course, at AlienCon.)
That story was “debunked” within hours: Blanchard’s higher-up, Brigadier General Roger Ramey, dismissed his report, and called the found object a “weather balloon.” (Just like all those things we shot down with F-22s earlier this year!)
Widespread interest in Roswell as a government conspiracy didn’t gather much steam until the 1970s/1980s, after the ufologist Stanton Friedman interviewed Jesse Marcel, who first brought the material to Blanchard. In a 1978 interview, Marcel (by then, 70/71 years old) told Friedman the balloon story was a cover for the recovered material, which he believed to be extraterrestrial. (Chills!) From there Marcel embarked on a press tour, talking to the National Enquirer and a TV show called “In Search Of…” Years later, Jesse’s son said he saw the strange alien debris himself when his father brought it home in 1947.
(Side note: I’m very fond of Jesse Marcel. He died at the age of 76, while reading a book about UFOs. I named my new novel’s protagonist after him. :’))
The Roswell story grew from there. Some versions of the story reference alien bodies recovered at the scene, and though I LOVE that idea, Marcel, at least, denied it. (This is also where the famous “Alien Autopsy” video hoax comes in!) For all the wildest claims, I can’t recommend Witness to Roswell highly enough. One of the funniest books I’ve ever read. You can also spend days on the Roswell Wikipedia page; I sure have!)
Things took a turn for the miserly in 1994, when the Air Force released a report stating the Roswell incident did involve a cover-up — not of aliens, but a very special, very large… balloon. This was Project Mogul, and the details bore me to tears, which one could argue means they’re likely true: Project Mogul was a top-secret Air Force project designed to detect sound waves from Soviet atomic bomb tests. Uggghhhhh.
Per the report, one such balloon crashed in New Mexico 1947; because it was top-secret, neither Blanchard nor Marcel would have known what it was. In order to quell the national interest prompted by their too-hasty press release, the Air Force dismissed the debris as parts of an ordinary weather ballon. Any “bodies” recovered were crash dummies. Case (allegedly) closed. (But not for me!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I bring this up because I was recently annoyed by a Wired headline reading “Here’s the Proof There’s No Government Alien Conspiracy Around Roswell.” The story is one of many recent press placements for Garrett M. Graff, author of a new book called UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here―and Out There, which I guess I will need to read, even though it’s 544 pages. That said, I take real umbrage with Graff’s conclusions that : a) the Project Mogul explanation should be accepted at face-value and b) Roswell couldn’t possibly involve aliens, because in 1950, a few Manhattan Project scientists had a lunchtime chat about the statistical improbability of aliens having visited Earth, and if Roswell did involve aliens, these scientists would have known about it (???).
Project Mogul is, I concede, a plausible-to-probable explanation. But I find it… unimaginative (and ANNOYING) to just accept the official government story, especially when its own authors admit to… lying! (Did we not all read the JFK story in New York magazine??) I just CAN’T let this be all there is to this story!
Part of what makes Roswell so endurably appealing to me is its oldness — it predates cell phones and (most) computers; the agencies involved communicated by telegram. (Real Roswell heads are familiar with the Ramey Memo, which might — or might not — reference “victims” of the Roswell crash.) And yet, 1947 feels very much within arm’s reach. Years ago, I attended a Minnesota MUFON meeting, hoping for story inspiration. I was struck by the relative elderliness of the average attendee, as I’ve been at similar events since. I doubt it’s coincidental that people who were alive in 1947 are overrepresented among UFO adherents; over the last decade, of course, that number has dwindled. Before too long, there won’t be anyone left who was alive when something crashed in Roswell. That makes me sad.
Let me know if you’ve read the Graff book, or have other Roswell-related reads to recommend. (Not Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen one though, please. If I’m going to read a wildly speculative book about UFOs, I want it to at least be fun.)
Odds & Ends
I would give anything to be able to attend the Fort Scott Community College’s Bigfoot Christmas play in three parts. (Part 2: “Santa ‘Claws’ is Coming to Town” was performed last night. Part 3, “All I Want for Christmas is Bigfoot’s Teeth,” is forthcoming. Stay tuned!)
The plot of Part 1, as described by theater director Allen Twitchell, is as follows: “In part one of the trilogy, ‘A Very Hairy Christmas,’ Bigfoot is pursued by the dreaded Darth Hunter and his henchmen, Dim and Dimmer, but with the aid of three youngsters and an ace reporter, he escapes the clutches of the evil villain and learns the story of Christmas and then everybody sings.”
Twitchell came up with the trilogy because “at my previous academic place of employment, the costume closet contained an idle Bigfoot costume.”
Actually, I am obsessed with this Twitchell guy. “The theater provides a palatable platform from which to confront social issues and hopefully inspire positive change. Also, the community supports us with their tax dollars and we want to give back in the form of inexpensive (free) entertainment options.” What a sweetie! Also: “If this doesn’t sound like fun to you, just come for the candy.” I love him.
xo
Katie