Roswell Dig Diaries

Introduction: Digging Up the Truth by Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. SchmittThe alleged Roswell UFO crash of 1947 remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century, if not in the annals of history. Something truly extraordinary crashed on an isolated ranch in central New Mexico, and after fifty-plus years the high desert country still protects its secrets. We know that fact better than anyone, thanks to what transpired within days of the initial event.The U.S. military went to extreme lengths to conceal its own concern as well as the true nature of the strange wreckage. An official press release, dated July 8, 1947, verified the Army Air Force's recovery of a flying disc, as UFOs were then called, near the sleepy desert town of Roswell, New Mexico. Later the same day, that astonishing claim was retracted by the military, and the unknown object was said to have been nothing more than a common weather balloon device. And so the secret was kept intact as the prevailing desert winds resumed inexorably over the silent, vacant ranchland.But behind the scenes, the government was using all available means, legal and illegal, to quash media interest in "the story of the millennium." The crash site was cordoned off from all outsiders, including the press, and every shred of evidence was retrieved. But time has a way of mitigating such extreme efforts, and the ultimate proof still remains. That is, of course, if one is willing to look for it.The cover-up was executed with such dispatch and precision that the Roswell Incident, as it is now generally referred to, was thought to have been effectively contained and relegated to the "Silly Season" file. But no secret, especially a government secret, is safe these days, and Roswell is no exception. This fact became quite evident when former Roswell base intelligence officer Major Jesse A. Marcel decided to reveal his role in those long-ago events. "It was nothing made on this earth," he declared. The truth was beginning to emerge.This was the very first indication that the original press release stating that a crashed UFO had been "captured" was the correct one. Additional witnesses would soon be located or come forward, and a new version of what transpired at Roswell in 1947 began to peel away the layers of a cover-up. One of the incident's most puzzling aspects was why the military in Roswell would continue to detain ranch foreman W. W. "Mack" Brazel for days after the balloon story had been accepted by the press as the alternative explanation. After all, it was Brazel who had originally alerted Marcel and others to the massive amount of unusual wreckage on a remote ranch seventy-five miles northwest of Roswell. And it was his son, Bill Brazel Jr., who, upon learning of Mack's fate, rushed from his home and new bride in Albuquerque to the ranch and filled in for his absent father. Not only would Bill Jr. discover the heavy vehicle tracks left behind by the military during the cleanup, but he would also become a firsthand eyewitness to one of the most striking pieces of evidence that still intrigues researchers of the Roswell story today: a 500-foot gouge, starting at the upper northwest pinnacle of the debris field site, where something had impacted the surface of the hard desert terrain.After his father's return, Bill Brazel Jr. would continue to help out on the ranch. During this period, he fortuitously found several small pieces of the wreckage scattered nearby, but not buried. His descriptions of what he found were consistent with those of Major Marcel. Unfortunately, when the military found out two years later about the "scraps" that Bill Jr. was keeping in a cigar box, air force officers from Roswell went to his home and confiscated everything. Nevertheless, the fact that pieces of wreckage were found after the military recovery operation at the crash site implies that more debris may still exist around tSci Fi Network Staff is the author of 'Roswell Dig Diaries' with ISBN 9780743486125 and ISBN 0743486129.