The Roswell Incident: Conspiracy Or Cockamamie?
The Roswell Incident: Conspiracy or Cockamamie? A closer look at Project Mogul. COM/172
The Roswell Incident: Conspiracy or Cockamamie? A closer look at Project Mogul. In early July of 1947, most likely around July 4th or 5th, something crashed to the Earth in the high desert of eastern New Mexico (Carey & SChmitt, 2009). Mac Brazel, a ranch hand on the J.B. Foster ranch, went to check on his sheep one morning after a series of severe thunderstorms. He was concerned about the wellbeing of his cattle because he heard a very loud explosion the night before during the storm. Upon riding out to the pastures, Brazel discovered a huge amount of strange debris scattered across the fields. Not knowing what this strange debris was, Brazel gathered some of it and showed it to his friends …show more content…
and neighbors. No one seemed to know what to do or this strange debris was, so he eventually contacted the County Sheriff’s office. The Sheriff’s office, not wanting to be bothered, and suspecting that the debris came from some kind of government Air Force testing, contacted the Roswell Army Air Field for assistance. The Air Force quickly sent personnel to interview Brazel, and they asked him to escort them to the site of the debris. Brazel escorted Major Jesse Marcel, and two Counterintelligence Corps Agents, Captain Sheridan Cavitt and Sargent Lewis Rickett to the site of the debris. Upon inspecting the debris, the Air Force quickly sent teams out into the desert to gather, and clean it up. They also interrogated Brazel for several days, and held him captive at the base. On July 8, 1947 the United States Air Force held a press conference and announced to the world that they had “captured” a flying saucer. Hours later, the Air Force held another press conference, and they retracted their statement. The Air Force was now claiming that what they found was not a flying saucer but in fact, a misidentified weather balloon. For just under 50 years, this was the official explanation for what happened just outside of Roswell in 1947. Most people did not believe the government’s story. There was always talk of a government cover-up. People still firmly believed that an unidentified flying object or “flying saucer” had been what really crashed that day. Then, in 1994 the Air Force finally admitted that they lied in 1947 with the weather balloon explanation. Now they were saying that what really crashed that day was a high altitude contraption made up of multiple balloons, radar devices, and microphones, belonging to a special project- Project Mogul. Project Mogul was a top secret Air Force project from 1947-1949. Its main purpose was to detect sound waves from large distances. The Air Force hoped to use Project Mogul to be able to spy on the Soviet Union, and pick up any evidence of atomic bomb testing. This project was mildly successful but was extremely expensive. The government soon discontinued use of the Project Mogul devices in favor of cheaper and more efficient spying methods. Project Mogul was created by Dr. Maurice Ewing, who got the idea from studying how sound waves travel in the ocean. The project included arrays of balloons carrying microphones and transmitters that would relay signals to the ground. Project Mogul was built out of basically the same materials as a common weather balloon. It was made up of prosaic rubber balloons, tin foil radar targets, and balsa wood struts. It also contained microphones, and various other types of basic electronic equipment that were easy to pick up at the local store. These are things that any good Air Force officer should have been able to identify readily, without any problems. The debris found in the desert crash site was very unusual.
According to several witnesses, there was a strange foil type metal that when bent or crinkled, would resume its original shape. Some people said that it was almost fluid like in the way that it retracted back to its original form. There was also some kind of light weight wood, which could not be broken, or burned, despite many people trying to do so. Also found, were strange metal beams that had some kind of undecipherable hieroglyphics written on them, in a purple “ink,” rubber strips, and some kind of paper like substance. How could these things be identified as a mere weather balloon? Another thing to think about is the size of the debris itself. The debris found by Mac Brazel spead across approximately 15 acres of land. It would take four of the Project Mogul balloon arrays to crash and shred in the same general area in order to cover 15 acres of space. This makes it very improbably that the debris outside of Roswell was, in fact, a weather balloon or, any relative of a weather
balloon. Major Jesse Marcel was the officer who identified the debris as a flying saucer. Major Marcel attended the Army Air Force Intelligence School in 1942, and upon graduating, was invited to be a member of the school’s faculty, which is an honor bestowed only to the most talented students. After Intelligence School, Marcel was designated as and S-2 Intelligence Officer. His duties were to assess and report enemy activity in the Philippines. After that he was assigned to the 509th Composite Bomb Group in Nevada as their S-2 Intelligence Officer. The 509th Composite Bomb Group was a handpicked group made up of some of the best officers in the field. Upon his return from this, he then enrolled in radar school in Langley, Virginia. There he studied radar technology and became an expert on state-of-the-art radar devices of the time. Given his vast training and familiarity with the technology of the day, the assertion made by some that Major Jesse Marcel confused a radar target (such as the ones used in Project Mogul) for a flying saucer is ludicrous. In actuality, what crashed in the desert that faithful day in 1947 may never be known. All of the evidence that is known just raises more questions than it provides answers. One thing should be certain though, given that the debris found at the crash site was nowhere near comparable to that of Project Mogul, the expertise of Major Jesse Marcel, and the countless witness testimonies on the subject, it was not a weather balloon, nor was it Project Mogul.
Resources Books: Marcel, J., & Marcel, L. (2009). The roswell legacy. Franklin Lakes: The Career Press, Inc. Carey , T. J., & SChmitt, D. R. (2009). Witness to roswell . (2 ed., Vol. 1). Pompton Plains, NJ 07444: Career Press. Saler, B., Ziegler, C., & Moore, C. (1997). Ufo crash at roswell: the genesis of a modern myth. The Smithsonian Institution. Korff, K. K. (1997). The roswell ufo crash, what they don't want you to know. Pflock, K. (2001). Roswell inconvenient facts and the will to believe. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
Articles: Raaf captures flying saucer on ranch in roswell region. (1947, July 08). The Roswell Daily Record, p. 1.
The Roswell Incident: Conspiracy or Cockamamie? A closer look at Project Mogul. In early July of 1947, most likely around July 4th or 5th, something crashed to the Earth in the high desert of eastern New Mexico (Carey & SChmitt, 2009). Mac Brazel, a ranch hand on the J.B. Foster ranch, went to check on his sheep one morning after a series of severe thunderstorms. He was concerned about the wellbeing of his cattle because he heard a very loud explosion the night before during the storm. Upon riding out to the pastures, Brazel discovered a huge amount of strange debris scattered across the fields. Not knowing what this strange debris was, Brazel gathered some of it and showed it to his friends …show more content…
and neighbors. No one seemed to know what to do or this strange debris was, so he eventually contacted the County Sheriff’s office. The Sheriff’s office, not wanting to be bothered, and suspecting that the debris came from some kind of government Air Force testing, contacted the Roswell Army Air Field for assistance. The Air Force quickly sent personnel to interview Brazel, and they asked him to escort them to the site of the debris. Brazel escorted Major Jesse Marcel, and two Counterintelligence Corps Agents, Captain Sheridan Cavitt and Sargent Lewis Rickett to the site of the debris. Upon inspecting the debris, the Air Force quickly sent teams out into the desert to gather, and clean it up. They also interrogated Brazel for several days, and held him captive at the base. On July 8, 1947 the United States Air Force held a press conference and announced to the world that they had “captured” a flying saucer. Hours later, the Air Force held another press conference, and they retracted their statement. The Air Force was now claiming that what they found was not a flying saucer but in fact, a misidentified weather balloon. For just under 50 years, this was the official explanation for what happened just outside of Roswell in 1947. Most people did not believe the government’s story. There was always talk of a government cover-up. People still firmly believed that an unidentified flying object or “flying saucer” had been what really crashed that day. Then, in 1994 the Air Force finally admitted that they lied in 1947 with the weather balloon explanation. Now they were saying that what really crashed that day was a high altitude contraption made up of multiple balloons, radar devices, and microphones, belonging to a special project- Project Mogul. Project Mogul was a top secret Air Force project from 1947-1949. Its main purpose was to detect sound waves from large distances. The Air Force hoped to use Project Mogul to be able to spy on the Soviet Union, and pick up any evidence of atomic bomb testing. This project was mildly successful but was extremely expensive. The government soon discontinued use of the Project Mogul devices in favor of cheaper and more efficient spying methods. Project Mogul was created by Dr. Maurice Ewing, who got the idea from studying how sound waves travel in the ocean. The project included arrays of balloons carrying microphones and transmitters that would relay signals to the ground. Project Mogul was built out of basically the same materials as a common weather balloon. It was made up of prosaic rubber balloons, tin foil radar targets, and balsa wood struts. It also contained microphones, and various other types of basic electronic equipment that were easy to pick up at the local store. These are things that any good Air Force officer should have been able to identify readily, without any problems. The debris found in the desert crash site was very unusual.
According to several witnesses, there was a strange foil type metal that when bent or crinkled, would resume its original shape. Some people said that it was almost fluid like in the way that it retracted back to its original form. There was also some kind of light weight wood, which could not be broken, or burned, despite many people trying to do so. Also found, were strange metal beams that had some kind of undecipherable hieroglyphics written on them, in a purple “ink,” rubber strips, and some kind of paper like substance. How could these things be identified as a mere weather balloon? Another thing to think about is the size of the debris itself. The debris found by Mac Brazel spead across approximately 15 acres of land. It would take four of the Project Mogul balloon arrays to crash and shred in the same general area in order to cover 15 acres of space. This makes it very improbably that the debris outside of Roswell was, in fact, a weather balloon or, any relative of a weather
balloon. Major Jesse Marcel was the officer who identified the debris as a flying saucer. Major Marcel attended the Army Air Force Intelligence School in 1942, and upon graduating, was invited to be a member of the school’s faculty, which is an honor bestowed only to the most talented students. After Intelligence School, Marcel was designated as and S-2 Intelligence Officer. His duties were to assess and report enemy activity in the Philippines. After that he was assigned to the 509th Composite Bomb Group in Nevada as their S-2 Intelligence Officer. The 509th Composite Bomb Group was a handpicked group made up of some of the best officers in the field. Upon his return from this, he then enrolled in radar school in Langley, Virginia. There he studied radar technology and became an expert on state-of-the-art radar devices of the time. Given his vast training and familiarity with the technology of the day, the assertion made by some that Major Jesse Marcel confused a radar target (such as the ones used in Project Mogul) for a flying saucer is ludicrous. In actuality, what crashed in the desert that faithful day in 1947 may never be known. All of the evidence that is known just raises more questions than it provides answers. One thing should be certain though, given that the debris found at the crash site was nowhere near comparable to that of Project Mogul, the expertise of Major Jesse Marcel, and the countless witness testimonies on the subject, it was not a weather balloon, nor was it Project Mogul.
Resources Books: Marcel, J., & Marcel, L. (2009). The roswell legacy. Franklin Lakes: The Career Press, Inc. Carey , T. J., & SChmitt, D. R. (2009). Witness to roswell . (2 ed., Vol. 1). Pompton Plains, NJ 07444: Career Press. Saler, B., Ziegler, C., & Moore, C. (1997). Ufo crash at roswell: the genesis of a modern myth. The Smithsonian Institution. Korff, K. K. (1997). The roswell ufo crash, what they don't want you to know. Pflock, K. (2001). Roswell inconvenient facts and the will to believe. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
Articles: Raaf captures flying saucer on ranch in roswell region. (1947, July 08). The Roswell Daily Record, p. 1.