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From: campbell@ufomind.com (Glenn Campbell, Las Vegas) Date: Tue, 1 Jul 1997 18:22:43 -0800 Subject: Alien faithful land in Roswell for UFO anniversary |
Alien faithful land in Roswell for UFO anniversary fest... By Kieran Murray ROSWELL, N.M., July 1 (Reuter) - Thousands of UFO buffs, researchers and alien watchers gathered here on Tuesday for a UFO extravaganza marking the 50th anniversary of the most famous of all alleged alien landings on Earth. Organisers said between 60,000 and 100,000 people would arrive over the next six days to swap stories of alien encounters and dissect the ``evidence'' they believe shows that an alien spacecraft crashed near this ranching town on or around July 4, 1947, and that its dead occupants were taken away for autopsies and testing by Air Force scientists. Bidding to quash the Roswell conspiracy theories, the Air Force last week issued a comprehensive report dismantling details of the alleged extraterrestrial landing. It said the wreckage found in a field 75 miles (120 km) northwest of here was in fact that of a high-altitude balloon used in the military's top-secret ``Project Mogul'' to detect Soviet nuclear tests at the start of the Cold War. Eyewitnesses who said they saw dead aliens loaded into body bags at another site and spoke to people who carried out autopsies on the creatures may have confused them with Air Force dummies used to test high altitude parachutes in the area, the Air Force said. The so-called Roswell Incident has drawn huge interest in recent years with the release of the ``Independence Day'' movie, the ``X-Files'' television series and fake alien-autopsy videos focusing on the events of July 1947. Few believe the military report has undermined the Roswell mystique for those who believe intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe and this city of 50,000 people in southeast New Mexico has geared up for a tourist invasion. The report has been ridiculed by UFO believers, and the few remaining ``witnesses'' insist their stories are true. ``I know what I saw,'' said Frank Kaufmann, now 81, who was working at the Roswell Army Air Field in July 1947 when he was sent out to see what had crashed into a dry river bed north of town. ``Seeing those bodies and the craft made me realise we're not alone in this vast universe.'' He said he got a close look at two dead aliens, one in the wreckage and another slumped against a rock wall in the dry river bed, and that those two and three more were taken away in body bags. Kaufmann does not appear to be crazy and has little time for many of the zanier alien buffs who claim they have been abducted by little green men or even impregnated by extraterrestrial visitors. ``There is a lot of crap in all this,'' Kaufmann said. ``These people who claim they've been abducted by aliens, it's so transfixed in their minds, they fantasize it and there's no way you can budge them.'' Max Littel, an 80-year-old local businessman who has researched the alleged landing, said the Air Force report insults the intelligence of local residents because the parachute dummies were not used in the area until the late 1950s, a full decade after the incident. ``It's the Woodstock of 1997. The U.S. government's effort to deep-six this with this release of another absurd explanation just adds gasoline to the fire,'' said Linda Molton Howe, a reporter who researches UFO sightings. Alien dolls, T-shirts, cookies, bottled water and 50th anniversary commemorative coins are on sale and thousands of people are expected to visit three separate sites where the spacecraft or its debris came down. The ``Roswell UFO Encounter '97'' also boasts a film festival, a rock concert, laser shows, ``Alien Chase'' foot races and a soapbox derby of homemade alien vessels. 12:34 07-01-97 [Via CloudRider@aol.com]
Ufomind Index: Roswell Crash 50th Anniversary Celebration - July 1997
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