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From: UFO UpDates - Toronto <updates@globalserve.net>
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 10:58:37 -0400
Fwd Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 10:58:37 -0400
Subject: 'Roswell-- Anatomy of A Myth' - Part 5/6




Part Five.

A Remarkable Resemblance

During the sessions in Washington, D.C., the professional
illustrator who was present drew a very accurate depiction of
what Jesse, Jr., remembered -- the "I-beam-like" member with the
symbols on it. After learning what a good recollection of the
symbols Newton had, I arranged for him to work with he same
illustrator so that we might have side-by-side sketches from the
same perspective for comparison.

As it turned out, the resemblance between the two sketches was
remarkable. Even the artist commented that "it sure seemed like
these two men were describing the same thing." Probably most
amazing was the closeness of the color that the two men
remembered. Other than Newton's color being more faded, the
colors are nearly identical.

The most significant discrepancy was the way the slight ridges on
the upper and lower edges gave Jesse's beam the appearance of an
I-beam-like cross section. This was probably due to a slight
error in Jesse's recollection. His father, for example,
remembered the small members as having a rectangular cross
section. In a 1979 interview with journalist Bob Pratt, Jesse
Marcel, Sr., stated, "...it was a solid member, rectangular
members, just like you get with a square stick." It is entirely
possible, however, that the particular member that Jesse, Jr.,
held, could have had a ridge on its edges for some unknown reason.

The only other really significant discrepancy was in the color of
the member. Jesse remembered it being about the same color as
that of the foil-like material, while Irving Newton remembered it
being almost white. Judging from the pictures taken in Ramey's
office, however, the white that Newton recalled was probably
accurate. According to Charles Moore, the project engineer for
"Project Mogul," the sticks were covered with glue or glue-like
substance. This would probably have given them a different color
than that of raw wood, as well as a different feel or texture --
probably to the degree that someone who didn't know what they
were, might not recognize them as wood. The only other
discrepancies were minor, such as differences in the size and
spacing of the symbols.

For anyone who suspects that Irving Newton is participating in a
50-year coverup and making up the story about the symbols or
flower patterns, all he needs to do is check out the July 9,
1947, Roswell Daily Record. Rancher Mac Brazel is quoted as
talking about sticks, foil, and tape with flower patterns on it.


The Alleged Substitution

Most of us have seen the now-famous pictures of the debris from
Roswell taken in General Roger Ramey's office at Fort Worth Army
Air Field. General Ramey, Colonel Thomas Dubose, Major Jesse
Marcel, and Warrant Officer Irving Newton appear in the pictures,
posing with the debris. The debris is clearly visible in all
seven existing pictures. There is absolutely no question that
this is the debris from an ML-307 radar reflector. If this is the
same debris that was recovered from the Foster ranch, then the
Roswell case is closed, period. It's over, end of subject.

In the January 1991 issue of the MUFON UFO Journal, there is an
article by Jaime Shandera titled "New Revelations About the
Roswell Wreckage: a General Speaks Up." The article included an
extensive two-part interview with General Thomas Dubose, who was
a colonel and General Ramey's chief of staff in 1947. Dubose met
the plane carrying the material picked up outside of Roswell and
personally took it to Ramey's office. During the first of the two
interviews, Shandera realized that General Dubose was not
familiar with and had not seen the pictures taken of the debris
in Ramey's office. Shandera then sent Dubose a set of the
pictures, prior to conducting the second interview.

Throughout the two interviews, Shandera questioned Dubose with
the doggedness of a district attorney, asking him nine times in
nine different ways whether the debris had been switched. Nine
times, General Dubose made it emphatically clear that the debris
had not been switched. Among Dubose's responses were "We never
switched anything...We were West Pointers -- we would never have
done that...I have damn good eyesight...I had charge of that
material, and it was never switched." When shown the pictures
from Ramey's office and asked if he recognized the material, he
replied, "Oh yes. That's the material that Marcel brought in to
Ft. Worth from Roswell."

In William Moore's book The Roswell Incident, Jesse Marcel, Sr.,
was interviewed about the debris. His responses were somewhat
puzzling in that he indicated that the photos of him were of the
actual debris, but that the later photos (without him) contained
substituted material. Later photos with substituted debris (even
if they existed) wouldn't really matter. If the debris in the
photo with Major Marcel was the actual material, it was from an
ML- 307 radar reflector. Again, end of story.

Among Marcel's responses were "They took one picture of me on the
floor holding up some of the less-interesting metallic debris....
The stuff in that one photo was pieces of the actual stuff we had
found. It was not a staged photo."

During one of my interviews with Irving Newton, he mentioned how
in Ramey's office, Marcel had pointed out the symbols and
indicated that he (Marcel) thought they might be some form of
alien writing. When I asked him if he was sure that it was Marcel
who did that, Newton was emphatic that it was the man who "had
collected the debris from the ranch." This is, of course, one
further indication that the debris in Ramey's office was the
debris from the Foster ranch. There was no substitution. The
debris in the pictures was the same debris collected by Major
Marcel at the Foster Ranch. It was the debris from an ML-307
radar reflector.

There is also an interesting quote in Moore's book from Marcel
about the so-called indestructibility of the material. It sounds
like this now-legendary indestructibility was actually more the
kind of indestructibility that you would find in material from
something like a tough, paper-backed foil. Marcel stated, "It was
possible to flex this stuff back and forth, even wrinkle it, but
you could not put a crease in it that would stay, nor could you
dent it at all. I would almost have to describe it as metal with
plastic properties."

One could also lay tough, paper-backed foil on the ground and
pound away with a sledge hammer and quite possibly not dent it.
Interestingly, the sledgehammer test was only hearsay, anyway.
One of the airmen allegedly performed the test and told Marcel
about it afterwards. This is possibly a good example of how
rumors and myth begin. Besides, if this material was so
indestructible, why did it break up into hundreds or thousands of
little pieces? The real answer is, of course, that it was not so
indestructible because it was from an ML-307 radar reflector that
was apparently dragged across the ground as the balloon array
descended..


The Witnesses

The testimony of the late Jesse Marcel, Sr., is probably the most
important, as well as the most controversial, of the whole
Roswell story. In essence, it forms the foundation around which
the rest of the case is built. However, because the debris he
recovered was not extraterrestrial, it could not have been what
he said it was. That does not mean, however, that he did not
believe it was extraterrestrial. In my opinion, it is very
possible, if not highly probable, that he sincerely believed
until the day he died that the material was something, as he once
put it, "not of this earth." A less-than-perfect memory of events
so long ago, in combination with the suspicion on his part of a
coverup above his level of security or outside his need to know,
makes such a scenario entirely plausible.

Unfortunately, because of minor, almost trivial, inconsistencies
in some of the things Jesse Marcel, Sr., said, or is believed to
have said, some have made caustic personal attacks against a man
no longer around to defend himself -- and who was, in all
probability, telling the truth as he recalled it. I have now
spoken with a number of men from the 509th Bomb Group who knew
Major Marcel. All had nothing but the highest regard and respect
for him.

Some of these attacks have been extended to Jesse Marcel, Jr.,
which I find astounding. As I have already mentioned, he is as
sincere and honest as anyone I have ever known. Like his father
before him, he served his country during time of war. Few people
know it, but he was seriously injured during the Vietnam War when
his helicopter was shot down, killing everyone else on board.
Like all of us, Jesse might not have 100 percent perfect recall
of every past event, but I would never question his word.

In a way, because the debris recovered outside of Roswell in 1947
was not extraterrestrial, none of the other witness testimony
really matters. If the story of a highly unusual and totally
unprecedented event is killed at the source, subsequent
corroborating testimony goes out the window. For example, in the
summer of 1993, a man from Seattle, Washington, made the
unprecedented claim that he had found a hypodermic syringe inside
a sealed can of Pepsi Cola. The story was picked up by the media,
and within days there were copycat claims against the Pepsi Cola
Corporation all over the country. Unfortunately for those who
jumped on the bandwagon, the original claim turned out to be
false. Where did that leave the subsequent claimants? Out on a
limb that had been cut off, and, in this particular case, facing
up to $250,000 in fines and five years in jail.

The testimony of some of the other Roswell witnesses has been all
but validated in the public eye because of repeated media
coverage. For this reason I will address a couple of cases.

Former mortician Glenn Dennis and the elusive nurse, Naomi Self,
who supposedly witnessed alien autopsies at the base hospital is
one of the best-known elements of the 1947 Roswell event.
Although I know and like Glenn Dennis on a personal level, I have
to say that his story has lost all credibility . Glenn,
incidentally, has been fully aware of the fact that researchers
have been spending time and resources in an effort to locate a
"Naomi Self."

There was already significant circumstantial evidence to indicate
that no such nurse ever existed, when a diligent young researcher
from Arizona, Vic Golubic, all but confirmed the fact. He located
the records of the Cadet Nurse Corps, where all nurses for the
military were trained during the mid-1940s. When Golubic checked
with Dennis about the correct spelling of "Self" and informed him
about the Cadet Nurse Corps records, Dennis changed his story,
telling Golubic that Self was not really the correct last name
after all. Dennis, without giving a good reason for not doing so,
also refused to tell Golubic the "real" last name. Sorry, Glenn,
end of story.

Both my father and I got to know Frank Kaufman very well and
consider him a friend. However, as with Dennis, I have to say
that in view of what we now know, there is no way that Kaufman's
fantastic tale of a crashed spaceship with alien bodies could
have any basis in reality. According to Kaufman's story, he was
one of nine military men at the top-secret recovery operation 35
miles north of town. Other than Kaufman, the only other living
member of the "original nine" was a General Robert Thomas.

The last time my father and I were in Roswell, Kaufman showed us
some of his pictures, including one with him standing next to a
brigadier general. My father asked Kaufman if that was Thomas, to
which Kaufman replied in the affirmative. Unfortunately, my
father, who spent 30 years in the Air Force, was unable to
recognize the general. I later checked at the Air Force records
center and learned that not only was there no living General
Robert Thomas, but there never was a General Robert Thomas. On
being confronted with this, Kaufman informed me that Thomas was
really just a "code name."

The final witness testimony that I will address is that
concerning Oliver W. (Pappy) Henderson. Millions have seen the
"Unsolved Mystery" broadcast about Roswell with the scene of
Pappy Henderson in his flight suit, leaning over and inspecting
one of several alien bodies laid out on a hangar floor just prior
to their being flown to Wright Patterson. Henderson, who died in
1986, on seeing a tabloid headline and story about Roswell,
apparently told his wife that the story was true and that he had
flown the wreckage and bodies to Wright Patterson. My best guess
is that the testimony of Henderson' family years later was a case
of memories of things read, or possibly seen in tabloid pictures,
being blended or confused with memories of what Henderson may
have actually said.

During my extensive conversations with pilots from the 509th, I
spoke with several who knew Henderson and remembered his having
discussed the incident. Apparently Henderson, a C-54 transport
pilot at the time, did fly some of the debris out of Roswell,
possibly to Wright Patterson. Jesse Mitchell, one of the 509th
pilots at the time and a retired lieutenant colonel, told me that
Henderson told him that he never saw the debris and he had no
idea what it was. Mitchell was a good friend of Henderson's and
almost decided to go into the roofing business with him in
Roswell after Henderson left the service. Another former member of
the 509th, Sam McIlhaney, also a retired lieutenant colonel who
knew Henderson well, told me that they used to talk about the
incident occasionally while sitting around in the hangar.
According to McIlhaney, Henderson considered the whole matter a
big joke and used to kid about it.