UFO UpDates Mailing List
From: David Watanabe <davew@aufora.org>
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 97 19:40:13 -0700
Fwd Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 08:52:57 -0500
Subject: AUFORA News Update, Tuesday, March 11th, 1997
AUFORA News Update
Tuesday, March 11th, 1997 http://www.aufora.org/
_________________________
US AIR FORCE COMMENTARY ON ROSWELL
by Tech. Sgt. David P. Masko - http://www.af.mil/
Roswell, UFOs and an alleged Air Force cover-up have fueled a controversy
that seemingly will not die.
In fact, even President Clinton is talking Roswell these days. During a
recent visit to Northern Ireland, Clinton's somber plea for peace turned
to UFOs when answering a young boy's question. "No, as far as I know, an
alien spacecraft did not crash in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947," the
president said.
Clinton is not the only one being asked such questions. For nearly 50
years, the Air Force has taken the brunt of accusations about UFOs. The
outgrowth of this deluge of UFO-related questions was the famed "Project
Bluebook" -- the official Air Force investigation of flying saucer
occurrences.
Now, in response to various views that the government has withheld
information about the Roswell sightings, the Air Force has issued a new
study titled "The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico
Desert."
"This report represents a joint effort by Col. Richard L. Weaver and 1st
Lt. James McAndrew to address the request made by Rep. Steven H. Schiff
(R-N.M.) for information regarding an alleged crash of an unidentified
flying object that occurred in 1947," said Richard Hallion, Air Force
historian, in the report's forward.
"Interest abounds surrounding the UFO wave of 1947 which began in the
spring and did not dissipate until fall," Hallion said. "Interest in UFOs
climaxed during the summer, when multiple sightings of such objects
occurred."
McAndrew, now a captain working at the Pentagon, said he spent six months
researching hundreds of documents relating to Roswell. He told Air Force
News Service that after a year-and-a-half of work in getting the report
to print, he's "100 percent sure that the Roswell sightings are a hoax."
Asked if there's any real evidence of an Air Force cover-up, he said, no.
Also, he said there's nothing conclusive in all the recent books, movies
and television programs about UFOs landing at Roswell.
What's included in the 1,000-page Roswell report are opinions on both
sides of the UFO controversy. However, what Weaver and McAndrew try to
unearth are the "facts" only. Rather than coming off as non-believers or
at least skeptical of the existence of alien beings, the researchers
instead focus on what the Air Force was doing at Roswell when the alleged
UFO crash occurred.
Moreover, the researchers said if any of the information they discovered
was under security classification, it was declassified. And if active or
former Air Force officials had been sworn to a secrecy oath, they were to
be freed from it. In short, the writers said the objective was to tell
the Congress, and the American people, "everything the Air Force knew
about the Roswell claims."
Research went so far as to delve into the personal documents of Gen. Carl
A. Spaatz, Air Force chief of staff in 1947-1948 when the Roswell
incident occurred. The report states that the Spaatz files "do not in any
way suggest that U.S. Army Air Forces recovered a flying saucer or its
alien occupants."
UFO conspiracy theorists alleged that both Spaatz and Gen. Hoyt S.
Vandenberg directed the recovery of a flying saucer at Roswell Army Air
Field on July 8, 1947. A review of Vandenberg's official daily activities
calendar revealed "his knowledge of a reported flying saucer recovery on
July 7 in Texas, an incident that the later determined to be a hoax."
Records to not support the claim that Vandenberg -- then deputy chief of
staff -- had any similar involvement on July 8.
UFO theorists also allege that Gen. Nathan F. Twining altered his plans
unexpectedly in July 1947 to go to New Mexico to oversee the recovery of
a flying saucer. The report found that Twining -- then commander of Air
Materiel Command -- did indeed go to New Mexico in 1947. But it was with
several other general officers to attend the nuclear bomb commanders
course.
"He (Twining) received orders to attend this course more than a month
before the alleged incident occurred," the report states.
While a review of top brass involvement in a UFO cover-up proved
unfounded, some questions remain about Brig. Gen. Roger M. Ramey, who was
commander of 8th Air Force in 1947. Ramey is alleged to have participated
in the cover-up of the recovery of an extraterrestrial vehicle by
substituting debris from an ordinary weather balloon for that of an alien
spacecraft.
The report said "Ramey withheld only the components that would have
comprised the highly sensitive MOGUL project."
MOGUL refers to a then-top secret balloon project designed to monitor
Soviet nuclear tests. Comparison of information obtained when the UFO
crash supposedly happened are consistent with a balloon device, and most
likely from one of the MOGUL balloons that had not been previously
recovered.
"Air Force research efforts did not disclose any records of the recovery
of any alien bodies or extraterrestrial materials," the report states.
Still, UFO buffs contend that claims by Walter Haut, a former Air Force
public affairs officer, are true. Haut said on July 2, 1947, he was told
to prepare a news release reporting the Air Force had recovered parts of
a flying saucer and then was told to change the story to report a weather
balloon.
On the day in 1947 when an alleged flying saucer crashed, the Air Force
said a weather device crashed.
News reports of the time say people reported seeing a spacecraft. There
were also stories of autopsies of "oversized head" aliens whose bodies
were taken to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
At Wright-Patterson today there are Roswell-inspired manikins on display
at the Air Force Museum in an exhibit simply dubbed "UFOs." Museum
officials said the myth surrounding Roswell has made the UFO exhibit one
of the museum's most popular attractions. Nearly 1 million visitors tour
the museum each year.
With all the recent attention over Roswell, and its link to
Wright-Patterson, the museum has done little to suppress the Roswell
incident or government conspiracy theory. Instead, officials said they
are "giving people what they want."
Similarly, the Roswell report cites a lot of the information that has
kept the controversy alive for almost 50 years. From the records reviewed
by the Air Force, however, there was nothing to suggest that a UFO
cover-up was the case.
Although the bulk of records leave much to the imagination, the Roswell
report states some interesting conclusions:
-- Concerted research has failed to turn up any evidence relating to the
Roswell incident, or of a flying saucer and/or aliens at
Wright-Patterson. Because this conclusion is based on the absence of
documentation, the issue can never be definitively resolved. There will
always be those who say, "You didn't search hard enough" or "We know you
really do have the records, saucers, aliens."
-- Because the Roswell incident occurred so long ago -- now nearly 50
years ago -- there may be no record trail to follow to absolutely
determine if an Air Force study had ever been conducted.
-- Despite the best efforts of UFO researchers over the years, not one
scrap of physical evidence or one incontestable photograph of either a
flying saucer or an alien has ever been found relating to the Roswell
incident.
In short, the Air Force's report on Roswell states that "the absence of
evidence is not evidence of absence" because every reasonable avenue of
research has been exhausted without finding evidence that a flying saucer
or aliens landed at Roswell or were taken to Wright-Patterson.
"The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert" is
available at most base libraries, or for sale from the government
printing office.
__________________________________________________________
AUFORA News Update
News & Information from the world of UFOlogy
AUFORA Web: http://www.aufora.org/
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