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From: Stan Friedman <fsphys@brunnet.net>
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 11:56:25 -0400
Fwd Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 11:06:19 -0500
Subject: Friedman On History Channel's 'Roswell' Documentary
OPEN LETTER
History Channel
235 East 45th St.
New York, NY l0017
USA
December 21, 1999
Subject: December 13, 1999 program Roswell: Secrets Revealed
Dear History Channel
As the nuclear physicist who began the civilian investigation of
the Roswell Incident back in the 1970s, who has co-authored a
book "Crash at Corona: The Definitive Story of the Roswell
Incident" and numerous papers about Roswell, and, of course, was
the first to talk to many of the key witnesses (almost all of
whom you somehow missed), I naturally viewed the subject program
with great interest, especially since I was in Roswell on
December 13... I must congratulate you on providing a
Masterpiece of Misrepresentation. A splendid example of
propaganda, excellent for teaching purposes . You demonstrated
the primary rules such as selective choice of data, false
reasoning, positive and negative name calling. You also
demonstrated the 4 basic rules of UFO debunkery:
l. What the public doesn't know, we are not going to tell them
2. Don't bother us with the facts, our minds are made up.
3. If we can't attack the data, we will attack the people; it is
much easier.
4. Do one's research by proclamation, rather than investigation.
It is much easier and most people won't know the difference.
I have discussed the 2 Air Force reports in my enclosed papers
"The Roswell Incident, the USAF, and the NY Times" (28 pages)
and my Review of "The Roswell Report: Case Closed." You seem to
have blindly accepted any comment from a noisy negativist and
didn't bother with the work of professionals such as myself.
Let me give some specific examples, although I found that I can't
get a copy of the show for 4-6 weeks to give precise quotes.
A. How do you dare to show a small heap of wreckage? In my first
conversation with Major Jesse Marcel, the Intelligence Officer
for the 509th Composite Bomb Group, in 1978, he described
wreckage strewn out over an area 3/4 of a mile long. The Roswell
Daily Record cover-up article of July 9, 1947, stated the
wreckage covered an area 200 yards in diameter. Your depiction
was at most a few yards across. If that is all there had been,
rancher Mack Brazel would have taken it all in his truck to the
Sheriff' soffice and there would have been no reason for Major
Marcel and Captain Cavitt to have followed him on the long rough
journey back to the Foster Ranch operated by Mack.. You have
blindly accepted a fairly recent statement by Cavitt to Colonel
Weaver about him recalling it was just a balloon covering an
area only 20' square and easily fitting in one vehicle.
Apparently Cavitt wasn't told it was supposed to be a MOGUL
balloon which included 23 standard helium filled neoprene
balloons (at 20' intervals) and a whole bunch of radar
reflectors, sonobuoys, ballast tanks, etc all strung together.
Some small pile. Of course Cavitt hadn't remembered that simple
fact when asked many times by many people for the previous 15
years, even denying that he had been on the base at the time.
B. Dr. C.B. Moore, whom I have met, himself strongly claimed
that neoprene out in the sun for weeks would be totally
degraded. Did he forget that little detail?. A June 4 or June 14
launching could not possibly have survived so well until early
July. You also neglected to mention that many of the July 8
newspaper articles claimed the wreckage was found "last week".
But Rancher Brazel had been in the area just a few days earlier
and could never have left that mountain of garbage where the
sheep could ingest it. Mack had of course previously found 2
balloons. The newspaper of July 9 quotes him saying he was sure
what he found wasn't any weather balloon.
Colonel Weaver left this quote out of his recital of the
article.
C. Too bad you couldn't mention that the 509th was the most
elite military group in the world with hand picked officers and
men, and high security. They had dropped the atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the two tested in the Pacific in
July, 1946, in Operation Crossroads. You noted the July 9, 1947,
press release and then stated nobody knows why it was issued.
Why didn't you bother to ask Walter Haut who issued it? He still
lives in Roswell and has been interviewed hundreds of times. His
story hasn't changed since I first spoke to him more than 20
years ago. Incidentally he also had been a bombardier on 30
raids over Japan and dropped the instrument package over one of
the Crossroads tests.. He issued the press release because he
was ordered to do so by Colonel William Blanchard, Commander of
the 509th and of Roswell Army Air Field. Before suggesting he
must have been incompetent, as have some who haven't done their
homework, I should add he was a member of the West Point All
Star class of 1938, became a 4 star general by the time he was
48 and was Vice Chief of Staff of the USAF when he died of a
massive heart attack at the Pentagon in 1966. There was ,of
course, a lengthy obituary in the NY times. Doesn't sound much
like he was thought to be incompetent, does it?
It was stated that Blanchard retracted the press release 4 hours
later. This is nonsense. Blanchard's boss, General Roger Ramey
in Fort Worth, Texas, (Blanchard was in Roswell) issued a new
story after being informed by his Chief of Staff, Colonel Thomas
J. DuBose that Ramey's boss, General Clements McMullen, had
given orders to cover up the story. I heard that first hand from
retired General DuBose whose testimony is available on film. He
was a West Pointer as well and had 18,000 hours as a pilot and
set up the USAF Search and Rescue command. No slouch at all.
D. Why do you show only the Roswell Daily Record? After all
there were front page headline stories in the Chicago Daily
News, the Sacramento Bee, the Los Angeles Herald Express, the
Spokane Chronicle, etc all evening papers for July 8. The West
coast papers in general had done a lot of checking before
publishing detailed articles. Too bad you did none.
E Where did the comment come from about bodies cold to touch?
F. The notion that Pilot Kittinger was the red haired officer is
more absurdity. After all he wasn't at the Roswell hospital
until 1959. I was the first to hear 2 independent stories about
a nasty red haired officer and a black seargeant.. Both events
taking place in 1947. Has the air force invented time travel?
There is no other way to get crash test dummies, all of whom
were the height and weight of pilots, back to 1947 from 1953 at
the earliest or to get Kittinger to the Roswell hospital in
1947. This is flat out fiction.
G. Why did you not talk to others still alive who had first hand
involvement such as Jesse A. Marcel Jr. , a medical doctor, who
handled wreckage, has served on military aircraft accident
investigative teams and was a pilot? Or Loretta Proctor,
neighbor of Mack Brazel, who handled wreckage? or Mack Brazel's
son Bill who found strange (thin strong memory material)
wreckage out in the pasture? How about the sheriff's two
daughters? All this testimony has been readily available for
many years
H.One of the first things Major Jesse Marcel told me is that
there was nothing conventional to be found on the debris field..
No wires, no vacuum tubes, no rivets. He was very familiar with
aircraft and aircraft wreckage and balloons and radar reflectors
and rockets. The notion that he wouldn't have recognized balloon
wreckage or radar reflectors is frankly absurd.. You are also
implying that Blanchard, who had also served in the Pacific,
would have ordered the press release and the B-29 flight with
the wreckage brought back from the ranch and Marcel to Fort
Worth is equally absurd, if all there was was totally
conventional stuff. You know of any materials such as the I-beam
like pieces with strange symbols that couldn't be cut, burned,
or broken? Or memory metals that were like foil but couldn't be
cut and, when folded over and over, would unfold on their own?
Why couldn't the USAF find any of that toymaker tape in the
pictures taken in Ramey's office?
I. Brazel didn't make his discovery on July 5. It was earlier.
He did go to the store-pool hall in Corona on the 5 th which is
when, not having electricity or a phone or a radio, he first
heard about all the saucer sightings and a reward and was told
he ought to go to the Sherif in Roswell which he did on the 6th
NOT on the 7th as you claimed.. You made it sound as though
Sherif Wilcox looked in the phone book to find a nearby Air
Base. There was a standing arrangement that anything that might
effect the military would be reported to Roswell Army Air Field.
There was no other base in the area.
J. I have met with Dr. Schirmer, Dr. Moore, Mr. Gildenberg. They
haven't investigated the case. They have made proclamation after
proclamation about 2nd and third hand testimony. Why use the
term "conspiracy theorist" so many times without ever justifying
it? Who are these theorists? I began the investigation and have
always provided evidence for the claims that I make which is
more than can be said for your trio. They have actually created
a conspiracy theory namely that a bunch of stupid UFO
researchers and lying witnesses have created a fantastic story
for fun and profit. This, of course, ignores the fact that loads
of testimony was obtained by us serious researchers long before
the cameras started rolling. My phone bills used to run several
hundred dollars a month.
By the way, I do know something about security having worked as
a nuclear physicist on a wide variety of highly classified
advanced nuclear and space system programs for such companies as
General Electric, General Motors, Westinghouse, TRW Systems,
McDonnell Douglas, and Aerojet General Nucleonics.. I have also
been to 19 different government document archives.
Just how much experience with security has Dr. Schirmer had?
K.What was this nonsense about a 1956 plane crash somehow
confusing Glenn Dennis about bodies at the base in 1947? A few
years ago I went with Glenn to the Ballard funeral home. We
reviewed records with full permission of the operator there who
obviously respected Glenn. There were a number of military plane
crashes for which he handled the bodies even after bad fires.
That was his job. No possible way such a crash could have
confused him. Yet another false conspiracy theory from your
trio.
L. At one point early on in the program the word UFO was used.
Sorry. It was not used until after 1951. Several times when
showing balloons and talking about Mogul you showed tear drop
shaped polyethylene balloons. Round standard Neoprene balloons
were used for all MOGUL launches before July ... The same kind
that Mack had retrieved. And that rapidly diisintegrate in the
sun.
In summary then, the History Channel has presented myth and
propaganda in the guise of truth.
You have supplied misrepresentation instead of investigative
journalism. You should be ashamed and should apologize to your
audience. It seems to me you have also violated FCC rules with
regard to fairness, honesty, and accuracy in so doing. My
colleagues and I would be happy to debate your trio of amateurs
any time. I would suggest that they do their homework first.
Cordially,
Stanton T. Friedman
Enclosures.
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