Rebel Science: Taking a look at Roswell 50 years later

By Shirley Robinson

There have been reports of unexplained crop circles occurring as early as 1880. Mysterious lights have been appearing outside of Marfa, Texas since the days of the early settlers. Accounts have surfaced of “dog fights” between Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and Soviet planes during the Cold War. Although there have been hundreds of significant historical incidences which have alluded to alien visitation, one event which took place on a remote ranch in the summer of 1947 has arguably done the most to ignite our society’s fascination with the extraterrestrial. Since then, theories on government secrecy have been given credibility. UFOs have become a household word as well as a tourism magnet for several areas, and a recognition of the extraterrestrial life by the scientific community has come to blur the line between science and science fiction.

Today, all one has to do is merely mention the name of Roswell to any westernized individual, and chances are they’ll immediately make the association with UFOs. However, this has not been the case for all of the 60 years since suspicious debris was found scattered across the New Mexico high desert.

The connection between Roswell and aliens was not made until the late 1970s, as explained by the July, 1997 Popular Mechanics article, “Roswell Plus 50.” At the time of the incident, the entire country was in the midst of what was to be later called the UFO frenzy of 1947. Accustomed to looking skyward for enemy aircraft, WWII-era civilians and servicemen reported hundreds of sightings of airborne objects. A “flying disc,” was a descriptive term used at the time which was not yet synonymous with extraterrestrial spaceships and little green men. With the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) being so close, the citizens of Chavez County, New Mexico, were familiar with airmen war stories of encounters with enemy craft and weaponry which were still in experimental stages when the war ended.

Despite its familiarity with military-related events, the Roswell Daily Record was in a frenzy on July 8, 1947, as phone calls were being received from international newspapers and the type was being set to read, “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.” On July 7, rancher Mac Brazel had reported to the authorities a crash site some 70 miles north of Roswell. Army intelligence officer Maj. Jesse Marcel reportedly investigated the situation and released to the local paper that the wreckage was that of a “flying disc.” However, within hours, a Brigadier General out of Fort Worth, Texas, named Roger Ramey, ordered the retraction of this statement, and the July 9, 1947 issue of the Daily Record quoted Ramey as saying that the wreckage was merely that of a downed weather balloon.

The sudden change in the military’s explanation did not seem to arouse notable suspicion, but rather thoroughly convinced local newspaper readers that Roswell’s status as a sleepy, little desert town was to remain. Even with passages in the July 9 issue quoting Brazel, who had cleaned up previous balloon wrecks on his property, as saying “I am sure what I found was not any weather observation balloon,” the story fell out of the public’s mind for the next 30 years.

The story made headlines again in 1978 when Marcel came forward with news that he had observed among the Roswell wreckage very thin yet durable and fire-retardant material unlike anything he had before or since seen. This information unleashed a firestorm of new questions as well as speculation of a government cover-up among ufologists and mainstream media alike.

Researchers have since interviewed dozens of people who lived or worked in Roswell during the time of the incident. Accounts quickly surfaced of Roswell morticians receiving requests from the RAAF for small coffins. Reports were made of medical workers observing autopsies on unusual bodies. Hieroglyphic-like symbols were reportedly observed on the wreckage by recovery workers. Claims were made that all military personnel, from officers to Base hospital employees, who were involved with the recovery efforts, were promptly transferred to other military facilities.

As reported by Wikipedia.org, in 1995, the official story on the Roswell Incident changed once again when the U.S. Air Force revealed that a top secret, high altitude balloon, rather than a weather balloon, crashed that memorable July day. Part of Project Mogul, a reconnaissance mission carried out during the late 1940s, the balloon supposedly was equipped to detect sound waves from Soviet missile and atomic bomb tests.

In 1997, the Air Force provided explanations for the reported bodily remains, claiming that they were likely misidentified anthropomorphic dummies used in later parachute programs and/or actual human bodies from unrelated military accidents.

Still, a wide variety of other theories persist among the public.

Although the military has made efforts to dispel suspicions of an alien connection to the July 1947 incident, Roswell sustains a profitable tourist industry centered around UFOs. Despite this, it does not hold the title as the “UFO Capital of the World.” This distinction belongs to the tiny town of Rachel, Nevada.

Located in Lincoln County, 115 miles northwest of Las Vegas along State Highway 375 (aka the Extraterrestrial Highway), Rachel is the closest town to the famed Area 51. According to USGS topographic maps and FAA pilot charts, the remote airbase, which outdated government maps demarcate as Area 51, officially does not exist. Rather, a flat, dry expanse known as Groom Lake that has restricted airspace is all that does. However, as featured by the March 1994 Popular Science article, “Searching for the Secrets of Groom Lake,” fenced-out UFO enthusiasts have witnessed unexplained lights in the sky performing odd, aerial phenomena, and at night the facility reportedly “lights up like Broadway.”

It is here that the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird were thought to be developed, followed by the F-117A Nighthawk and the B-2 bomber. However, there are also claims that Area 51 engineers have been attempting to tinker with the technology of recovered aircraft that are literally out of this world.

As explored by the June 1997 Popular Mechanics article, “The New ‘Area 51,’” the fact that the test site is no longer a well-kept secret and that a lull in UFO sightings in the area has occurred, suggests that Area 51 may have packed its bags, presumably for a more private location to develop the next level of breakthrough aircraft.

Although the federal government denies having any contact with alien life forms or technology at Roswell and does not reveal the activities within certain test sites, it does, through the financing of specific scientific programs, promote the idea that life is not exclusive to earth.

Much of the scientific community shares the belief that life thrives elsewhere but does not seriously entertain the notion that extraterrestrial life has visited our planet. Rather than attempting to openly sift through both the false and credible evidence for extraterrestrial life provided by accounts like those of Roswell, mainstream science appears to be determined to spend its time and funds on finding alien life in its natural habitat.

In the mid-1990s, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduced a new, interdisciplinary field known as astrobiology. According to the NASA website, this field of study intends to find and research other inhabited planetary bodies and explore how they may relate to life on earth. Current areas of interest lie within moons of our own solar system such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Titan, which are thought to show possible signs of biology. As described by Space.com, the discovery of the extrasolar, earth-like planet Gliese 581C in April of 2007 by a team of scientists from the Geneva Observatory is one of the most promising milestones in the search for extraterrestrial life.

However, astrobiology at NASA has experienced severe budget cuts over the past two years, resulting in program reduction. In fact, according to a February 2007 article featured by ScienceCareers.org, some young researchers currently consider the field of astrobiology “dead in the water.” The effect that recent discoveries will have remains to be seen.

Although the mystery of Roswell has been plagued with secrecy and deception and may never fully be solved, it has helped to open doors for the public and the realm of science. Whether or not it will ever be considered credible evidence for the existence of other worlds is debatable, but the impact the Roswell Incident has made (other than within the sand of the desert floor) is undeniable.