UFO fans celebrate 60th anniversary of Roswell crash

By NICOLE NEROULIAS
THE JOURNAL NEWS

Today is World UFO Day, launching flying saucer buffs into a weeklong observance of the 60th anniversary of what some believe was a UFO crash outside of Roswell, N.M.

On July 7, 1947, a rancher discovered the wreckage of a metal object, reported the next day in the Roswell Daily Record as described by military authorities as a "flying disk." The Roswell Army Air Field then issued a release stating the object was a weather balloon, a revision that sparked immediate controversy and continues to fuel debate and conspiracy theorists six decades later - including the UFO Roundtable, a group of Lower Hudson Valley believers.

From July 5 to 8, more than 50,000 people are expected to attend the New Mexico city's annual Amazing Roswell UFO Festival. Speakers include Chase Masterson of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and Dean Haglund of "The X Files."

The UFO Roundtable, affiliated with the international Mutual UFO Network, doesn't have any special plans to observe the holiday or attend the Roswell festival, said Paul Greco, a Yonkers artist active with the group.

"I just came back from a conference a few months ago in Nevada, the International UFO Congress, which is more of a scientific conference. The Roswell one is really more of a party," he said today. "But I hope this truth will finally come out, as far as Roswell goes."

The UFO Roundtable has been together for about five years and has between 20 and 25 people who attend the 6:30 p.m. meetings the first Wednesday of the month at the Grinton I. Will Library, 1500 Central Park Ave. in Yonkers. Due to the July 4 holiday this week, Greco said, the group will next meet on July 11 at the library.