The Science of Conspiracy Theories

The Roswell Cover up

The Roswell Cover up

This is my very favorite conspiracy theory. I've used Roswell aliens in some of my stories, and I remember the hubbub about it.

For those of you who don't remember this, the incident occurred on the night of July 8 1947 near Roswell, New Mexico. An army base was nearby and an information officer by the name of Walter Haut issued a press release that said that a flying disc had been retrieved from a ranch near Roswell.

Well, Buckaroos, flying disc means flying saucer, which means ALIENS! The press had a field day with this one. Of course, the army brass retracted the original report and said it was a weather balloon. Actually, it was a Project Mogul balloon, which was a super secret surveillance project to detect Soviet nuclear tests using high altitude balloons with very sensitive microphones in them. Nuclear explosions, even thousands of miles away still cause a noise that can be detected. Apparently, one of these balloons had a malfunction and fell back to Earth, and it sparked the greatest UFO conspiracy theory of all times.

The problem with this event is that there were all sorts of observers who claim to have seen the flying saucer crash, fly over, or just make a bright thing in the sky. Then, there are the people who claim to have seen the dead aliens and actually witnessed their autopsies. If we go even further, there are claims that the crashed saucer and the aliens were taken to Hanger 18 at Wright Field Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio. There are also claims that the debris and the aliens were taken to Area 51. Apparently, the UFO enthusiasts aren't sure.

As you could imagine, there have been countless books and made-for-TV movies made about this event and the many conspiracy theories that buzz around it. It has been and still is a boondoggle for the media, and it spawned all sorts of science fiction novels and movies that deal with aliens.

Supposedly, the rancher, on whose ranch the flying saucer crashed, stored the saucer until the Army investigators could retrieve it. There were also reports of debris being found, some of which was weird in that it could be folded and crushed and would return to its original form. Of course these claims were debunked by the Air Force despite the fact that literally hundreds of witnesses came forth or were coerced with some coin of the Realm to tell all sorts of wild stories to the media of the day.

What actually happened at Roswell is a true mystery because anything like this immediately causes the military to go into propaganda mode where they deny any sensational reports. So-called eyewitnesses are unreliable because they will say anything to get notoriety. There are no actual photos of the flying disc or the aliens that were retrieved from it. All of the photos and videos of the autopsy are faked. In fact, the autopsy video is bogus. Ray Santill, the video entrepreneur from London who made it, admitted that the video was a reenactment and that the original footage is lost. Yeah, sure!

Part of the reason this incident is problematical is because of the lack of technology back in the forties. That wouldn't be the case nowadays with cell phones and tiny surveillance cameras. Nobody deliberately carried a camera around so that they would be ready to record an UFO or an alien, and the cameras of that period were not all that great, at least for the normal consumer.

Hangar 18 in Area B at Wright Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio is where the Roswell UFO debris and alien corpses were allegedly stored. The reason why this interests me is because I visited Wright Patterson several times as part of a secret project. I never saw the inside of Hangar 18, but I did get to watch the only remaining XB70 bomber return to land there. It was a particularly spectacular scene because two B58 Hustler bombers accompanied it. The XB70 is in the Air Force museum there.

Supposedly, a WW II pilot, Marion Magruder saw a living alien being held in Hangar 18 and watched it die. He described the alien as being child-like in size with a large head and four digits. He swore on his deathbed to his son that he actually saw it. The Air Force denies that any of this ever happened; of course the government is not going to admit to anything like this. Duh!

How about Area 51? Area 51 is a secret location in Nevada that no one can get close to because it's where the Air Force tests super secret aircraft like the SR-71 Blackbird. So, is this where the Roswell aliens and their wrecked flying saucer went? Who knows? You can't get close to it, but if you believe Boyd Bushman, who worked there as a research engineer, there are UFO's and aliens there and he has photos to prove it. Of course you must realize that photos can be faked.

Area 51 has been the subject of UFO enthusiasts because of countless sightings of strange things in the sky near it. Many of these could have been test flights of super secret new planes or weapons. That's the kind of projects that are done there. I personally don't think that the Roswell debris and aliens were taken there. But, there is no way to know for sure.

A memo to the FBI director dated March 22, 1950 from an FBI agent by the name of Guy Hottel relates that the Air Force recovered a flying saucer and aliens from a crash site in New Mexico. Another FBI memo from July 8, 1947 describes the incident and reiterates that the Air Force said that the debris was from a weather balloon and that it had been sent to Wright Field for further investigation.

A Huff Post Weird News article on this incident states that the 1947 UFO controversy at Roswell, N.M. is like a bad penny. It keeps turning up. Amen to that! Supposedly, Air Force Lt. Col. Richard French told the Huffington Post that there were two crashes. One was a UFO shot down by a U.S. airplane flying out of White Sands, N. M. and an electronic pulse weapon, which crippled the UFO's controls, brought down the saucer. This is another example of why this incident is so difficult to believe. This account by French is crazy considering the state of weapons development in 1947.

As to the mysterious out-of-this-world material found in the crash debris; the Project Mogul balloon equipment was constructed from ultra-strong metals, fiber-optic cables and fireproof fabrics, according to the History Channel. This is why people who saw the debris thought it was from and alien craft.

As to the alien bodies; the Air Force was conducting secret 'Dummy Drops' experiments to test ways for pilots to survive high altitude falls. These dummies were made from aluminum bones with latex skin that looked a lot like Roswell aliens depicted in photos and videos. Those who think UFO's are real think that this claim is a cover up.

All that these reports illustrate is that there are always two sides to every argument. Some evidence indicates that something significant happened there at Roswell, while other evidence has the opposite effect. It's aggravating!

In any event, there's a UFO museum in Roswell, N.M. and it does its best to show that aliens did crash there in 1947. The museum has a UFO sightings log and a gift shop. The daily Roswell News Record continues to promote the legend of the 'Day that Aliens Arrived'.

All of this, along with many UFO encounters since Roswell, have kept this conspiracy theory alive and kicking for all these years. Being a scientist and a believer that intelligent aliens are out there somewhere, I am both fascinated and disgusted by this incident. I want to think that it was real but I know how the military is prone to deception. I could see them fueling this firestorm just to keep interest in the Space Program and to divert attention away from their secret projects. There has been so much written about this incident that only makes it harder to form an opinion. I wish that there had been much more convincing evidence, but alas, that's not the case. The evidence is questionable in both the UFO enthusiast's case and the military's bungling of it. As far as I'm concerned, it's a no win situation. I just hope that ET isn't out their laughing at us.

Thanks for reading.