CAPTURED WWII GERMAN SCIENTISTS
SECRETLY STUDIED CRASHED ROSWELL UFO
(Originally published Dec 2018)
“Operation Paperclip” (some of whose members are pictured above) was an ultra-secret program of the U.S. federal government, in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were forcibly recruited after the end of World War II from their home country and taken to the U.S. for government employment. Many were former members of the Nazi Party. The primary purpose of Operation Paperclip was to achieve U.S. military advantage in the Soviet–American Cold War and the Space Race. And it now appears clear that some of these captured scientists applied their technical skills in examining the debris of the extraterrestrial craft found fallen near Roswell in 1947. The men who inspected and evaluated the alien wreckage included Wernher von Braun and his close colleague Dr. Ernst Steinhoff (whose son and friend reveal much for the first time). And the suspected manager of these Roswell-involved scientists has been identified and is named here.
Astro-Genius Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun was one of the more prominent Nazi Paperclip scientists. His work in rocketry, missile and aeronautical technologies (including the V-2) are well-known. He later led NASA’s Marshall Flight Center.
What von Braun Told The Astronaut
Dr. Edgar Mitchell (PhD MIT) was the sixth man to walk on the Moon. In a little-discussed interview broadcast on the syndicated radio show Coast-to-Coast on September 12, 2007, Mitchell explained that he and von Braun were good friends. During one discussion between the two, the topic moved to UFOs. In his talk with von Braun, Von Braun was somewhat cryptic about the subject, but he opened up a bit about the crash: it did happen, Mitchell saying, “Wernher was apparently there as a first investigator to the incident because of his rocketry knowledge…Wernher was a brilliant thinker and his goal was to explore the universe.”
What von Braun Told His Spokesperson
Wernher von Braun
Carol Rosin was formerly with Los Alamos, and then with Fairchild (Aerospace) Industries. She was Fairchild’s first corporate manager while von Braun was VP of Engineering there in 1972. She became von Braun’s spokesperson during the last years of his life. von Braun passed in 1988. Rosin says, “There is no doubt in my mind that Wernher von Braun knew about the extraterrestrial issue. He explained to me the reasons why weapons were going to be put into space…and that all that said (for public consumption) was a lie. He was totally against the weaponization of space."
von Braun Himself on ET
In 1959 and fourteen years later, von Braun made enigmatic public remarks about the extraterrestrial and his inability to say too much:
In 1959: “We find ourselves faced with powers which are far stronger than hitherto assumed and whose base is at present unknown to us. More than that I cannot say at present.” (News Europa, Jan 1, 1959, in response to a question about an unexplained deflection of a satellite that had been observed)
In 1973, the German professional paranormal journal Esoterica reported this statement by von Braun: “Extraterrestrial powers do exist, and they are more powerful than previously thought. I’m not authorized to give you any more details on the issue.”
What von Braun’s Mentor Hermann Oberth Said
Dr. Hermann Oberth
Hermann Oberth was a close friend and professional colleague of von Braun’s. In fact, he called Oberth, a star aeronautical engineer, “my teacher”. Oberth is often referred to as the “German Father of Rocketry”.
Oberth made an intriguing comment about the extraterrestrial subject:
Oberth wrote about alien spacecraft in a 1954 article titled 'Flying Saucers Come from a Distant World' published in the Sunday newspaper supplement The American Weekly:
“It is my thesis that flying saucers are real and that they are space ships from another solar system. I think that they possibly are manned by intelligent observers who are members of a race that may have been investigating our earth for centuries.
"I think that they possibly have been sent out to conduct systematic, long-range investigations, first of men, animals and vegetation, and more recently of atomic centers, armaments and centers of armament production. They obviously have not come as invaders, but I believe their present mission may be one of scientific investigation.”
The subject of alien life certainly came up between von Braun and Oberth, given that both were trying to take us to the stars. It is equally likely that the subject of Roswell came up, confirming the reality of that alien life. It is well possible that Oberth himself was there at Roswell with von Braun and other of his German associates.
Walter J H "Papa" Riedel was a German engineer who was the head of the (Nazi) Design Office of the Army Research Centre Peenemünde and the Chief Designer of the A4 (V-2) ballistic rocket. He was also a captured Paperclip scientist and close associate of Wernher von Braun and Hermann Oberth. Riedel was rather obsessed by the UFO topic and one must wonder if this was spurred on by his knowledge of or participation in the assessment of alien technology at Roswell. In the April 7, 1952 edition of LIFE magazine, page 96, Riedel says: “I am convinced that saucers have an out-of-this-world basis.”
And incredibly, the CIA, ever watchful of Paperclip scientist activities, reveals in a 1953 memo that Riedel helped lead the small, private research group, the “California
Dr. Walter Riedel
Chief Designer, V-2 German Missile, seated far right
Committee for Saucer Investigation”, as seen here: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000015355.pdf
The public comments by von Braun, Oberth and Riedel relative to UFOs and related matters are more than curious. They seem to come as comments made with the certainty of scientists and from personal experience or knowledge of the reality of the visiting alien. They are hints to us made by men who feel an obligation to truth and to history, but who are bound and torn by secrecy.
Dr. Ernst Steinhoff was a member of von Braun’s technical inner circle as one the most brilliant aero and rocket engineers, and both Steinhoff’s son and his good friend attest that Steinhoff was very Roswell-aware. Also brought to Ft. Bliss by the Americans after the war as a valuable technical resource, Steinhoff was the German second-in-command of the Paperclip scientists' technical work, under von Braun.
What Steinhoff Told His Friend About Roswell
Cornelius Klaus “Neels” Blesius is a retired doctor living in New Mexico. Now 82, he indicates that in 1965 he met Steinhoff in a New Jersey hospital. The two Germans became fast and close friends, and Steinhoff later visited Blesius in New Mexico. In 1973, Blesius says that he was told an extraordinary story by his friend Steinhoff:
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In 1947, a select group of Paperclip scientists were taken by federal authorities to the New Mexico desert for a purpose left unstated.
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They were escorted to an area with strange wreckage from an aerial object and then asked to study the crash site.
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The Americans wanted assurance that it wasn’t of Soviet or other foreign country origin.
Dr. Ernst Steinhoff
Paperclip Scientist,
Werner von Braun’s Colleague
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Steinhoff said it was not.
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They were instructed to not remove any material from the crash site.
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He said that he heard that some of the material was taken to underground facilities at Wright Air Field.
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He requested of Blesius that he never say anything until after he (Steinhoff) passed away. Ernst died in 1987 at 79 years of age.
What Steinhoff Told His Son About Roswell
Ralph Steinhoff is a retired doctor, now near 70, living in New Mexico. He is also Ernst Steinhoff’s son. What he says helps to corroborate what Blesius said about Steinhoff.
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Ralph confirms that he and his father did speak about the Roswell incident, though sparingly.
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Ralph states that his father was a lead investigator of the crash – his father would say that much. He was there and he observed and analyzed the wreckage.
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When the younger Steinhoff would press his father on the matter, his father replied, “Those who know don’t talk, and those who talk don’t know.”
Alfred Loedding, Ace Aircraft Designer
Alfred C. Loedding was an American who became a civilian engineer for the U.S. Air Force at Wright Field, later Wright-Patterson Air Base. He was at one time a work associate with rocketry legend Dr. Robert Goddard. One of Loedding’s areas of focus was low-aspect design aircraft, such as flying wings or flying disc designs, including numerous related patents registered with the U.S. Patent Office. Loedding maintained offices at both the super-secret T-3 engineering and T-2 intelligence divisions where work often centered around the reverse-engineering of enemy aircraft. Loedding seems to be a "suppressed individual" because information about him from official sources is scarce. His family (including son Donald) have commented that requested documents from the Air Force about their Alfred “do not exist.”
In the summer of 1947, hundreds of unidentified flying object reports earned considerable mainstream publicity, and were taken seriously by the U.S. military. Due to his expertise in low-aspect aircraft design – similar to the "flying disk" or "flying saucer" shape of many reported UFOs – Loedding became the focus of early informal Air Force UFO reports, serving as liaison between The Pentagon and Air Force officers and UFO investigators Howard M. McCoy and William R. Clingerman.
From 1948 to 1949, Loedding was a member of Project Sign, the official UFO investigative arm of the Air Force. Loedding investigated many UFO reports and interviewed witnesses, including the famous 1947 Rhodes photograph and the Chiles-Whitted UFO incident.
According to Michael Hall, Executive Director of the National Atomic Museum in Nevada, Alfred Loedding “oversaw key Operation Paperclip scientists at the end of World War II”, presumably including technical assignments and reviews.
And researcher Wendy Connors states of Loedding that “he was of German descent, spoke German fluently, and regularly had German scientists at Wright Field to his home for dinner.”
This means that Loedding was at the intersection of German Paperclip scientists and the UFO phenomenon in America – the Loedding who also reversed engineered foreign craft and worked on flying disk design. His involvement with Roswell has always been rumored, and if so, his direction of select Paperclip scientists on the matter seems highly possible.
PAPERCLIP SCIENTISTS WERE PERFECT FOR THE PROGRAM
The technical expertise and acumen of the German aeronautical engineers and scientists in many ways surpassed that of our own. They were world-class talent in things aerial. So it made eminent sense that they would be called upon to study things from out of this world. Their engineering backgrounds and ways of approaching things were different than ours, and they were needed to gain an expert and perhaps alternate perspective on the event. The chosen group of Paperclip scientists were brought to the crash scene to view it on the ground, as it first appeared. This would help enable them to conduct failure analysis and to determine trajectory and speed upon impact. Other determinations would be made later in government and government-contracted laboratories.
And such scientists were already under the watchful eye of the government, held in a type of custody. They were also accustomed to keeping their mouths shut. The Paperclip scientists were indeed the perfect types to have been read into the Roswell program, and it seems that is precisely what happened.
{This author wishes to extend thanks to researchers and colleagues Tom Carey
and Don Schmitt for their input and efforts in pursuing Paperclip and Roswell}