ROSWELL AND THE QUEST FOR PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
(originally published Feb 2013)
Credible testimony that has been offered truthfully and that is corroborated by others continues to surface relative to the retrieval of aliens and their craft in New Mexico in July of 1947. This new round of witness declarations (gained in recent months by an assembled team of Roswell researchers) attest to the event having indeed been extraterrestrial in nature. What these people have said to us in sometimes revelatory ways will be reported on at a later date.
It is however, something that can be seen and touched that is the most coveted of alien crash evidence. Such physical form evidence is termed the “Holy Grail” by researcher Tom Carey. Things that can be handled, examined and evaluated by independent experts are sought. Confirmation that is tangible and quantifiable is desired. We look for evidence that can be scientifically considered and evidence whose provenance and authenticity is unquestioned. It is this type of evidence -the ultimate evidence – that would definitively end the debate about Roswell forever. Has the pursuit of such proof born fruit at last? Has the Holy Grail finally been found?
Just as witness statements continue to be carefully evaluated for truth, so too are the claims of physical evidence.
ROSWELL AND THE TYPES OF PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
There are four primary types of physical crash evidence: debris, alien remains, photographs and documents. And at least one of these types may yet see the light of public day:
Crash Debris
The scattered, fragmented remains of the craft crashed near Roswell left a large debris field. It is possible that the craft lost materials of construction before it crashed – or that it may have even “skipped” to additional sites, leaving debris in its wake.
The types of people identified who would most likely have been out in the middle of the desert in July in New Mexico – and who could have had access to the debris and an opportunity to purloin pieces for private interest – would be:
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Ranchers (and their children)
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Archaeologists (on expedition)
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Geologists (on oil exploration)
There is nothing more that we would like to do (and skeptics would like us to do) than to roll out a gurney carrying the corpse of one of the aliens fallen at Roswell. Even a bone piece or tissue sample would certainly suffice.
But this of course is the very least likely type of evidence that would ever surface into the public domain. Any such evidence is likely held in preservation in guarded, highly secure facilities whose access is extremely restricted.
Photographs
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Servicemen from Roswell Army Air Field and /or other bases (assigned to debris field cleanup)
There have been many “false starts” when it comes to purported Roswell debris:
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In 1996, Art Bell, a one-time paranormal radio show host, had received and reported on what became known as “Art’s Parts.” Touted by people such as Linda Moulton Howe, the “parts” were sent from an anonymous source and were square-like metal pieces that turned out to be primarily aluminum with traces of other metals.
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Also in 1996, a man presented a piece of shard-like metal with an unusual swirling pattern to the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell. It was later found that the fragment was actually a piece designed by a Utah jeweler and made in his studio.
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In 1997, Dr. Roger Lier and Derell Sims held a press conference during the Roswell 50th Anniversary to offer up a bluish stone-like artifact that was going to be tested for alien origin by “universities.” Nothing more since.
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In 2004 a New Mexico gentleman named Chuck Wade found some seemingly unusual metal material buried in the desert using a metal detector. While the material does seem very heat resistant (and by eye is not immediately identifiable) the kind of testing required by a named and recognized laboratory to validate the material is, for now, lacking.
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In 2011, New Mexico school teacher Frank Kimbler claimed to have found ET metal fragments in the desert. He claimed the material had “unusual” isotopic ratios. But the truth is that such anomalies cannot be determined without use of extremely expensive and sophisticated analyzers made only by Thermo Electron Instruments. They are used to examine the isotopic ratios of such things as fallen meteors. They are found only at NASA, related government agencies, and a very few universities. It is not believed that this is what Kimbler has done. Though he mailed off some of the material for some type of analysis, he later claimed that the material had mysteriously “disappeared” in shipping. Today, interest and discussion about his material has waned.
For any such debris or engineered material to be deemed of extraterrestrial origin would require one of the following:
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That it was composed of an element that is unknown to earth or science
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That it was composed of known elements but that occur in non-terrestrial isotopic ratio
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That the processes required to alloy or form the material are unknown to science
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That the physical properties exhibited by the material are not found in terrestrial material and are unknown to science.
Alien Remains
A picture image in the form of prints or slides of an object, person or scene that is related to the Roswell crash would be eye-opening evidence. And such film could be in black and white or in color. A genuine image of an alien corpse or of the Roswell retrieval operation in the debris field would be a very convincing item.
Perhaps of all the types of physical evidence that might exist, this type (until recent efforts) has been the least researched. It also may be the one to prove most fruitful.
Cameras were not unknown to common folks in the late 1940s, and that included ranchers. If you were going to go out to see a fallen flying saucer, you would surely grab your camera if you had one. And professional people who may have been out in the desert at that time (such as archaeologists or geologists) would be equipped with a camera to document their finds. Or perhaps a serviceman surreptitiously photographed such images.
Personal Documents
Personal documents such as a diary from July of 1947 with entries relating to the Roswell crash could have been left by neighboring ranchers or their children, by involved servicemen or their families, or by members of involved civilian agencies such as the fire department or sheriff’s office. Similar documentary evidence would include letters and written correspondence or saved printed materials.
Two Confirmed Examples:
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An historical personal document of this type is confirmed to exist. Sheriff George Wilcox (of Lincoln County, NM where rancher Mack Brazel brought crash debris) had a wife named Inez. Inez composed a memoir that touches on the Roswell crash. She called it "Four Years in the County Jail”, and her family states that she wrote it with thought for publication in a national magazine. Now at the Roswell Historical Society, the memoir says:
"One day a rancher north of town brought in what he called a 'flying saucer'. There had been many reports all over the United States by people who claimed they had seen a flying saucer. The rumors were in many variations… Mr. Wilcox called headquarters at Walker Air Force Base [actually RAAF at the time] and reported the find. Before he hung up the telephone almost, an officer walked in. He quickly loaded the object into a truck and that was the last glimpse anyone had of it… However the officer who picked up the suspicious looking saucer admonished Mr. Wilcox to tell as little as possible about it and refer all calls to Walker Air Force Base. A secret well-kept...."
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Other documents that have surfaced include ones from reporter Frank Joyce. Joyce was in Roswell in 1947 and was a newsman with radio station KGFL. Joyce also talked to rancher Mack Brazel (who originally discovered the debris field), and Joyce maintained that Brazel told a very different story to him than Brazel had made publicly in the press after coercion from the military. Joyce had a feeling at the time of the crash event that things might be covered up or in some way ‘forgotten’ about the crash. So Joyce did something very unusual: He collected the UPI and news service teletypes received by the station about the crash as they were coming through the wire machine. And Joyce retained these original teletypes and showed them to researchers many decades later to provide documentation that something important really did happen that fateful day.
THE POSSIBILITY OF PHYSICAL PROOF
Claims of physical proof demands rigorous testing. Identifying experts and conducting such testing and authentication requires resources, time and money. But it may yet well be worth that effort, wait and expense as the stream of such claims continues and is evaluated by a team of Roswell investigators that now turn their attention to the tangible.