1. Introduction
2. William Brazel Report
3. Initial News Release
4. Wreckage Salvage
5. Aftermath

Introduction

On July 2, 1947, just 8 days after the Kenneth Arnold sighting, an amazing turn of events began unfolding in Roswell, New Mexico.   It wasn't until over 30 years later that the world began piecing together these amazing events to form a complex puzzle that to this day remains the most controversial and talked about UFO encounter in history.  It seems as if an unidentified flying object had crashed in Roswell.

As the world was talking about the Kenneth Arnold sighting, the inhabitants of Roswell, New Mexico saw a large disc shaped object fly over their sleepy town.  Some reported that the craft appeared to be in distress.  Other reports came in recounting a tremendous explosion.

William Brazel Report

William Brazel, a rancher in Roswell, was one of the persons who claim to have heard a loud explosion during the night.  The next day, William hopped into his truck to search his ranch for any unusual damage and to assure that his cattle were ok.  In a remote field on his ranch, William stumbled on a wide field of debris.  The debris was scattered over an area 1 mile long and several hundred feet wide.  William gathered up some of the debris, loaded in into his truck, and took it back to one of his barns for storage and further study.  Brazel noted that amongst the items he recovered were metallic like cloth that would not crease and retained its original shape no matter how tightly it was folded up, metal beams with hieroglyphics on them, metal that looked like balsa wood but could not be dented with a sledgehammer, and extremely strong parchment like paper.  Brazel and his son, amazed at the strange qualities of the items he discovered, spent much time playing and tinkering with the objects.

Initial News Release

Later, when he heard stories of the flying discs, Brazel alerted the authorities at Roswell of his discovery.  Major Jesse Marcel of the Roswell Army-Air Field was sent to investigate.  Samples were collected and the area cordoned off.  An initial news release was issued by the Army stating that 'the wreckage of a flying disc had been recovered in the Roswell area'.

Wreckage Salvaging

One particular piece of wreckage gave the authorities problems - a four foot piece that was difficult to transfer.  This piece, along with much of the other debris, was transferred under guard to the Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, bypassing several other bases that were much closer.  From there, the wreckage was transferred, again under guard, to Wright Field in Ohio.  It was at this time that a second news release was issued - this one rejected the first news release and instead claimed that the wreckage was the remains of a experimental balloon carrying a radar disk.

Aftermath

During this period of about a week, Brazel was retained by the U.S. Army.  When he returned home he flatly refused to discuss the incident with anyone only stating that they had scared the hell out of him.  But still, parts of the story leaked to the press and were sent out over the teletype wire.  When Albuquerque stations KSKW attempted to broadcast the story the FBI interrupted their transmission with an urgent warning - 'Cease transmission. Repeat. Cease transmission.  National security item. Do not transmit'.