Roswell UFO Festival

Above, the first newspaper report on the crash of a flying saucer.

Once I am moved to Jamestown, New Mexico and settled in. I should be able to enjoy the scenery and events that the state of New Mexico has to offer.

One such even is the 2018 UFO Festival in Roswell, New Mexico. Each year, people gather in Roswell to commemorate and celebrate the crash of a UFO in 1947.

According to the Roswell government website:

In July 1947, something happened northwest of Roswell during a severe thunderstorm. Was it a flying saucer? Was it a weather balloon? What happened?  

Above one of the books on
UFOs I've read over the years.

The answer is, nothing for many years, until leading UFO researcher Stanton Friedman came across the story in the early 1980s and began the search for information and witnesses. That research brought him to Roswell looking for the public information officer who had been at Roswell Army Air Field in 1947. That officer was Lt. Walter Haut. He still lived in Roswell and remembered the press release and the orders from his commanding officer.  

Friedman's investigation also led to many others, both military and private, who had information to add to the Roswell Incident story. Stepping into the picture very strongly in the late 1980s were Don Schmitt, Kevin Randle and Tom Carey. since then, Schmitt and Carey have dedicated their research to Roswell.  

The debris recovered by rancher WW Mack Brazel was gathered by the military from the Roswell Army Air Field under the direction of base intelligence officer Major Jesse Marcel. On July 8, 1947, public information officer Lt. Walter Haut issued a press release under orders from base commander Col. William Blanchard, which said basically that we have in our possession a flying saucer. The next day another press release was issued, this time from Gen. Roger Ramey, stating it was a weather balloon. That was the start of the best known and well-documented UFO coverup.

Once it became public, the event known as The Roswell Incident - the crash of an alleged flying saucer, the recovery of debris and bodies and the ensuing cover up by the military - was of such magnitude and so shrouded in mystery that, 70 years later, there are still more questions than answers. Books have been written and TV documentaries have been filmed. Witnesses have come forward. Skeptics have issued rebuttals to the Incident, and the debate continues.

My great-uncle was a high-ranking official of the U.S. Army hospitals in New Mexico at the time and he told my mother years ago that the Roswell incident really did involve a crashed UFO and alien bodies were recovered. He said the balloon story was a cover-up.

It will be fun to attend the UFO Festival in Roswell. It begins on July 6 to July 8.

For the festival's website, go here.