I’ve lost track of how many times the USAF has explained what happened at Roswell. First there was the 1994-1995 War-and-Peace-like, 1000-page tome, “The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert.” This was the report connecting the Roswell crash with Project MOGUL. That was dutifully followed in 1997 by the overbearingly-titled, “The Roswell Report: Case Closed.” This report was released in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Roswell event. The CNN press conference from Roswell was what turned my interest in UFOs from that of casual enthusiast to something more academically serious. I can well remember how the USAF spokesman (Colonel Haynes), when confronted by a reporter who knew that the USAF test dummies could not explain the reports of bodies in a 1947 event because the dummies only came into use in the 1950s, stated with a straight face that the USAF believed the witnesses had undergone “time compression.” Here’s a transcript of a Larry King show that utilized video clips from the press conference where Haynes uttered this infamous piece of gobbledy-gook.
These more “official” explanations were in turn followed by Lt. Col. Philip Corso’s controversial book, The Day After Roswell. Corso’s credentials and identity are genuine. He claimed to have been in charge of the seeding of alien technology discovered at Roswell into the private sector for development (most notably Bell Labs). Corso’s book has been criticized, even by some UFO researchers otherwise committed to the ET view of Roswell (most notably Stanton Friedman). The fact that Corso’s son is a professing Christian who believes his father didn’t lie in this matter is an interesting footnote to the saga (but then again he claims the Roswell craft was a time machine).
So now we get another explanation from yet another USAF insider. I’m sure this one will put it all to rest. Personally, I still think the books by Nick Redfern and Joseph Farrell on the Paperclip connections make much better sense.1
- I have reviewed Redfern’s book here. Farrell’s book was preceded by two earlier volumes (here and here) on Nazi experimental wingless flight technology. Readers should note that while I think Farrell has done an amazing job of ferreting out documentary evidence and constructing a strong circumstantial case for man-made UFOs, I don’t follow his thinking on things like the great pyramid and technology in antiquity. ↩
