The Roswell Report: Case Closed

## The Scenarios

UFO enthusiasts have attempted to explain the obvious contradiction of multiple impact sites involving only one alien craft through the introduction of complicated scenarios. These scenarios have become increasingly convoluted since the proponents of each crash site must make allowances to have "their" flying saucer at the correct time and place—the actual MOGUL balloon train landing site in early July, 1947—in order to "fit" with the rest of the story. The actual Project MOGUL landing site, 75 miles northwest of Roswell, lends credibility, and more importantly establishes a time frame, for the other accounts that include reports of bodies. Flying saucer enthusiasts use the documented presence of U.S. Army Air Forces personnel at the MOGUL site in July 1947, who were there to retrieve the MOGUL balloon train, to provide the nucleus of unrelated and much later accounts that include reports of "bodies." It must be emphasized that the claims of "bodies" only became part of the Roswell Incident after 1978, when they were erroneously linked to the July 1947 retrieval of Project MOGUL components.

In general, "Roswell Incident" scenarios claim that a disabled alien craft momentarily touched down at the site 75 miles northwest of Roswell, leaving behind parts of the spaceship (material that has been subsequently identified as components of a MOGUL balloon train) to create the original "debris field." The scenarios further contend that the damaged craft again became airborne and flew to its final crash site, at either the location north of Roswell or 175 miles northwest of Roswell on the San Agustin Plains.

Regardless of the dispute over the location, an element common to most scenarios was that, once recovered, the bodies were supposedly transported to the hospital at Roswell Army Air Field for autopsy. Also common to these theories is that the bodies were later shipped from Roswell AAF to another facility, usually Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (or a host of other facilities—this is another area of further disagreement among UFO theorists) for further evaluation and ultimate deep-freeze storage.

## Research Methods

In an attempt to untangle this collection of complicated assertions and determine if there was any validity to the reports of bodies, Air Force researchers faced the task of sorting through and examining anecdotal testimony of hundreds of witnesses. However, a large number of the accounts were eliminated by applying previously established facts to the testimonies. The July 1994 report to the Secretary of the Air Force clearly presented and documented these facts:

a. The U.S. Army Air Forces did not recover an extraterrestrial vehicle and alien crew. This conclusion was based on extensive research that included a thorough review of both classified and

"It must be emphasized that the claims of bodies only became part of the Roswell Incident after 1978, when they were erroneously linked to the July 1947 retrieval of Project MOGUL components."