The Roswell Report: Case Closed

Harassed Rancher who Located
'Saucer' Sorry He Tole/ A bout ItW. w. Brazel, 48, Lincoln counLy
rancher living 30 mile.~ south east
of Corona. today told his story of
finding what the army at first
described as a flying disk, but
the publicity which attended hls
find caused hlm to add that If he
ever found anythimt else short of
a bomb he sure wasn't going to
say anythm. about lt.
Brazel was brought here late
yesterday by W. E. Whitmore, of
radio station KOFL, had his pic-
ture taken and gave an Interview
to the Record and Jason Kcllahin.
~ent here from the Albuquerque
bureau o! the Associated Press to
cover the story. The picture he
posed for was aent out over AP
U>lephoto wire !lending machine
specially set up In the Record
office by R. D. Adair, AP wire
chief sent here from Albuquerque
for the sole purpose of getting out
his rocture and that of :~herlff
George Wilcox, to whom Brazel
originally gave the'.t he might have found a smoky gray In color and scattered
!ly!ng disk. over an area ·about 200 yards In
Wilcox got in touch with the diameter.
Roswt!ll Army Air Field and MaJ. When the debris was gathered
Jesse A. Matcel and a man In up the tinfoil, paper, tape, and
plain clotHes pccompanled, him &ticks made a bundle abOut three
homC~. where they picked up the reeuong and 7-or 8 inches t.hlck.
rest ot the pieces of the "di~k" wh!le the rubber ml\de a bundle
and went to his home to try to about 18 or 20 Inches long and
reconstruct tt. &bout 8 lnchr-~ thick. In all, he
According to Brazel they simply estimated, the enUre lot would
Don Berliner and Stanton T. Friedman the authors of the book Crash at
Corona. This request solicited persons to provide information about the
supposed crashes of alien spacecraft in the Socorro area. 8*
In response to the newspaper announcement, two scientists
central to the actual explanation of the "Roswell" events, Professor
Charles B. Moore, a former U.S. Army Air Forces contract engineer, and
Bernard D. Gildenberg, retired Holloman AFB Balloon Branch Physical
Science Administrator and Meteorologist, came forward with pertinent
information. 9 According to Moore and Gilden berg, when they met with
the authors their explanations that some of the Air Force projects they
participated in were most likely responsible for the incident, they were
summarily dismissed. The authors even went so far as to suggest that
these distinguished scientists were participants in a multifaceted
government cover-up to conceal the truth about the Roswell Incident.
·Socorro, N.M. is situated at the northwest boundary of White Sands Missile Range, the largest military test
range in the United States. Since the 1940s, White Sands and the surrounding areas of New Mexico have been
the site of a high volume of military test and evaluation activity, including the launch and recovery of
anthropomorphic dummies carried aloft by high altitude balloons.
8
have weighed maybe five pounds.
There was no ~im of any metal
in the area which might nave
been usro for an engine and no
sil:n of any propellers ot any kind,
although at least one paper tin
had been glued onto some or t.he
tinfoil.
There were no words to be round
anywhere an the Instrument. al-
though there were letters on some
of the parts. Considerable srotch
tape and some tape with flowers
prlnted upon lt had been used In
the construction.
No. strings or wire were to be
found but there were some eye-
lets In the paper to indicate that
some sort of attachment may have
been used.
Brazel said that he had pre-
viously found two weather obser-
vation bailoans on· the ranch, but
that what he found this t.lme did
not In any way reSemble either
or these.
"I am .sure what I found wa.s
not e. n y weather observation
balloon." he aatd. "But if I 11nd
anything else, besides a bomb they
are going to ltave a hard time
getUng me to say anything about
it."
Fig. 7. This account from the
July 9, 1947 Roswell Daily
Record, described the materials
"tinfoil, paper, rubber, tape,
and sticks" found on the ranch
75 miles northwest of Roswell,
in June 1947.