The Mammoth Book of Cover-Ups

The US military/government covered up evidence of a UFO crash at Roswell: ALERT LEVEL 4

Further Reading

Charles Berlitz and William Moore, The Roswell Incident, 1980

Kevin D. Randle and Donald R. Schmitt, UFO Crash at Roswell, 1991

DOCUMENT: EXTRACTS FROM THE ROSWELL REPORT

FACT VS. FICTION IN THE NEW MEXICO DESERT PUBLISHED BY HEADQUARTERS, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE, 1995 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

WHAT THE ROSWELL INCIDENT WAS NOT

Before discussing specific positive results that these efforts revealed, it is first appropriate to discuss those things, as indicated by information available to the Air Force, that the «Roswell Incident» was not:

An Airplane Crash

[…]

A Missile Crash

[…]

A Nuclear Accident

[…]

An Extraterrestrial Craft

The Air Force research found absolutely no indication that what happened near Roswell in 1947 involved any type of extraterrestrial spacecraft. This, of course, is the crux of this entire matter. «Pro-UFO» persons who obtain a copy of this report, at this point, most probably begin the «cover-up is still on» claims. Nevertheless, the research indicated absolutely no evidence of any kind that a spaceship crashed near Roswell or that any alien occupants were recovered therefrom, in some secret military operation or otherwise. This does not mean, however, that the early Air Force was not concerned about UFOs. However, in the early days, «UFO» meant Unidentified Flying Object, which literally translated as some object in the air that was not readily identifiable. It did not mean, as the term has evolved in today’s language, to equate to alien spaceships. Records from the period reviewed by Air Force researchers as well as those cited by the authors mentioned before, do indicate that the USAF was seriously concerned about the inability to adequately identify unknown flying objects reported in American airspace. All the records, however, indicated that the focus of concern was not on aliens, hostile or otherwise, but on the Soviet Union. Many documents from that period speak to the possibility of developmental secret Soviet aircraft overflying US airspace. This, of course, was of major concern to the fledgling USAF, whose job it was to protect these same skies.

The research revealed only one official AAF document that indicated that there was any activity of any type that pertained to UFOs and Roswell in July 1947. This was a small section of the July Historical Report for the 509th Bomb Group and Roswell AAF that stated: «The Office of Public Information was quite busy during the month answering inquiries on the ‘flying disk’, which was reported to be in possession of the 509th Bomb Group. The object turned out to be a radar tracking balloon» […] Additionally, this history showed that the 509th Commander, Colonel Blanchard, went on leave on 8 July 1947, which would be a somewhat unusual maneuver for a person involved in the supposed first ever recovery of extraterrestrial materials. (Detractors claim Blanchard did this as a ploy to elude the press and go to the scene to direct the recovery operations.) The history and the morning reports also showed that the subsequent activities at Roswell during the month were mostly mundane and not indicative of any unusual high-level activity, expenditure of manpower, resources or security.

Likewise, the researchers found no indication of heightened activity anywhere else in the military hierarchy in the July 1947 message traffic or orders (to include classified traffic). There were no indications and warnings, notice of alerts, or a higher tempo of operational activity reported that would be logically generated if an alien craft, whose intentions were unknown, entered US territory. To believe that such operational and high-level security activity could be conducted solely by relying on unsecured telecommunications or personal contact without creating any records of such activity certainly stretches the imagination of those who have served in the military who know that paperwork of some kind is necessary to accomplish even emergency, highly classified, or sensitive tasks.

An example of activity sometimes cited by pro-UFO writers to illustrate the point that something unusual was going on was the travel of Lt.-General Nathan Twining, Commander of the Air Materiel Command, to New Mexico in July 1947. Actually, records were located indicating that Twining went to the Bomb Commanders’ Course on 8 July, along with a number of other general officers, and requested orders to do so a month before, on 5 June 1947 […]