6 Things Witnesses Said About the Roswell Incident

The theories about what happened in Roswell, New Mexico, that July night in 1947 have varied widely in the last 75 years, but there’s no denying the testimony of the people who saw pieces of the strange aircraft with their own eyes.

March 09, 2023

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Photo by: David Zaitz

David Zaitz

On July 7, 1947, Mac Brazel drove into Roswell to deliver a pile of debris to the sheriff. Brazel and his son, Vernon, had found a wreckage of some kind on their remote New Mexico ranch. It consisted of rubber, metal, stick, and tin foil.

The sheriff was confounded and contacted officials at the Roswell Army Air Field. A story about the wreckage ran in the Roswell Daily Record with a quote from a US Army official declaring that a flying saucer had been recovered.

Here are 6 things we know about Roswell:

Reported UFO Sightings Were Up

In the six months prior to the Roswell incident, there had been hundreds of UFO sightings reported in the western US. Some ufologists believe that the uptick in sightings was due to extraterrestrials on a scouting mission before attempting to make contact.

Alien street lights line the downtown streets of Roswell, New Mexico.The small southwestern town became famous after a supposed UFO crash in the 1940's.

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Alien street lights line the downtown streets of Roswell, New Mexico.The small southwestern town became famous after a supposed UFO crash in the 1940's.

Photo by: ehrlif

ehrlif

The Official Story Changed Several Times

While initial newspaper reports quoted an army officer as saying there was a UFO recovered from the desert, the government amended its story to say that the recovered object was actually just a weather balloon. Decades later, in 1994, the story changed again — the UFO was determined to be a spy balloon.

There Was Something Weird About the UFO’s Material

The rancher who found the debris and US Air Force Major Jesse Marcel recalled that the metal recovered from the crash site was lightweight and couldn’t be dented — not even a sledgehammer warped the material; it always returned to its original shape. Additionally, an i-beam with unfamiliar writing on it was recovered from the scene of the crash.

There Were Two Crash Sites

There was a second crash site 40 miles away from Brazel’s ranch where more wreckage and alien bodies were recovered. A firefighter who responded to the second sight recalled seeing a large disc in the ground with several small non-human bodies nearby. Military officials on the scene pressured the firefighter to keep quiet about the things he saw.

The Firefighter Wasn’t The Only Witness To The Bodies

Sgt. Melvin Brown was on-site during the mission to recover the debris from the crash site. He was told not to look under a tarp, but his curiosity got the best of him. When he peeked, he claimed he saw two alien bodies. The government has always denied his claims, but Brown is far from the only person to say they saw extraterrestrial beings recovered from Roswell.

UFO in the town of Roswell,New Mexico in black and white.

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UFO in the town of Roswell,New Mexico in black and white.

Photo by: mj0007

mj0007

The Government Can Keep Secrets

The incident at Roswell was less than two years after the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in 1945. Those bombs were the result of a three-year project operating at three sites — one of which was in New Mexico — across America. Roswell incident researchers and ufologists believe that if the government could hide the atomic bomb for so long that it could absolutely conceal vital information about contact with extraterrestrial life. The military’s acknowledgment of UFOs in 2021 has bolstered some people’s belief that aliens are trying to contact us.

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