This study attempts to use logic to determine whether or not aliens landed in Roswell, New Mexico. I will make a point of emphasizing the assertion in question, that aliens crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947, as well as offering historical context. I will also assess whether the claim is truly unusual and the evidence presented in support of the claim. I'll try to come up with different reasons for this one. I'll explore if the claim meets the burden of proof after applying Occam's Razor and a Reduction style argument to it. On the evening of July 3rd 1947, a respected business owner, Dan Wilmot and his wife reported seeing a bright saucer shaped object about 20-25 feet across with glowing lights flying across the sky at incredible speed of about 400-500 miles per hour. The object appeared from the Southeast and disappeared to the Northwest.
In early July, the foreman of J.B Foster Ranch, Mac Brazel, was riding out to check his sheep after a night of intense thunderstorms when he discovered a large amount of unknown debris scattered across the pastures. He went on to show some pieces of the debris to some friends and neighbours and later on contacted Chaves County Sheriff George Wilcox. The sheriff suspected that these materials might have some connection to military operations and therefore notified the authorities at the then Roswell Army Air Field.
Evidence
A Major Jesse Marcel was the Intelligence Officer at the 509th Bomb Group and was involved in the recovery of the wreckage of the alleged UFO which was flown to Roswell Army Air Field. The press statements released regarding the incident were as follows; First, by Colonel William Blanchard, Commander of the 509th Bomb Group stating that the wreckage of a crashed disk had been recovered. The second one came from a General Roger Ramey, Commander of the Eighth Air Force at Fort Worth Army Air Field, Texas claiming that the previous statement wasn't right; the officers of the 509th Bomb Group had identified a weather balloon and its radar reflector as a crashed disk.
Glenn Dennis, a mortician with Ballard Funeral Home in Roswell received many calls from the Mortuary Officer at the air field. He was asked about the availability of small sealed caskets and his opinion on the preservation of bodies that were exposed to the elements for several days. He got curious and visited the Base Hospital that evening but was forcibly removed from the building. He claims to have met a nurse from the hospital the following day in a coffee husema who said she had been in attendance during autopsies performed on 'several small non-human bodies'. He kept a napkin on which the nurse had drawn sketches of the aliens. The nurse was abruptly transferred to England after this. It seemed like every witness to the crash and the recovery was either abruptly transferred or disappeared which led to suspicious that an extraordinary event had happened and was being deliberately covered up by the goverment.
Over the years many interviews have taken place involving military personnel involved in the recovery activities of that night and various witnesses but the main witness is of course Jesse Marcel; who, when interviewed regarding the incident stated ' ...it would not burn...that stuff weighs nothing, its so thin, it isn't any thicker than the tinfoil in a pack of cigarettes. It wouldn't bend. We even tried making a dent in it with a 16 pound sledge hammer. And there was still no ded in it.' His son, Dr Jesse Marcel Jr who was 11 years old at the time, has produced some detailed drawings of hieroglyphic-like markings he saw on the surface of some of the wreckage when he accompanied his father during the retrieval efforts.
This incident, despite occurring in 1947, actually started being in the public eye when Moore and Friedman began talking to Jesse Marcel in 1978. This leaves an almost 31 year gap and no matter how much they try to maintain the 'sharpness' and accuracy of their witnesses' memory, thirty one years is a long time. The details cannot have been as accurate as they claim. Taking this into consideration, human memory cannot be 100% trusted. There also comes to play the idea of human perception. It is possible that after years of different information being heard by these 'witnesses', this changed their memory into a different recollection. Marcel himself wasn't sure when the incident even took place, let alone specific dates and details. With more and more evidence coming out, including documents from a meeting held by the military a few days later, it is becoming clear that it was most likely a weather balloon that crashed that day; more specifically an ML-307 radar reflector.”There is absolutely no question that this is the debris from an ML-307 radar reflector” (Jeffrey, 18) The debris described by witnesses are consistent with the makeup of this device.
With all the evidence uncovered in recent times, it is almost impossible that what happened was a UFO landing. Assuming that these were aliens, who are assumed to have more advanced technology than us, how then did they crash land? Even current aircrafts have been designed to go for long distances without needing oil refills, how then is it that an advanced race wouldn't be able to fashion an aircraft that could survive such a crash? Why would such an advanced aircraft only consist of foil-like materials and short beams consistent with the radar reflector? Most of the people interviewed have ended up changing their stories over the years, questioning their truth. However, the testimonies of the personnel present during the whole incident, who deny any truth to the UFO landing, have remained consistent.
Most people who believe in this UFO landing incident definitely believe that the aliens are among us, controlling us from the top. With hundreds of blogs dedicated to the research and documentation of so-called alien control, it is hard to sieve between the truth and false stories. There have even been stories of abduction by these extraterrestrials for probing and research. If this is true, the question then remains, what is their purpose here? Does the government know about this? Is this all a huge cover up? These are all questions that have been posed over the years but can only be proven when solid unshakeable evidence comes out.
I do not believe any burden of proof has been met by all these claims. Glenn Dennis, the young mortician who claimed to have spoken to a nurse on site was questioned about the details of this nurse. He claimed her name was Naomi Self; but on further research of the people hired at the Base Hospital at the time, no such name was found. Fellow officers who worked with Jesse Marcel, despite giving him the utmost respect, refute some of his claims. They all maintain that it was a weather balloon and no extraordinary bodies were found at the crash site.
Conclusion
As seen above, I have attempted to apply reason and determine whether or not a UFO, with alien bodies or not, landed in Roswell, NM in July 1947. I have highlighted the claims that came forward, providing the historical background and context. I have evaluated whether or not the claim is actually extraordinary with support for either sides of the claim. I have also provided the alternative explanations for this, while applying Occam's Razor and a Reduction style argument to the claims. Finally, I have discussed whether the claims meet the burden of proof or not. Hopefully this gives a clear picture of the incident and the surrounding claims.
Works Cited
Jeffrey, Kent." Roswell – Anatomy of a Myth" .Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 79101, 1998
http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc384.htm
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/what_really_happened_at_roswell/
Dean, Richard. "Roswell, The Facts, Truths and Eyewitness Accounts." UFO Evidence. (2011):n. page. Web.
