S04 Episode 11: New Dawn Fades (Pt.2 of 2)

in from the Chavers County Sheriff's Department. Taking it in his office, he listened carefully as the man on the other end of the line, Sheriff George Wilcox, proceeded to relay what he himself had just been told by local rancher Mac Brazel, that something appeared to have broken up over a section of ranch land that he managed, and that he had no idea what it was. That's all very well, Sheriff said Mars A little confused. But what's it got to do with us? Well, said Wilcox, pausing

for a moment. He thinks it might have something to do with those flying discs we've all been hearing about. In July nineteen forty seven, Major Jesse Marcel was the Base Intelligence Officer of the five O ninth Bombardment Group. Prior to this, he worked for Shell Oil as a specialist in constructing maps from aerial photography before volunteering for the US Air Force shortly after the outbreak of the

Second World War. After excelling an intelligence officer training in nineteen forty three, Marcel was dispatched to the South Pacific as a squadron intelligence officer for US Air Force Fifth Bomber Command, where he remained until the end of the war. Marcel's service earned him a number of medals, as well as the Bronze Star and eventually a promotion to major. Well respected by his colleagues, Marcel had little interest in

science fiction or speculation about Little Green people. However, there was good reason to be concerned about just what exactly had come down on the ranch. Ever since Kenneth Arnold's apparent strange sightings the previous month, the US military had been on high alert for unidentified flying objects, the emphasis

being unidentified. It's a common misconception that the term UFO, which wouldn't be coined until nineteen fifty three, refers exclusively to objects of extraterrestrial origin, when in fact, it refers merely to any object in the sky that has yet to be identified. Back in nineteen forty seven, military personnel tended to label such things as simply bogies, a catch all for anything appearing unexpectedly on radar that had the

potential to be hostile. And what concerned the US military in nineteen forty seven, far more than the possibility of interplanetary attack, was a somewhat earthlier fear of the unknown, more specifically, the unknown capabilities of the Soviet Union's military, a fear heightened by paranoia at what secrets they might have unearthed, having acquired a number of Germany's leading scientists

at the end of the war. After all, it was only recently that the US government learned of the German army's vie to rocket program, not to mention that the US government themselves maintained a number of secretive programs of modern weapons development. It was only reasonable to speculate, therefore, that all these reports of flying sources could have something

to do with new Soviet technology. It was late in the afternoon of Monday, July seven that Major Marcell jumped into an Army geep and sped off toward the Foster Ranch, accompanied by counterintelligence officer Sheridan Cavit, pulling up to the ranch house a few hours later, with the sun already dipping below the horizon, they were greeted by Mac Brazell. Mack wasted no time in showing them the scraps of

material he had taken back to the ranch. Though they were certainly unusual, thought Marcell, he was keen to see the rest of the debris to get a bigger picture. However, with the light fading fast, there was little point in heading out there that evening, and so the three of them bedded down for the night and waited for morning. Shortly after five am the following day, Marcel and Cavit awoke to the cool, pink haze of a New Mexico sunrise.

Gathering their things, they jumped back into the jeep and along with Brazel, drove out into the desert. After twenty minutes cruising through the scrub, Brazel instructed them to stop there, he said, pointing to the bush where he'd attempted to

gather at the rest of the broken pieces. Cavet turned off the engine, and together the three of them jumped out and headed on toward the debris headlined Diston July eighth, nineteen forty seven, the Army Air Forces has announced that a flying disk has been found and is now in the perfection of the Army. Of a matter of fact, the five hundred and ninth Atomic Bond Group headquarters at Rockwell, New Mexicol, report that it has received one of the

disks which landed on a rant outside Rockwell. A disk landed at a rant at Corona, New Mexicol, and a ranter turned it over to the airport ranker. WW Brazel was the man who discovered the toper. Colonel William Blanchard of the Rockwell Airbey produited to give detail of what the flying desk looked like. The press release had been ordered by Colonel Blanchard soon after Marcel briefed him and

what they had discovered at the ranch. The excited radio broadcasts would continue thick and fast throughout the day, and the afternoon's newspapers would soon follow suit, as all over the world the public began to hear about the extraordinary news.

The eighth of July edition of the Roswell Daily Record lad with Roswell Army Airfield captures flying saucer on ranch in Roswell, as the article went on to state, according to information released by the Intelligence Office of the five o ninth, the disc was recovered on a ranch in the Roswell vicinity after an unidentified rancher had notified Sheriff George Wilcox here that he'd found the instrument on his premisive. Major Marcel and a detail from his depart went to

the ranch and recovered the disc. The Intelligence Office stated that no details of the sources, construction, or its appearance had been revealed. Having delivered a significant amount of the debris from the ranch back to Roswell Airfield, Major Marcel was then ordered to ship out with it immediately to the Air Force base at Fort Worth in Texas. From there it would be reviewed by more senior personnel before

they decided what to do with it next. And so it was that only a few hours later Major Marcell touched down in Texas at the offices of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, just six miles east of the Army airfield, Editor Callum Greene listened with astonishment as the radio reports came in about the Flying Sources discovery. A short time later, he received the wance in a lifetime tip off that the wreckage of the apparent flying disc was heading to

Fort Worth. Seeing twenty year old military editor and photographer John Von Johnson at his desk, Green hurried over to him. You're going to want to take your camera for this one, he said with a smile. Within minutes, Johnson was at the wheel of his Ford Club coupe, speeding off toward

the Army airfield. Johnson had been a police reporter for The Telegram since nineteen forty three, but by forty seven he was also a pilot officer in the Civil Air Patrol, having joined the Army Air Force as a trainee during the war, a fact that Green hoped might help him gain access to the base. Excited by the prospect of his first solo assignment, or Johnson could think about was getting there in time to publish the story for that night's edition. Arriving in double quick time, he was relieved

to find he was the first one there. After announcing himself at the front gate, he was swiftly ushered through and told to head directly for the office of Brigadier General Brogier Raymie. Arriving outside his room, the first thing that struck Johnson was the intense, acrid, burning odor coming from inside it. It reminded him of the burned out buildings he encountered back when he was a police reporter

knocking on the door. He was then invited in by Colonel Thomas Dubouse, who informed him that Raymie would be joining them shortly. Inside, he saw on the floor in front of him a jumble of broken rods and ripped sheets of what appeared to be some kind of foil. These bits and pieces, he assumed were remnants of the

apparent flying saucer, or at least some of it. Realizing he only had a few minutes to set up the camera and get the shot, Johnson attempted to make the pieces more presentable, but none of it seemed to fit together in any logical way. Moments later, Brigadier General Raymie appeared,

along with Major Jesse Marcel, who seemed oddly reserved. Johnson then asked Raymie if they determined what it was exactly, but Raymie had no idea, and so, without wanting to waste any more time, Johnson had Raymie debase and Major Marcell posed for a few photographs alongside the debris. Having taken six photos in total, Johnson was thanked for his time, and with the scoop in hand, he headed straight back

to the Star Telegram to develop the pictures. An hour later, he handed the finished Prince to his editor and headed home. Later that afternoon, as Johnson was driving home back at the Fort Worth Air Force Base, another press release was being hastily arranged. Something it seemed had shifted in the narrative. At some time around three pm, Bricadier General Raymie is thought by some to have received a call from his superior, General McMullen, instructing him to put out a new release.

General Raymie described the object as being a flimsy constructor almost like a box type. He says that it was so battered that he was unable to determine whether it had a disf form, and he does not indicate its tide. Raymie says that, so far as can be determined, no one saw the object in the air, and he described

it as being made of some sort of tinfoil. Other Army officials say that further information indicates that the object had a diameter of about twenty to twenty five feet, and that nothing in the apparent construction indicated any capacity for speed, and that there was no evidence of a power plant. But diff also appeared j Clemley to carry a men, now back to Taylor grant in your yacht.

By the following morning, the apparent flying saucer discovery had been mixed entirely, or as the July ninth edition of the Roswell Daily Record declared, General Ramy empties Roswell's saucer. The article continued. An examination by the Army revealed last night that mysterious objects found on a lonely New Mexico ranch was a harmless high altitude weather balloon and not

a grounded flying disc. Excitement was high until Brigadier General Roger Ramy, commander of the eighth Air Forces with headquarters here, cleared up the mystery, describing the materials as being nothing more than a bundle of tinfoil, broken wood beams, and rubber remnants of a balloon. The General said the objects were the crushed remains of a ray wind target used to determine the direction and velocity of winds at high altitudes.

A number of other papers followed suit, with many carrying the pictures that Johnson had taken of the material in Ramy's office. Most meteorologists, on examining the pictures, agreed that the supposed crash debris was indeed pieces of a weather balloon. However, there was one additional photo now circulating in the press which hadn't been taken by Johnson or any other known

press photographer. The picture showed Warrant Officer and Army weather forecaster Irving Newton, who had not been present for Johnson's original photo session. Newton was put forward as an expert by the Army Air Force, confirming the weather balloon interpretation. The materials were eventually flown on to the Army's scientific and technical labs at right Field Base in Ohio, where the weather balloon explanation was again officially confirmed. Are you

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podcast Today to get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained Podcast. The same day that people were waking up to the news that the apparent flying saucer was nothing but a weather balloon. The full account of mac Brazel's story was also published in the Roswell Daily Record. Brazel's description of the debris was markedly underwhelming and clashed significantly

with all original reports of a flying disc. When the debris was gathered up, he stated the tinfoil, paper, tape and sticks made a bundle about eighteen or twenty inches long and about five inches thick. The article continued. In all, he estimated the entire lot would have weighed maybe five pounds. There was no sign of any metal in the area which might have been used for an engine, and no

sign of any propellers of any kind. There were no words to be found anywhere on the instrument, although there were letters on some of the parts. Considerable scotch tape and some tape with flowers printed upon it had been used in the construction. No strings or wire were found either, but there were some eyelets in the paper to indicate that some sort of attachment may have been used, all of which was in keeping with the Army Air Force's explanation that it was merely a weather balloon that had

broken up. Tantalizingly, however, Brazel, who had seen a number of such devices on the ranch before, concluded by stating that whatever it was he had found, he was certain it was not a weather balloon either way. Within days, the whole roswell for Roar had all but completely blown over, though an ordinate amount of disks were apparently spotted flying in the skies throughout the rest of the year, for the more skeptical of the public, the story was completely dead.

For a start. With the Cold War heating up, there were far more pressing concerns than little green people, and even for the most ardent of UFO believers, this intriguing event soon vanished almost completely from public consciousness, but not every one had forgotten about it, Unlike the majority of the public. Far from ignoring the UFO flap of nineteen forty seven, the U. S. Army Air Force began to

secretly investigate it. As mentioned earlier, this is unsurprising considering the heightened fear of possible attack to the nation at the time. Either way, the reports make for some interesting reading. As one official document is said to have noted, dated

July thirtieth, nineteen forty seven. From a detailed study of reports selected for their impression of voracity and reliability, several conclusions have been formed the flying saucer situation is not at all imaginary or the result of seeing too much

in some natural phenomena. Something is really flying around. On twenty eighth of October nineteen forty seven, General George Shulgan, chief of the US Air Force Air Intelligence Requirements Division, issued a secret memo outlining the commonly reported features of what he termed the flying saucer type aircraft, and instructed all military personnel to be on the lookout for such

a device. Contrary to the opinions of some, however, the original memo did not include the statement that some elements in the military believed these objects represented into planetary craft. Nonetheless, the United States Air Force continued to monitor and assess all UFO sightings for at least the next twenty years. This began with Project sign which was then superseded by Project Grudge, which eventually in turn became the more well

known Project Blue Book. In nineteen fifty, former Marine Corps naval aviator Donald Kehoe gave an interview in the US's True magazine, claiming to know for a fact that the Earth had been under close range examination by living, intelligent observers from another planet. The US Air Force responded with a six hundred page report detailing and explaining away two hundred and thirty seven apparent UFO cases, and so the

dance would continue between believers and the military. Project Blue Book was formally shut down in nineteen sixty nine, though many, of course believed the US government merely continued their efforts elsewhere. It may be surprising to learn, however, considering its notoriety today, the Roswell UFO incident had barely been men since, but

all that was about to change. At the turn of the nineteen seventies, nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman had forged a reputation as one of the leading experts in his field, working for the likes of General Electric and Aerojet, amongst many others. Stanton's specialty was finding ways to incorporate nuclear technology as a power source for planes, rockets, and even

space travel. By nineteen seventy, however, Freedman had given it all up to investigate the possible existence of intelligent alien life. His fascination in the subject had begun in nineteen fifty eight after coming across a report on unidentified flying objects written by former Air Force officer and creator of the term UFO, Edward Ruppelt. As his own interest in the utility of nuclear power expanded, Freedman became intrigued by the prospect that beings from another planet were using it to

visit Earth. In February nineteen seventy eight, Friedman was in a TV studio in Louisiana preparing for an interview to promote a talk he was giving on UFOs later that night. During a quick coffee break, he got talking to the show's director, who suggested he get in touch with a friend of theirs that lived nearby who claimed that they had not only seen a UFO, but had also touched it. By then, Freedman was something of a ufology celebrity and

this sort of interaction was par for the course. Nodding along politely, he thanked the director for the suggestion and made a mental note to add the name to the vast list of other individuals who'd contacted him claiming the same. Freedman hadn't given the name much thought, but with some time to kill at the local airport the next day, he made a quick call to Information and asked them

for a number for a man named Jesse Marcell. Dialing his number moments later, Friedman waited patiently until finally an elderly sounding man picked up the phone. Friedman introduced himself, and the man in turn confirmed that he was indeed Jesse Marcel, formerly Major Marcell of the five h ninth Bombardment Group. The story of the Roswell incident would never

be the same again, according to Friedman. For whatever reason, when Marcel answered the call that day, he decided to come clean about what really happened back in the summer

of nineteen forty seven. As he went on to explain Firstly, when he arrived at the location of what he referred to as the crash site, he didn't find the remaining pieces all neatly bundled up and stashed under a bush, or that all the pieces had already been picked up by mac Brazell, as some reports claimed, but instead he found a vast array of it was still there, covering an area of roughly three quarters of a mile long and several hundred yards wide. More importantly, he claimed the

materials were like nothing he had ever encountered before. Some of it he described as being as thin as the foil from a cigarette packet, but extremely strong and impossible to break or tear. Other bits looked like thin beams of wood, but were in fact inordinately strong and had strange markings on them. When he later escorted the pieces of the wreckage to Fort Worth, Marcel claimed that only a small portion of them were taken out to show the press, while the rest of it was flown on

to right Field in Ohio. He also claimed that he was given strict instructions to stay silent throughout the process, and slowly more and more alternative versions of the story began to emerge in seventy nine, an associate of Freedman's was told by Marcel's son, a medical doctor and ironically an aircraft accident investigator in his own right, that his father had actually brought some of the wreckage home, Though only eleven at the time, Doctor Jesse Junior Marcel claimed

to distinctly remember seeing a series of characters from an unknown language imprinted along the edges of some of the beams. The images, he said, reminded him of hieroglyphics. Friedman published these claims soon after, becoming known as the first civilian to investigate the apparent UFO crash near Roswell, But these revelations seemed only to be at the tip of an iceberg.

Before long, more witnesses came forward, claiming secret knowledge of the events, that it wasn't only a spacecraft that was recovered, but bodies too, one of them possibly even alive. Dates

were questioned as to when exactly at all occurred. Stories and interviews given at the time were scrutinized and reevaluated for any sign of coercion or a wider plot to keep a lid on the real truth, each interested party invariably finding in the evidence whatever they wanted to find, the rumors eventually escalating to incorporate that most secretive of US Air Force sites, Area fifty one, the place where some claimed today the Roswell craft and its occupants was

eventually taken and reverse engineered for its secrets. In nineteen ninety four, the US Air Force, spurred on by the disproportionate attention that seemed to be directed at what they considered to be such an innocuous event, released its own findings into the Roswell incident. Incredibly, the Roswell Report, fact versus fiction in the New Mexico Desert, concluded that there had been a cover up and that the weather balloon

story had indeed been entirely manufactured to hide the truth. However, it wasn't due to any alien technology the Air Force had found, but rather to keep secret the existence of its own. It wasn't the innocuous weather balloon they first claimed, but rather a device that was being used as part of a secret operation known as Project Mogul. The project's purpose was to keep track of any atomic tests that

the Soviet Union might be conducting. They did this by flying microphones at high altitudes to pick up on signature sound waves that such tests would give off for the true believers. However, this was just yet another smoke screen and the real truth, as they say, is still out there. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to help support us, you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com forward slash support. All donations, no matter how

large or small, are massively appreciated. All elements of Unexplained are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com, Forward slash Unexplained.

Now it's time to take care of your self. To make time for you. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week. TELEDOC therapy is available through most insurance or employers, download the app, or visit teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast Today to get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained Podcast