I have no problem accepting that the Roswell UFO crash was simply a Mogul balloon contraption. However, I can’t understand the initial Roswell Press Release.
I assume the newspapers published verbatim the text supplied to them by the spokesman from the Roswell base. Why was there a press release at all? Why claim to have solved the mystery of the flying discs? Somebody sat down and composed the press release. It has never made sense to me. Were they trying to convince the Soviets that we had found a UFO?
Just wondering if this bothers anybody else.
Here is the press release:
The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff's office of Chaves County. The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the sheriff's office, who in turn notified Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence Office. Action was immediately taken and the disc was picked up at the rancher's home. It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned by Major Marcel to higher headquarters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident
I dont find anything strange about that press release. It simply says a farmer found something called “a disk” on his property and after storing it ( must have been relatively light if he could move it in order to store it) he turned it over to the air force.
There is nothing in that press release implying this was a space ship or that any alien bodies were found. In fact the whole thing is pretty vague. The later part of the press release refers to the object as being a weather balloon.
The part that UFO proponents try to say about Roswell was that they knew it was an alien spacecraft. The problem with this is that it only says they found a disk, nothing about aliens or technology. It was only years later that people were obsessed with aliens and said this must be one. I think MOGUL makes more sense than aliens and one of the officer’s sons said that their father was making things up about the discovery of intelligent life.
I dont find anything strange about that press release. It simply says a farmer found something called "a disk" on his property and after storing it ( must have been relatively light if he could move it in order to store it) he turned it over to the air force.
There is nothing in that press release implying this was a space ship or that any alien bodies were found. In fact the whole thing is pretty vague. The later part of the press release refers to the object as being a weather balloon.
"The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday..." This seems to be referring to the public's curiosity about the flying disc mystery resulting from Kenneth Arnold's report IMO.
Also, I quoted the
entire press release (as far as I know). I think you are confusing this initial press release with the second press release after the debris arrived in Texas and was declared to be an ordinary weather balloon.
The part that UFO proponents try to say about Roswell was that they knew it was an alien spacecraft. The problem with this is that it only says they found a disk, nothing about aliens or technology. It was only years later that people were obsessed with aliens and said this must be one. I think MOGUL makes more sense than aliens and one of the officer's sons said that their father was making things up about the discovery of intelligent life.
I edited my opening post so that the first two sentences are in bold. I'm
not arguing that a flying saucer crashed at Roswell. I'm arguing that the initial press release was not an innocent, careless, mix-up. The story was picked-up all over the world in the short time before the second press release, because the public was so interested in the flying discs.
Here is the only explanation I've been able to devise: I think the government was interested in UFOs but they wanted to reduce the public excitement about flying discs due to Kenneth Arnold's sighting and others that followed. So the initial press release was designed to trick the newspapers into a feeding frenzy so that they could be made to look foolish later. This would make everybody more jaded about UFO coverage. (That is my theory for what it's worth. :) )
That’s a big stretch. The statement is fairly innocuous. I don’t see any evidence to support your theory. You are assuming that when they say “the many rumors became a reality” that they are trying to imply the rumor about alien life. Any attempt to interpret the statement that way is fraught with contradictions. How could the “many” rumors become reality. There were in fact many theories. Only one could become reality. If what they actually meant to say but worded poorly was that “among the many rumors they had determined the correct explanation” then it seems logical that they were simply trying to convey that there was a simple earthbound explanation for these sightings as the object in question was a man made balloon.
To read this as some sort of intentional misdirection by the military seems very far fetched.
However, I can’t understand the initial Roswell Press Release.
Apply Occam's Razor: The whole dog any pony show confused and mislead the public and for the Army at the time, that was the whole idea.
That's a big stretch. The statement is fairly innocuous. I don't see any evidence to support your theory. You are assuming that when they say "the many rumors became a reality" that they are trying to imply the rumor about alien life. Any attempt to interpret the statement that way is fraught with contradictions. How could the "many" rumors become reality. There were in fact many theories. Only one could become reality. If what they actually meant to say but worded poorly was that "among the many rumors they had determined the correct explanation" then it seems logical that they were simply trying to convey that there was a simple earthbound explanation for these sightings as the object in question was a man made balloon.
To read this as some sort of intentional misdirection by the military seems very far fetched.
June 24, 1947 was when Kenneth Arnold had his famous UFO sighting that created a lot of curiosity and speculation about whether the UFOs were secret US aircraft, alien spaceships, Soviet aircraft, etc.
July 8, 1947 was the initial press from Roswell Army Air Field.
It seems obvious to me that RAAF was claiming to have solved the mystery of Kenneth Arnold's flying discs.
However, I can’t understand the initial Roswell Press Release.
Apply Occam's Razor: The whole dog any pony show confused and mislead the public and for the Army at the time, that was the whole idea.
If you are saying the Army was trying to hide the Mogul project, why didn't they choose a more mundane cover story instead of claiming to have one of the flying discs that everybody was so excited about? Why not tell the rancher that it was a classified project? After all, that whole area was full of secret projects. I imagine most people would have been satisfied with that explanation. Besides nobody but the locals knew about this until RAAF made their viral press release. A lot of Mogul balloons were lost and it was no big deal. Why turn this into a circus?
It seems obvious to me that RAAF was claiming to have solved the mystery of Kenneth Arnold's flying discs.
Yes, and to quote the Chief in F-Troop "It is Balloon!!"
A lot of Mogul balloons were lost and it was no big deal. Why turn this into a circus?
Perhaps because this was lost after the whole issue of "flying saucers" became a public interest and the air force believing ( correctly) that the rumors about the nature of flying saucers were a bunch of non-sense, wanted to put and end to the ridiculous speculation by providing a more down to earth explanation. Unfortunately they underestimated the publics appetite for silliness. I seriously doubt the official who put out the press release expected it to get this sort of longevity and wide spread attention.
If you are saying the Army was trying to hide the Mogul project, why didn’t they choose a more mundane cover story instead of claiming to have one of the flying discs that everybody was so excited about?
The whole Mogul thing itself was highly classified since the idea was to catch and study fallout from Soviet nuclear tests. Anything which involved the splitting of atoms was highly classified to extrordinary...even ridiculous lengths....and some of it still is.
I know something of this since my first ship was capable of carrying nuclear weapons. It was a taboo subject which just wasn't discussed...ever...even though I had several books on the subject which I bought at a book store at the Pearl Ridge Shopping Center overlooking Pearl Harbor itself. One of these books had extensive technical specifications and even photos of the various weapons which had been and still were in service.
Seen in that light, a lot of the secrecy itself was silly, but it was what it was. The government would strain on a gnat to avoid discussing, disclosing or 'fessing up to information which was already known and had even been put together from official sources.
So, with all that, why NOT go for a ridiculous cover story?
This is the
government we're talking about here. It doesn't have to make sense.
A lot of Mogul balloons were lost and it was no big deal. Why turn this into a circus?
Perhaps because this was lost after the whole issue of "flying saucers" became a public interest and the air force believing ( correctly) that the rumors about the nature of flying saucers were a bunch of non-sense, wanted to put and end to the ridiculous speculation by providing a more down to earth explanation. Unfortunately they underestimated the publics appetite for silliness. I seriously doubt the official who put out the press release expected it to get this sort of longevity and wide spread attention.
That's similar to my thinking, except that I believe the government was sincerely investigating UFOs at that early stage. Project Sign was created in January of 1948 only 6 months after Kenneth Arnold. There were lots of UFO sightings in the months before and after Kenneth Arnold and some of them were from military people. The public was interested enough that the July 1947 Gallup Poll (just a month after Kenneth Arnold) asked questions about flying saucers.
http://brain.gallup.com/documents/questionnaire.aspx?STUDY=AIPO0401&p=1
So I suspect somebody in the government decided to deflate public interest by deliberately creating a UFO story from a non-event and then humiliating newspapers and credulous readers by debunking it. Psychologically this would create the impression that the entire UFO mystery had also been debunked. Newspapers would be more skeptical about UFO stories. Readers would be more cynical. It's like the story of the boy that cried wolf.
I have no problem accepting that the Roswell UFO crash was simply a Mogul balloon contraption. However, I can't understand the initial Roswell Press Release.
I assume the newspapers published verbatim the text supplied to them by the spokesman from the Roswell base. Why was there a press release at all? Why claim to have solved the mystery of the flying discs? Somebody sat down and composed the press release. It has never made sense to me. Were they trying to convince the Soviets that we had found a UFO?
Just wondering if this bothers anybody else.
Here is the press release:
The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff's office of Chaves County. The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the sheriff's office, who in turn notified Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence Office. Action was immediately taken and the disc was picked up at the rancher's home. It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned by Major Marcel to higher headquarters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident
I can't detect any "conspiracy vibe" from this.
If you are saying the Army was trying to hide the Mogul project, why didn’t they choose a more mundane cover story instead of claiming to have one of the flying discs that everybody was so excited about?
The whole Mogul thing itself was highly classified since the idea was to catch and study fallout from Soviet nuclear tests. Anything which involved the splitting of atoms was highly classified to extrordinary...even ridiculous lengths....and some of it still is.
I know something of this since my first ship was capable of carrying nuclear weapons. It was a taboo subject which just wasn't discussed...ever...even though I had several books on the subject which I bought at a book store at the Pearl Ridge Shopping Center overlooking Pearl Harbor itself. One of these books had extensive technical specifications and even photos of the various weapons which had been and still were in service.
Seen in that light, a lot of the secrecy itself was silly, but it was what it was. The government would strain on a gnat to avoid discussing, disclosing or 'fessing up to information which was already known and had even been put together from official sources.
So, with all that, why NOT go for a ridiculous cover story?
This is the government we're talking about here. It doesn't have to make sense.
My understanding is that Mogul also relied on sound waves refracting at a boundary in the atmosphere so that bombs could be heard on the far side of the globe. Apparently the Navy was already using this trick in the ocean to listen for Soviet submarines so that would provide an added incentive to keep Mogul secret.
The question I have is: why didn't the RAAF people simply gather up the Mogul debris, tell the locals "sorry, this is a classified balloon", end of story. That would have been so much easier and nobody outside of Roswell would have cared.
The question I have is: why didn’t the RAAF people simply gather up the Mogul debris, tell the locals “sorry, this is a classified balloon", end of story.
Like I said, this is the
government we're talking about here. When that's what's on the table, it doesn't have to make sense and after 20 years of service in the Navy, I don't expect it.
The question I have is: why didn’t the RAAF people simply gather up the Mogul debris, tell the locals “sorry, this is a classified balloon", end of story.
Like I said, this is the government we're talking about here. When that's what's on the table, it doesn't have to make sense and after 20 years of service in the Navy, I don't expect it.
Maybe you are right. Also the Roswell press release was only two weeks after Kenneth Arnold, so that isn't much time to devise the diabolical psychological operation I imagine.
I can remember getting ready for work on 9/11 and hearing the NPR newscaster say that a “light, twin engine plane” had crashed into the World Trade Center building. Point being, that accounts from the initial period of an incident aren’t necessarily accurate, and there’s no need for deception to explain the mistakes made, only the confusion caused by the unexpected.
There is another possibility, which just occurred to me, and that I’ve never heard offered as to why the Army put forth the story that they’d found a crashed UFO at Roswell: They wanted to make the Soviets think that we’d captured alien technology and would soon be vastly more advanced than the Soviets.
I can remember getting ready for work on 9/11 and hearing the NPR newscaster say that a "light, twin engine plane" had crashed into the World Trade Center building. Point being, that accounts from the initial period of an incident aren't necessarily accurate, and there's no need for deception to explain the mistakes made, only the confusion caused by the unexpected.
There is another possibility, which just occurred to me, and that I've never heard offered as to why the Army put forth the story that they'd found a crashed UFO at Roswell: They wanted to make the Soviets think that we'd captured alien technology and would soon be vastly more advanced than the Soviets.
I've also wondered if this was designed for Soviet consumption. I'm sure the Soviets were aware of UFOs before Kenneth Arnold, because the US had been aware of them for several years. The Soviets probably tried to read most US newspapers and they probably had spies in the Roswell area. They must have paid attention to this press release, and it would be interesting to know their take.
Maybe you are right.
Yes, and it could also be the local command just being idiots. Trust me, I've seen that as well. Where government agencies are involved, my expectations are pretty low and they tend to live right down to them. ;-)