Editing Roswell incident test page (section)

==1947 military balloon crash==
{{Location map+|New Mexico|width=300|float=right
 |marksize=6|mark=Black pog.svg
 |places=
 {{Location map~|New Mexico|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=32|lat_min=51|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=106|lon_min=06|position=top|background=#FFFFFF|label=Alamogordo|marksize=15|mark=Icone Vermelho.svg}}
 {{Location map~|New Mexico|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=34|lat_min=22|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=103|lon_min=19|position=bottom|background=#FFFFFF|label=Clovis|marksize=10|mark=Black pog.svg}}
 {{Location map~|New Mexico|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=35|lat_min=02|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=106|lon_min=36|position=top|background=#FFFFFF|label=Kirtland|marksize=10|mark=Black pog.svg}}
 {{Location map~|New Mexico|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=32|lat_min=20|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=104|lon_min=15|position=left|background=#FFFFFF|label=Carlsbad|marksize=10|mark=Black pog.svg}}
 {{Location map~|New Mexico|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=32|lat_min=15|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=107|lon_min=43|position=left|background=#FFFFFF|label=Deming|marksize=10|mark=Black pog.svg}}
 {{Location map~|New Mexico|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=34|lat_min=29|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=104|lon_min=12|position=top|background=#FFFFFF|label=Fort Sumner|marksize=10|mark=Black pog.svg}}
 {{Location map~|New Mexico|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=32|lat_min=45|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=103|lon_min=12|position=left|background=#FFFFFF|label=Hobbs|marksize=10|mark=Black pog.svg}}
 {{Location map~|New Mexico|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=33|lat_min=18|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=104|lon_min=31|position=bottom|background=#FFFFFF|label=Roswell|mark=Map marker, star.svg|marksize=15}}
 {{Location map~|New Mexico|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=34|lat_min=35|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=105|lon_min=35|position=top|background=#FFFFFF|label=Corona debris|mark=Fire.svg|marksize=10}}
 |alt=Map of New Mexico showing the locations of 8 air fields 
 |caption=Roswell was one of many [[New Mexico World War II Army Airfields|Army Airfields in New Mexico]] when debris was recovered from a ranch near Corona.  Researchers at Alamogordo Air Field, less than 150 miles from Roswell, were launching classified balloons during the prior weeks.
}}
By 1947, the United States had launched thousands of top-secret [[Project Mogul]] balloons carrying devices to listen for Soviet atomic tests.<ref name="Olmsted-2009-p183">{{harvnb|Olmsted|2009|pp=183–184}}</ref> On June 4, researchers at [[Alamogordo Army Air Field]] in New Mexico launched a long train of these balloons; they lost contact within {{convert|17|mi|km}} of W.W. "Mac" Brazel's ranch near [[Corona, New Mexico]] where a balloon subsequently crashed.<ref name="Goldberg-2001-p214"/><ref name="Frazier-2017a">{{harvnb|Frazier|2017a}}: "Flight 4 was launched June 4, 1947, from [[Alamogordo Army Air Field]] and tracked flying northeast toward [[Corona, New Mexico|Corona]]. It was within {{cvt|17|mi|disp=sqbr}} of the Brazel ranch when contact was lost."</ref> Later that month, Brazel discovered tinfoil, rubber, tape, and thin wooden beams scattered across several acres of his ranch.<ref name="Fort-Worth-Star-Telegram-1947">{{cite news |title=New Mexico Rancher's 'Flying Disk' Proves to Be Weather Balloon-Kite |date=July 9, 1947 |work=[[Fort Worth Star-Telegram]] |publication-place=Fort Worth, TX |pages=1, 4 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-worth-star-telegram-new-mexico-ranc/156700355/ |via=Newspapers.com |edition=Morning, 5 star}}<!--older clipping: https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-worth-star-telegram-exploded-rumor/81409799/--></ref><ref>{{harvnb|Clancy|2007|pp=92-93}}</ref> Amid the first summer of the [[Cold War]],<ref>{{harvnb|Olmsted|2009|p=183}}</ref> press nationwide covered [[Kenneth Arnold]]'s June 24 account of what became known as [[flying saucers]], objects which allegedly performed maneuvers beyond the capabilities of any known aircraft.  Publicity of Arnold's report preceded a wave of over 800 similar sightings.<ref>{{harvnb|Kottmeyer|2017|p=172}}</ref> With no phone or radio, Brazel was initially unaware of the ongoing [[1947 flying disc craze|flying disc craze]],<ref>{{harvnb|Frank|2023|p=510}}</ref> until he visited his uncle in Corona, New Mexico on July 5. The next day he informed Sheriff George Wilcox of the debris he had found.<ref>{{harvnb|Peebles|1994|p=246}}</ref> Wilcox called [[Roswell Army Air Field]] (RAAF).<ref name="Klass-1997b-pp3536"/> RAAF was home to the [[509th Operations Group|509th Bomb group]] of the [[Eighth Air Force]], the only unit at the time capable of delivering nuclear weapons.<ref>{{harvnb|Campbell|2005|pp=61, 56, 111}}</ref> The base assigned Major [[Jesse Marcel]] and Captain Sheridan Cavitt to return with Brazel and gather the material from the ranch.<ref name="Klass-1997b-pp3536">{{harvnb|Klass|1997b|pp=35–36}}</ref> RAAF  Base commander Colonel  [[William H. Blanchard|William Blanchard]] notified the [[Eighth Air Force]] commanding officer [[Roger M. Ramey]] of their findings.<ref>{{harvnb|Klass|1997b|pp=18–19}}</ref>

On July 8, RAAF [[public information officer]] [[Walter Haut]] issued a [[press release]] stating that the military had recovered a "flying disc" near Roswell.<ref>{{harvnb|Clarke|2015|pp=36–37}}</ref> Robert Porter, an RAAF flight engineer, was part of the crew who loaded what he was "told was a flying saucer" onto the flight bound for [[Carswell Air Force Base|Fort Worth Army Air Field]] in Texas. He described the material{{snd}}packaged in wrapping paper when he received it{{snd}}as lightweight and not too large to fit inside the trunk of a car.<ref>{{harvnb|Weaver|McAndrew|1995|page=23}}: "I was a member of the crew which flew parts of what we were told was a flying saucer to Fort Worth. [...] I was involved in loading the B-29 with the material, which was wrapped in packages with wrapping paper. One of the pieces was triangle-shaped, about 2 1/2 feet across the bottom. The rest were in small packages, about the size of a shoe box, The brown paper was held with tape. The material was extremely lightweight. When I picked it up, it was just like picking up an empty package. [...] All of the packages could have fit into the trunk of a car [...] When we came back from lunch, they told us they had transferred the material to a B-25. They told us the material was a weather balloon, but I'm certain it wasn't a weather balloon,"</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Pflock|2001|p=29}}</ref> After station director George Walsh broke the news over Roswell radio station [[KOBR|KSWS]] and relayed it to the ''Associated Press'', his phone lines were overwhelmed. He later recalled, "All afternoon, I tried to call Sheriff Wilcox for more information, but could never get through to him [...] Media people called me from all over the world."<ref>{{harvnb|Pflock|2001|p=27}}</ref>

The press release issued by Haut read:
[[File:Marcel-roswell-debris 0.jpg|thumb|alt=Marcel holding torn foil above packing paper|Papers nationwide published an image from Fort Worth Army Air Field of Major Jesse A. Marcel posing with debris on July 8, 1947.]]
[[File:Ramey-dubose-debris.jpg|thumb|alt=Ramey and Dubose with torn foil and sticks on packing paper |Brig. General Roger Ramey, left, and Col. Thomas J. DuBose pose with debris.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-worth-star-telegram-exploded-rumor/81409637/ |newspaper=Fort Worth Star Telegram |title=Exploded Rumor |date=July 9, 1947 |pages=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>]]

{{Blockquote|
|text=The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the [[509th Operations Group|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, New Mexico|Chaves County]].<br/>
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.
|source=[[:File:SacramentoBeeArticleJuly8,1947.jpg|''Associated Press'' (July 8, 1947)]]<ref>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |title=Flying Disc Found; In Army Possession |newspaper=The Bakersfield Californian |location=Bakersfield, California |date=July 8, 1947 |page=1 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-bakersfield-californian-flying-disc/156574992/}}</ref>
}}
Media interest in the case dissipated soon after a press conference where General Roger Ramey, his chief of staff Colonel [[Thomas DuBose]], and weather officer Irving Newton identified the material as pieces of a weather balloon.<ref name="Goldberg-2001-p192" /><ref name="Saler-p9">{{Harvnb|Saler|Ziegler|Moore|1997|p=9}}</ref> Newton told reporters that similar radar targets were used at about 80 weather stations across the country.<ref name="Fort-Worth-Star-Telegram-1947" /><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-journal-herald/22680388/ |title=AAF Whips Up a Disc Flurry |newspaper=The Journal Herald |date=July 9, 1947 |pages=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><!--<ref>{{cite news |last1=Long |first1=Trish |title=Rancher surprised at excitement over his debris discovery near Roswell |url=https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/life/2017/06/28/rancher-surprised-excitement-over-his-debris-discovery-near-roswell/434250001/ |work=El Paso Times |date=June 27, 2017}}</ref>--> The small number of subsequent news stories offered mundane and prosaic accounts of the crash.<ref name="Goldberg-2001-p192">{{harvnb|Goldberg|2001|pp=192–193}}</ref> On July 9, the ''[[Roswell Daily Record]]'' highlighted that no engine or metal parts had been found in the wreckage.<ref name="Roswell-Daily-Record-1947"/> Brazel told the ''Record'' that the debris consisted of rubber strips, "tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks."<ref name="Roswell-Daily-Record-1947">{{harvnb|McAndrew|1997|p=8}} cites: {{cite news |title=Harassed Rancher who Located 'Saucer' Sorry He Told About it |newspaper=[[Roswell Daily Record]] |date=July 9, 1947 |quote=The balloon which held it up, if that was how it worked, must have been 12 feet [3.5 m] long, [Brazel] felt, measuring the distance by the size of the room in which he sat. The rubber was smoky gray in color and scattered over an area about 200 yards [180 m] in diameter. When the debris was gathered up, the tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks made a bundle about three feet [1 m] long and 7 or 8 inches [18 or 20 cm] thick, while the rubber made a bundle about 18 or 20 inches [45 or 50 cm] long and about 8 inches [20 cm] thick. In all, he estimated, the entire lot would have weighed maybe five pounds [2 kg]. 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, although at least one paper fin had been glued onto some of the tinfoil. 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 wires were to be found but there were some eyelets in the paper to indicate that some sort of attachment may have been used.}}</ref><ref name="Clancy-2007-p93">{{harvnb|Clancy|2007|p=93}}</ref> Brazel said he paid little attention to it but returned later with his wife and daughter to gather up some of the debris.<ref name="Roswell-Daily-Record-1947" /><ref>{{harvnb|Klass|1997b|p=20}}</ref> Despite later claims that he was forced to repeat a cover story, Brazel told newspaper reporters, "I am sure that what I found was not any weather observation balloon."<ref name="Roswell-Daily-Record-1947" /> When interviewed in Fort-Worth, Texas, Jesse Marcel described the wreckage as "parts of the weather device" composed of "tinfoil and broken wooden beams".<ref name="Fort-Worth-Star-Telegram-1947" /><ref>{{harvnb|Pflock|2001|p=88}}</ref>

Some portion of the material was flown from Texas to [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base|Wright Field]] in Ohio, where Colonel Marcellus Duffy identified it as balloon equipment.<ref>{{Harvnb|Saler|Ziegler|Moore|1997|p=178}}</ref> Duffy had previous experience with Project Mogul and contacted Mogul's project officer Albert Trakowski to discuss the debris.<ref>{{harvnb|Korff|1997|pp=153–154}}</ref> Unable to disclose details about the project, Duffy identified it as "meteorological equipment".<ref name="Pflock 2001 150–151">{{harvnb|Pflock|2001|pp=150–151}}</ref>

The 1947 official account omitted any connection to Cold War military programs.<ref>{{harvnb|Kloor|2019|p=21}}</ref> On July 10, military personnel at Alamogordo gave a demonstration to the press. Four officers provided a false account of mundane weather balloon usage throughout the previous year. They demonstrated balloon configurations used by the Mogul team as ways to gather meteorological data, offering a plausible explanation for any unusual aspects of the Roswell debris.<ref>{{harvnb|Charles|1947|p=1}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Korff|1997|pp=249–251}}</ref> The Air Force later described the weather balloon story as "an attempt to deflect attention from the top secret Mogul project."<ref>{{harvnb|Saler|Ziegler|Moore|1997|p=12}}</ref>

===Project Mogul===
[[File:Mogul balloon train USAF 1995.png|thumb|alt=A vintage military photo shows a string of balloons and reflectors stretching into the sky.|A [[Project Mogul]] array]]

A 1994 USAF report identified the crashed object from the 1947 incident as a [[Project Mogul]] device.<ref name="Mogul"><!--There have been recurring discussions on the talk page going back decades on whether the sources allow Wikipedia to call it a balloon or not. Reliable sources indicate that [a] the debris was from a balloon, [b] the debris was from a US military project, [c] the USAF correctly identified the source of the debris as Project Mogul, and [d] the specific object was most likely Flight No. 4 launched on June 4, 1947. -->The Roswell material has been attributed to a top secret military balloon by astrophysicist [[Adam Frank]], historian Lt Col James Michael Young, science writer [[Kendrick Frazier]], folklorist Thomas Bullard, historian Kathryn Olmsted, Project Mogul meteorologist B.D. Gildenberg, journalist Kal Korff, skeptical UFO researcher [[Philip J. Klass]], and intelligence officer Captain James McAndrew among others:
* {{harvnb|Frank|2023|p=551}}: "The weather-balloon story was indeed a lie. Instead, what crashed on Brazel's ranch was Project Mogul, a secret experimental program using high-altitude balloons to monitor Russian nuclear tests.
* {{harvnb|Young|2020|p=27}}: "[L]aunch #4 on June 4, 1947, captured the public's attention when a local rancher recovered the balloon debris. Noting unusual metallic objects attached to the debris and suspecting they belonged to the military, the rancher turned the material and objects over to officers at Roswell Army Airfield (RAAF)."
* {{harvnb|Frazier|2017a}}: "[...] what we now know the debris to have been: remnants of a long train of research balloons and equipment launched by New York University atmospheric researchers [...]"
* {{harvnb|Bullard|2016|p=80}}: "the Air Force [...] concluded that the wreckage belonged to a Project Mogul balloon array that had disappeared in June 1947."
* {{harvnb|Olmsted|2009|p=184}}: "When one of these balloons smashed into the sands of the New Mexico ranch, the military decided to hide the project's real purpose."
* {{harvnb|Gildenberg|2003|p=62}}: "One such flight, launched in early June, came down on a Roswell area sheep ranch, and created one of the most enduring mysteries of the century."
* {{harvnb|Korff|1997|loc=fig.&nbsp;7}}: "Unbeknownst to Major Marcel, the debris was actually the remnants of a highly classified military spy device known as Project Mogul."
* {{harvnb|Klass|1997b|loc=fig.&nbsp;3}}: "[...] the debris was from a 600-foot long string of twenty-three weather balloons and three radar targets that had been launched from Alamogordo Army Air Field as part of a 'Top Secret' Project Mogul [...]"
* {{harvnb|McAndrew|1997|page=16}}: "The 1994 Air Force report determined that project Mogul was responsible for the 1947 events. Mogul was an experimental attempt to acoustically detect suspected Soviet nuclear weapon explosions and ballistic missile launches."
</ref> Mogul{{snd}}the classified portion of an unclassified [[New York University]] atmospheric research project{{snd}}was a military surveillance program employing [[high-altitude balloon]]s to monitor [[nuclear test]]s.<ref>{{harvnb|Frazier|2017a}}</ref> The project launched Flight No. 4  from [[Alamogordo Army Air Field]] on June 4. Flight No. 4 was drifting toward Corona within 17 miles of Brazel's ranch when its tracking equipment failed.<ref name="Frazier-2017b">{{harvnb|Frazier|2017b|pages=12–15}}</ref> The military, charged with protecting the classified project, claimed that the crash was of a weather balloon.<ref name="Olmsted-2009-184quote">{{harvnb|Olmsted|2009|page=184}}: "When one of these balloons smashed into the sands of the New Mexico ranch, the military decided to hide the project's real purpose."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Weaver|McAndrew|1995|p=9}}: "... the material recovered near Roswell was consistent with a balloon device and most likely from one of the MOGUL balloons that had not been previously recovered."</ref> Major Jesse Marcel and USAF Brigadier General Thomas DuBose publicly described the claims of a weather balloon as a cover story in 1978 and 1991, respectively.<ref name="Pflock-2001-p33">{{harvnb|Pflock|2001|p=33}}</ref> In the USAF report, Richard Weaver states that the weather balloon story may have been intended to "deflect interest from" Mogul, or it may have been the perception of the weather officer because Mogul balloons were constructed from the same materials.<ref>{{harvnb|Weaver|McAndrew|1995|pages=27–30}}</ref> Sheridan W. Cavitt, who accompanied Marcel to the debris field, provided a [[:File:Sheridan Cavitt Testimony.jpg|sworn witness statement for the report]].<ref>{{harvnb|Gildenberg|2003|pp=62–72}}</ref> Cavitt stated, "I thought at the time and think so now, that this debris was from a crashed balloon."<ref>{{harvnb|Weaver|McAndrew|1995|p=160}}</ref>

Ufologists had considered the possibility that the Roswell debris had come from a top-secret balloon. In March 1990, [[John Keel]] proposed that the debris had been from a Japanese balloon bomb launched in World War II.<ref>{{harvnb|Gulyas|2016}}: "Numerous explanations have arisen, ranging from Japanese 'Fugo' balloons [...]"</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Gulyas|2014}}: "[...] from John Keel, who advocated a solution to the Roswell question which credited Japanese Fugo balloons as the 'mysterious craft,' to Nick Redfern, whose ''Body Snatchers in the Desert'' [...]".</ref> An Air Force meteorologist rejected Keel's theory, explaining that the [[Fu-Go balloon bomb|Fu-Go balloons]] "could not possibly have stayed aloft for two years".<ref>{{harvnb|Huyghe|2001|p=133}}: "Edward Doty, a meteorologist who established the Air Force's Balloon Branch at nearby Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico beginning in 1948, calls the Japanese Fu-Go balloons 'a very fine technical job with limited resources.'  But 'no way could one of these balloons explain the Roswell episode,' says Doty,'because they could not possibly have stayed aloft for two years.'"</ref> Project Mogul was first connected to Roswell by independent researcher Robert G. Todd in 1990.<ref name="Saler-p27">{{harvnb|Saler|Ziegler|Moore|1997|p=27}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Weaver|McAndrew|1995|p=167}}: "The Army Air Force had seen what the Japanese had done with long range balloons; although not effective as weapons, they did initiate the long-range balloon research which led to use of balloons for the detection and collection of debris from atomic explosion."</ref>  Todd contacted ufologists and in the 1994 book ''Roswell in Perspective'', Karl Pflock agreed that the Brazel ranch debris was from Mogul.<ref name="Saler-p27"/><ref>{{harvnb|Weaver|McAndrew|1995|page=28}}: "Most interestingly, as this report was being written, Pflock published his own report of this matter under the auspices of FUFOR, entitled Roswell in Perspective (1994). Pflock concluded from his research that the Brazel Ranch debris originally reported as a "flying disc" was probably debris from a MOGUL balloon"</ref> In response to a 1993 inquiry from US congressman [[Steven Schiff]] of New Mexico, the [[Government Accountability Office|General Accounting Office]] launched an inquiry and directed the Office of the [[United States Secretary of the Air Force]] to conduct an internal investigation.<ref>{{harvnb|Weaver|McAndrew|1995|page=11}}</ref><ref name="Frazier-2017b" /> Air Force declassification officer Lieutenant James McAndrew concluded:

{{Blockquote|When the civilians and personnel from Roswell AAF [...] 'stumbled' upon the highly classified project and collected the debris, no one at Roswell had a 'need to know' about information concerning MOGUL. This fact, along with the initial mis-identification and subsequent rumors that the 'capture' of a 'flying disc' occurred, ultimately left many people with unanswered questions that have endured to this day.<ref>{{harvnb|Weaver|McAndrew|1995|page=316}}</ref>}}