I haven't had the time to plan returning to the scene because I haven't left it. - Mick Jagger
The Quotable Roswell Incident
The Quotable Roswell Incident
This book, featured in the link below, features one of the most convoluted and fucked up explanations of Roswell, ever. How fucked up? Futurama and Star Trek: DS9 had explanations that made more sense.
I promised I would. So many times. Granted I make a lot of promises like that. No doubt due to my mercurial nature when drunkenly excited about something. I kept telling you I would write about Roswell.
The truth is, I can't.
Not really.
Not really.
There has been too much in the way of crackpot insinuation, deliberate, official obfuscation and disinformation, memories rendered unreliable by the passage of time, and other factors to really write something meaty about the Roswell incident. Its a sad state of affairs, as its a very interesting thing indeed.
What can be said conclusively is that for a few hours in 1947 the United States Army Air Force was confirming to the press that they had recovered a flying disc of non-terrestrial origins. Eventually once the top brass was awake and informed of the incident the story changed hastily to the weather balloon explanation.
An explanation that witnesses and government types now long retired and close to death confirmed the government was very, very keen to get out to the public as fast as possible. Despite the fact that the (alleged) balloon in question was part of a secret program to monitor atomic testing in the Soviet Union. Huh.
So instead of me writing something witty and incisive on the subject (as you no doubt expected) I will instead present a collection of quotes concerning the event from people who might have been in a position to know something about it. No frightened farmers or curious rubberneckers or crusading journalists or even kooky physicists (sorry Dr. Stanton Friedman). No no, this is a list of quotes from military top brass, government officials, soldiers, and the like. You know, people who are generally considered credible and trustworthy, unless they talk about little green men.
On with the show!
"Let there be no doubt. Alien technology harvested from the infamous saucer crash in Roswell, N.Mex., in July 1947 led directly to the development of the integrated circuit chip, laser and fiber optic technologies, particle beams, electromagnetic propulsion systems, depleted uranium projectiles, stealth capabilities, and many others.
How do I know? I was in charge!
I think the kids on this planet are wise to the truth, and I think we ought to give it to them. I think they deserve it."
- Colonel Philip Corso, Former Head of Foreign Technology at the U.S. Army's Research and Development Department at the Pentagon. Four years Director of Intelligence on President Eisenhower's White House National Security Staff.
"Col. Blanchard took me personally to Building 84, a B-29 hangar located on the east side of the tarmac. ...I observed that it was under heavy guard both outside and inside. Once inside I was permitted from a safe distance to first observe the object just recovered north of town. It was approx. 12 to 15 feet (4.6 m) in length, not quite as wide, about 6 feet (1.8 m) high, and more of an egg shape. ...Also from a distance, I was able to see a couple of bodies under a canvas tarpaulin. Only the heads extended beyond the covering, and I was not able to make out any features. The heads did appear larger than normal and the contour of the canvas over the bodies suggested the size of a 10-year old child. ...[Later Blanchard] would extend his arm about 4 feet (1.2 m) above the floor to indicate the height. I was informed of a temporary morgue set up to accommodate the recovered bodies. ...I am convinced that what I personally observed was some type of craft and its crew from outer space."
- 1st Lt. Walter Haut, Public information officer (PIO) at the 509th Bomb Group based in Roswell, New Mexico. Quote taken from an affidavit filed just before his death in 2005. He issued the infamous "Flying Disc Recovered" press release, and subsequent denials. He (more or less) maintained the official Army story until a few years before his death.
"A couple of guys thought it might be Russian, but the overall consensus was that the pieces were from space. ...Roswell was the recovery of a craft from space."
- Air Force Brig. Gen. Arthur E. Exon, Former commanding officer at Wright-Patterson AFB (destination of the Roswell debris)
These are just a few, obviously. A few from folks positioned to actually know what was going on. There are some other very respectable folks I would suggest checking out.
Chester Lytle (engineer on the Manhattan Project, Top-Secret cleared staff for the Atomic Energy Commission) for one. He states that Gen. William Blanchard told him flat out it was an alien spacecraft and that four non-human occupants were recovered. While he has fantastic credentials his statements are not first hand.
Chester Lytle (engineer on the Manhattan Project, Top-Secret cleared staff for the Atomic Energy Commission) for one. He states that Gen. William Blanchard told him flat out it was an alien spacecraft and that four non-human occupants were recovered. While he has fantastic credentials his statements are not first hand.
June Crain is someone worth reading about as well. She was a secretary with top-secret clearance at Wright-Patterson (her job was transcribing classified materials). She handled documents related to the crash and even had a piece of the debris dropped on her desk by an officer with access who was trying to impress her. She held her lighter to the material and held it with her other hand for several minutes and found it had almost zero thermal conductivity (as well as the crinkle-it-and-it-flattens-back-out property that everyone else describes). She broke her silence shortly before dying, as did Colonel Edwin Easley, Roswell base Provost Marshal in charge of the MP's. He kept his mouth shut until the end, when he gave a deathbed confession of what he saw to his children. He apparently gave detailed descriptions of the "creatures" they found in the wreck.
There have been others as well. Captain Oliver "Pappy" Henderson, the pilot who flew the debris to Wright Field, Lt. Robert Shirkey the ops officer on that flight. Lt. Col. Marion M. Magruder allegedly gave a deathbed confession to his four sons that involved numerous details substantiated by other military personnel. Interesting enough the Lt. Col. also mentions seeing one of the ships occupants alive at Wright-Patterson. Steven Lovekin from the White House Army Signal Corp whose job it was to handle classified material and communications claimed to have been involved in briefing the White House and members of the Pentagon on the matter. He insists they were shown part of the debris, an unusual metal beam with strange writing on it (also reported by a few other witnesses) and that later he heard President Eisenhower "talking and worrying about how control was slipping out of government hands and being assumed by corporations tasked with studying the situation."
Keep in mind not every government or military type involved with Roswell has come forward, on their deathbed or otherwise, to indicate that something other than a weather balloon crashed. These are just a lot more interesting. Plus, you expect the official types to stick to the official story. Thats their job, thats what they do. The fact that so many have come forward with an alternate story, and that those stories all sync up very, very well, is interesting. Does it prove little green men? Surely not, but it does ask a lot of questions that some people have spent a great deal of time and money trying not to answer.
What is also interesting about July 8th, 1947 has to do with military communications. The various branches of the armed services are very meticulous about keeping records. Every teletype, telegram, phone call, etc.. was (and is) kept in case it might need to be referred back to later. You can go back to the start of WW2 and its a pretty complete record, beyond that its a bit more.. haphazard. After the war however things continued to be tight, and barring classified material you can FOIA request just about any coms.
Except for July 8th, 1947. Whatever happened on that day warranted a total blackout. Not 9/11, not Pearl Harbor, not D-Day, not the evacuation of Saigon, no other day of intense military activity has so little on the record. Hell, no day of the military doing absolutely fuck-all has so little either.
What does that prove? Nothing.
It is however, very, very interesting.
Keep in mind not every government or military type involved with Roswell has come forward, on their deathbed or otherwise, to indicate that something other than a weather balloon crashed. These are just a lot more interesting. Plus, you expect the official types to stick to the official story. Thats their job, thats what they do. The fact that so many have come forward with an alternate story, and that those stories all sync up very, very well, is interesting. Does it prove little green men? Surely not, but it does ask a lot of questions that some people have spent a great deal of time and money trying not to answer.
What is also interesting about July 8th, 1947 has to do with military communications. The various branches of the armed services are very meticulous about keeping records. Every teletype, telegram, phone call, etc.. was (and is) kept in case it might need to be referred back to later. You can go back to the start of WW2 and its a pretty complete record, beyond that its a bit more.. haphazard. After the war however things continued to be tight, and barring classified material you can FOIA request just about any coms.
Except for July 8th, 1947. Whatever happened on that day warranted a total blackout. Not 9/11, not Pearl Harbor, not D-Day, not the evacuation of Saigon, no other day of intense military activity has so little on the record. Hell, no day of the military doing absolutely fuck-all has so little either.
What does that prove? Nothing.
It is however, very, very interesting.
"If you believe they put a military base on the moon, a military base on the moon..." - R.E.M., "Man on the Moon" (the secret lyrics, NWO/MJ-12 Mix, released on All-Seeing Eye Records)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
I will say this up front, this is a cross between my historical articles and debunking articles. The two least popular articles I write. However I like this one, so choke on it. Thats how I keep my readers, I kill them with kindness.
This is a story about blind ambition, ambition that far exceeds its reach (given the technological limitations of the day). About cigar chomping military men staring down the barrel of an implacable commie foe that was achieving more successes with its space program than the Beatles were dampening teenaged panties. About Nazi war criminal super-scientists trying to realize their private dreams at any cost, regardless of what flag was on the soldiers uniform. To say nothing of their desire to seem worth the trouble of keeping around to their CIA handlers.
This is a story of the very early days of the space race, when the plan was to put men on the moon. To build a frontier outpost in the near vacuum of the lunar surface. To leave 12 strapping young male soldier/astronauts there and hope to Eisenhower that they didn't get space madness of the gay kind (I am positive that I have seen that movie on Cinemax late at night). Also, to arm the shit out of them (with unguided, "fire from the hip" Davey Crockett man-portable nukes and redesigned claymore mines that specifically punctured pressure suits) just in case the Soviet Union sent some cosmonauts around to borrow a cup of oxygen.
Thats right, this is a story of the cold war... on the moon. Also of the US militaries plan to build a base on the moon. I thought the first sentence sounded punchier, don't you?
It should be no surprise that the father of this scheme was Werner Van Braun. Everyone's favorite Nazi war criminal mad scientist that didn't make a (successful) break for Argentina. The man who gave England the distinction of being the first nation to have ballistic missiles used against it. Most of his biographers and apologists will say that his real motivation for rocket development was for use in space travel, which is actually true. Of course he did crack open the expensive champagne when the first of his idealistically developed and totally only intended for peaceful purposes rockets slammed into London warhead first, so who can say?
Look people, he was a mad scientist for fucks sake! He worked 20 thousand Jewish/Gypsy/Homosexual slaves to death in his underground rocket factories. He requested that his labor come from the camps because it was faster and more efficient than paid workers. Hell, when he was told by subordinates that the conditions/hours they were being forced to deal with were killing the workers/slaves his response was to order more of them from the camps.
Sorry, tangent.
Anyways *deep breath* Van Braun had it in his head that the Reich was going to conquer the rest of the solar system after it got done with boring and easily managed Earth. His plans included a space station (in the now classic wheel design for producing artificial gravity, yep, he invented that) that could be used as a staging area to building other craft to get to the moon and elsewhere. Really a very clever idea. The station, and subsequent moon base, would be primarily constructed structurally speaking from spent fuel tanks.
Damn it, another tangent. Where was I? Oh yes.. Project Horizon.
In 1959 the US military went to Herr Doktor and asked about the feasibility of building a small military base... on the moon. The burgeoning military-industrial complex was totally convinced that the Reds would not only beat us there, but would weaponize the hell out of the moon.
Anyways *deep breath* Van Braun had it in his head that the Reich was going to conquer the rest of the solar system after it got done with boring and easily managed Earth. His plans included a space station (in the now classic wheel design for producing artificial gravity, yep, he invented that) that could be used as a staging area to building other craft to get to the moon and elsewhere. Really a very clever idea. The station, and subsequent moon base, would be primarily constructed structurally speaking from spent fuel tanks.
Damn it, another tangent. Where was I? Oh yes.. Project Horizon.
In 1959 the US military went to Herr Doktor and asked about the feasibility of building a small military base... on the moon. The burgeoning military-industrial complex was totally convinced that the Reds would not only beat us there, but would weaponize the hell out of the moon.
Makes sense, right? I mean first you have to launch men and missiles to the moon (successfully) then you must maintain both until such a time as you decide to launch (again) those missiles back to Earth. While launching a missile from the moon is easier (by two thirds at least! Ha ha! Gravity joke. Ahem. Anyways) you must first get said missile to the moon, which requires launching it the old fashioned way from Earth. Then it will take this missile a few days to get to its target. Which required either a suicidal cosmonaut who was really good at math or a really nifty computer guidance system that the Soviets just did not have. This also leaves open the (very real) possibility of Earth-based or orbital detection systems picking up the launch and the US glassing Moscow as a result.
This makes no sense, at all. However there has yet to be an insane idea about space that men of means did not warm up to like a cheap bar slut for at least a little while. Herr Doktor was all to happy to head this project.
Officially it even got all the way to the feasibility studies. Which concluded that it would take 61 Saturn I rocket launches and 88 Saturn II to get the base fully up and running by 1966. In 1959 NASAs budget was $145 million buckaroos. Best I can tell the minimum cost of a Saturn I launch was $37.4 million. 21.28 launches a year would be required to have things on schedule. This assumes that every launch is perfect. No delays, no accidents, everything runs like clockwork.
$759 Million dollars a year is what the project would cost, in launches alone. About seven times more than NASAs entire budget. Factor in training, materials, snacks, kick-backs, accidents, and.. yeah. Like I said, ambitious.
It amazes me that this idea made it out of the bar where it was dreamed up. Some basic math on a cocktail napkin could have saved the taxpayers a lot of money.
Now for the debunking.
There is no secret moon base. The blurry spots on the lunar photos, the ones that look altered? Hell, they might be. They are not however concealing secret lunar colonies for the Secret Masters. Why? Because you could not launch that many missions to the moon in secret. Its not feasible unless every single one went off without a hitch, you murdered all the astronauts who flew them, and you did it from a secret, undetectable base on Earth.
Also, too expensive. When unraveling any decent conspiracy one should always follow the money. In this case there would be an unrealistic expenditure for relatively little gain (compared to the cost). A simple cost/benefit analysis says "No fucking way".
Now for the debunking.
There is no secret moon base. The blurry spots on the lunar photos, the ones that look altered? Hell, they might be. They are not however concealing secret lunar colonies for the Secret Masters. Why? Because you could not launch that many missions to the moon in secret. Its not feasible unless every single one went off without a hitch, you murdered all the astronauts who flew them, and you did it from a secret, undetectable base on Earth.
Also, too expensive. When unraveling any decent conspiracy one should always follow the money. In this case there would be an unrealistic expenditure for relatively little gain (compared to the cost). A simple cost/benefit analysis says "No fucking way".
+ + +
How about that? Another post! Now that things are settling back down I can get back to writing more regularly. You must be thrilled.
