powers but learn them over time as they are hunted by the FBI and other factions who want to capture them. Essentially a teenage romance series, the TV show was based on a series of popular young adult literature novels.
As for the change of heart about seeing the wreckage, while Haut was alive, there was no way that he would have admitted seeing it as he would still have been liable for prosecution. In order to protect himself, he could be on record to admit his falsehood only after his death.
Despite the excitement within ufological circles about this testimony, even a signed affidavit by a key witness to the Roswell incident does not offer proof that the crash really occurred. Furthermore, the Roswell crash is only one of several alleged cases where an alien spacecraft has been said to have impacted Earth. Other crashed-saucer cases have been cited and discussed elsewhere in the world, including Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, in 1965; Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1953; and Moriches Bay, New York, in 1989.
If any alien debris was recovered by military personnel near Roswell, it has long since been hidden or disposed of. The public debates among believers and non-believers (or other believers with opposing theories) have contributed to a cover-up of the true nature of the original event. In short, we may never get to the bottom of what occurred in the New Mexico desert in 1947.
The Roswell case goes far beyond the debate as to whether or not an alien spacecraft crashed into the desert. Roswell has taken on a life of its own, with an annual celebration and series of UFO conventions in the area. There are tours of the crash site, souvenir stands, museums, and yearly re-enactments of the incident. The town has had parades, costume contests, and even a commissioned musical theatre show to commemorate the event.
It’s almost as if the Roswell story did not have to be true anymore.
3 THE BEGINNING OF THE FLYING SAUCER ERA
Following the sighting of metallic disc-like objects by Kenneth Arnold, many more people reported seeing unusual objects in the sky.
On July 10, 1947, at about 5:30 p.m., two Pan American Airways mechanics and a third witness were driving up a mountain road about 10 kilometres south of Harmon Field, an American Air Force Base near Stephenville, Newfoundland.
J.E. Woodruff, J.N. Mehrman, and A.R. Leidy reported seeing a silver, disc-shaped object flying high overhead at an estimated altitude of about 3,000 metres. The object was flying in a horizontal arc over the base and towards the north-northeast. Its size was comparable to a C-54 transport aircraft. As it flew past, it left behind a bluish-black trail about 24 kilometres long. One of the witnesses (not specified in the report but thought to be Woodruff) had a camera with him and managed to take two Kodachrome pictures of the trail.
Copies of these photos are part of the official Project Blue Book files. Although very poor reproductions, they nevertheless show the odd smoke trail in the sky. Weather records confirmed there were scattered clouds between 2,400 to 3,000 metres that supported the original altitude estimate.
This case was investigated by Army Air Force Intelligence and was of particular concern to military officials because of a perceived threat that the Soviets may have been behind the appearances of flying saucers. If this was the case, then it was obvious that in order to spy on the U.S., flights from the U.S.S.R. would have to pass over Canada. The initial report was filed by Harmon base intelligence officers on July 16, with a more detailed report received at the Pentagon on July 21.
Air Force Brigadier General George F. Schulgen, then chief, Air Intelligence Requirements Division, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, A-2 (Intelligence) ordered intelligence officers at Wright Field in Dayton to go to Harmon Field to assess the situation and report directly to the Pentagon. The Wright T-2 chief, Colonel Howard M. McCoy, dispatched a team by July 30.
The T-2 investigation report on the Harmon Field case noted: “The bluish-black trail seems to indicate ordinary combustion from a turbo-jet engine, athodyd motor, or some combination of these types of power plants. The absence of noise and apparent dissolving of the clouds to form a clear path indicates a relatively large mass flow of a rectangular cross-section containing a considerable amount of heat.”
The report did not consider that a meteor or fireball had made the trail, even though this explanation was the official conclusion on the case file. However, Blue Book documents showed that the Pentagon was still focused on a Soviet connection. As noted in a report on the case, “Wright Field investigators spoke with the commander of Harmon Field and others to make sure that no British or Canadian aircraft had been in the area at the time. And since they knew no American aircraft were to blame, they privately concluded something of ‘foreign origin’ made that curious split in the clouds over Newfoundland.”
What we are left with is a well-witnessed and intensely investigated UFO case, reported long before the term UFO was coined by the American military. In the early years of the Cold War, the Soviets were suspected, since the object seen was not “friendly.” The photographs show a very strange rocket-like exhaust trail or contrail, proving that something definitely was seen by a number of qualified observers that day. It was one the first photographs of an unidentified flying object reported in North America.
In 1947, an unusual object was seen over a U.S. air force base in Newfoundland. Photographs were taken of the smoke trail it left behind.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
San Francisco, California November 3, 2004
An airline transport pilot with 14 years’ experience in commercial aviation can’t quite explain what he saw at 11 p.m., November 3, 2004. His aircraft was approaching the city from the east, passing just north of Stockton, when he received instructions from the tower to descend from 35,000 to 24,000 feet [10,500 to 7,200 meters].
“While approaching San Francisco from the east, an orange dot began to glow and seemed to flash higher up to the west of us. I thought that it was a planet. It then changed color from orange to white. Again, I thought a planet could be illuminated through a [local] atmosphere that would explain the color change.
“It then began to move in a northeasterly direction. Once again, being in an airplane, it is very easy to think an object is moving, from small corrections the autopilot makes. I found a handful of stars to serve as a reference point and verified that the object was slowly moving north.
“It moved about 30 degrees and then stopped. Then, it made a slight tangent to the right and continued moving for about 20 more degrees. It stopped and turned again to the right and continued for 10 degrees, then stopped again and disappeared.
“The whole sighting ran about two minutes or so from start to finish. It was difficult to judge the actual distance and speed. When I talk about ‘moving in degrees and turning,’ I am talking about my [cockpit] viewpoint and compass degrees. The UFOs size was very small, about the size of the stars and planets you see in the sky.
“We had initially been at 35,000 feet [10,500 meters] but had descended to 24,000 feet [7,200 meters] when we saw the object. We were above the clouds with a clear view, and there was a crescent moon behind us. The weather in San Francisco was partly cloudy skies and light rain.
“There
