Synopsis "The Roswell Crash: The History of America's Most Famous Conspiracy Theory"
*Includes pictures *Includes contemporary accounts of the crash and the official government report on it *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "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." - A press release issued by the Roswell Army Air Field, July 8, 1947 The essence of the event commonly known as the Roswell Crash is that someone saw something in the sky during the summer of 1947. Days later someone else found some odd foil, paper and wood on the grounds of a ranch in the New Mexico desert nearly a hundred miles from Roswell. A day or two after that, the debris was taken to a military airbase in Roswell, New Mexico, where it remained overnight before the military flew it to another airbase in Ohio. The story of the Roswell Crash tends to focus on New Mexico, not on the traveling debris found on the ground. Ironically, the Roswell Crash never happened in Roswell. That's not to say there was no 1947 crash. Something did appear on the ground that appeared to have come from the sky-but it wasn't found anywhere near Roswell. Part of what was found was eventually moved to the airbase in Roswell where it remained overnight, inspiring the name the Roswell Crash. Few things in American history are as controversial as Roswell. The one undeniable fact is that something happened near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, but beyond that, the facts become murky as memories and evidence lose their luster over the years. That said, the impact of an unidentified object continues to mystify residents, visitors and the curious, and it has not only put Roswell on the map but has kept it there for thousands of tourists. At the very least, the Roswell Crash has become a meme. Even among those who do not believe there was a crash at all, the vast majority of people recognize the reference especially after the television show The X-Files and assume that it allegedly did (or did not) crash within the city limits of Roswell. To most people, Roswell means UFOs. While much of the information disseminated has been in the form of press releases published in newspapers, the FBI eventually relented and released their records involving the Roswell crash. In 2011, more than 2,000 individual documents about this event were scanned and published as the digital project "The Vault," part of nearly 7,000 items on various subjects in the Freedom of Information Act's Library. Nonetheless, skepticism about the official version of the incident prevails, and a countless number of people continue to believe the American government covered up a crash landing by aliens. As John B. Alexander, Ph. D., a former project manager at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and consultant to the CIA, put it, "Attempting to come to any complete resolution of the incident is a fool's errand, as whatever the truth may have been has become so distorted over time that facts have merged inextricably with fiction." The Roswell Crash: The History of America's Most Famous Conspiracy Theory chronicles the controversial crash. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Roswell like never before, in no time at all.
