Did an actual UFO crash outside of Roswell, N.M., in July 1947? At first the military announced to the public that they had indeed recovered a flying disk on a remote ranch in the central region of the state. Within five hours they retracted the story and identified the debris displayed in Brigadier Gen. Roger M. Ramey's office at Fort Worth, Texas, as merely a downed weather balloon with an attached radar reflector kite. The question remains: Which of the two announcements was the truth? Through the course of our own investigation, we have amassed a continuously growing roster of more than 600 witnesses associated with the events who support the first account, that initial claim of the flying-saucer recovery. Despite what the U.S. Air Force maintains is the "truth" about the Roswell incident, the event remains shrouded in secrecy even as facts about the U.S. government's involvement in other cover-ups continue to surface. Another thing also remains constant: What took place outside of Roswell, N.M., in the summer of 1947 was not caused by a weather device. There are other constants, other truths that the Air Force refuses to address. Let's review some of the major aspects of the now-legendary UFO incident: On Tuesday, July 8, 1947, Roswell Army Air Field commanding officer Col. William Blanchard announced the recovery of a flying disk. It is important to note that Blanchard was the officer entrusted with oversight of the first atomic-bomb strike force in the world, based at Roswell AAFB. Blanchard's press release was orchestrated in Washington, D.C., then later retracted in favour of the balloon explanation.   Later that day, at approximately 4:30PM CST, Gen. Ramey, the commander of the 8th Air Force and Blanchard's supervising officer, presented the press an alternative story; he claimed the Army had recovered a rawin target device suspended by a Neoprene balloon. ("Rawin" is a method of determining wind speed and direction by using radar or radio waves to track a balloon carrying either a radar-sensitive target or a radio transponder.)   W. W. "Mack" Brazel, the ranch foreman who first discovered the debris field, was detained by the U.S. Army Air Force for four days while cleanup operations continued at the site. Brazel was denied access to a phone, was given an Army physical, and was subjected to rigorous questioning and intimidation while under house arrest at the Roswell AAFB.   Extreme security measures were exercised at both Brazel's ranch and the impact sites. Armed guards encircled the primary locations, a second cordon was placed around its outer perimeter, riflemen were stationed on the surrounding hills, and MPs were posted on outlying roads that led to both locations.   Special, unscheduled flights arrived from Washington, D.C., with additional units arriving from White Sands AAFB in Alamogordo, N.M., and Kirkland AAFB in Albuquerque. Unscheduled flights from Roswell transported wreckage or bodies to Fort Worth, Texas; Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio; Andrews AAFB in Washington, D.C.; and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, via truck from Kirkland.   Sen. Dennis Chavez (D-N.M., served 1935-1962), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, phoned Walter Whitmore Sr., owner of radio station KGFL in Roswell, to strongly advise him to do as he was instructed by the FCC in an earlier call and not broadcast a wire-recorded interview with Mack Brazel.   An FBI telex dated July 8, 1947, at 6:17PM CST out of the bureau's Dallas, Texas, office disputed Gen. Ramey's announcement to the press that the special flight transporting wreckage to Wright Field had been cancelled, as well as Ramey's explanation of a balloon and hexagonal radar target.   On July 9, 1947, U.S. military officials searched news-media offices in Roswell, Albuquerque and Santa Fe to retrieve copies of the original press release or any other documentation that was contrary to the weather-balloon explanation. The recorded interview of Mack Brazel also was confiscated.   Multiple, first-hand military and civilian witnesses who actually witnessed the crash have come forward to tell their stories.   Multiple, first-hand military and civilian witnesses have suggested the location of the craft and separate debris-field sites. There was more than one site involved.   Multiple, first-hand military and civilian witnesses have given the same testimony regarding the actual size and shape of the unknown craft.   More than two dozen witnesses, both military and civilian, agree on the unconventional characteristics of the wreckage. The material defied all conventional means of damage.   Multiple, first-hand military and civilian witnesses have given sworn testimony regarding the bodies recovered at the crash site.   Finally, the most shocking revelation to date is that the U.S. military resorted to physical threats against civilian witnesses. Children were terrorized and parents were threatened that their children would be killed if they mentioned anything about the true nature of the incident. All of this over a weather balloon? 1.       By all eyewitness accounts, ranch supervisor W.W. "Mack" Brazel spent days during the first week of July 1947, trying to ascertain the origin of the large debris field on the J.B. Foster ranch. 1.       No one was able to offer a single explanation for the strange materials Brazel displayed to them. Adding to his frustration was the question of who was responsible for cleaning up all that wreckage. Brazel's neighbors, including the Proctors, Stricklands, Sultemeiers, and Wades, all encouraged him to report it to the military. The people of New Mexico were no strangers to military activities. The atomic test code-named "Trinity" had taken place a mere 50 miles west of Roswell just two years earlier. This new field of wreckage, too, clearly appeared to be a military matter. Brazel made a 75-mile drive in an old, rundown pickup truck down to Roswell on Sunday, July 6, to report his discovery to the local authorities. He trusted the Sheriff's Office and delivered a box of the recovered material, which confounded them as much as it had him. Sheriff George Wilcox and Chief Deputy Tommy Thomson decided to contact the Roswell Army Air Field. Tuesday, July 8: A few hours after the Roswell morning staff meeting ” two days after the military received the Brazel material, which, according to Col. Thomas J. DuBose, Gen. Ramey had been "immediately" ordered by his superiors to ship to Washington, D.C.” Roswell AAF released one of the most famous of all press reports, the one declaring the "capture of a flying saucer." (DuBose continued on to a distinguished military career; when he was interviewed and signed his affidavit for us in 1990, he held the rank of Brigadier General.) As that press release hit the wire services at around noon CST, continuous shipments of the debris kept arriving at Roswell AAF. Blanchard's statement simply said "...the disc was picked up at the rancher's home. 1.       It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned by Maj. Marcel [Maj. Jesse A. Marcel, pictured above, head of intelligence for the 509th Atomic Bomb Group at Roswell] to higher headquarters." To the media that made perfect sense. Col. Blanchard was taking orders from his own boss and superior in the chain of command: Brig. Gen. Roger M. Ramey, commanding officer of the Eighth Air Force at Carlswell AAF in Fort Worth, Texas. However, consider the following inconsistencies in the records of events immediately following the announcement of the flying-saucer recovery: Within an hour of the press release, the San Francisco Examiner called Blanchard's "higher headquarters" and talked personally with Gen. Ramey. The general described a radar target and weather balloon. The New York Times likewise claimed that the story began to change "within an hour" of the press release. The Washington Post reported that Ramey informed the Pentagon press office that the "object was in his office" at that very moment; in fact, he hadn't yet seen it. Shortly afterward, he placed another call to the Pentagon press office and said the object was made of tinfoil and wood and was 25 feet across. Ramey then informed another newspaper, New York P.M., that the recovered wreckage looked "like the remains of a target and weather balloon" and was under "high security." Similar quotes appeared in various United Press articles. Other newspapers quoted Gen. Ramey saying that he "knew it was a weather balloon from the very beginning." Maj. Marcel, travelling on orders from Gen. Ramey, arrived in Fort Worth on a special flight from Roswell AAF at approximately 5PM CST with the "flying disc." Every one of the above-cited interviews with Gen. Ramey took place hours before the B-29 aircraft carrying Maj. Marcel and the "flying disc" landed in Fort Worth. Once Maj. Marcel reported to the general's office, the famous weather-balloon press conference began in earnest....   The Roswell Report By Thomas J. Carey & Donald R. Schmitt