First Hand Witnesses

First hand witnesses are those individuals that had direct first-hand knowledge or experience with live or dead aliens, a crashed saucer, or associated wreckage.

• Willam "Mac" Brazel – On July 2, 1947, an unidentified device crashed near to the town of Corona, New Mexico, during a violent thunderstorm. The next day rancher William Ware "Mac" Brazel found a large amount of unknown wreckage on the nearby Foster ranch. The debris did not resemble the remains of a conventional airplane or rocket, since it consisted of small metallic fragments, odd plastic beams, snarls of string, foil, and some sort of fabric. Not only that: the metallic material had highly unusual properties and despite being as thin as tin foil could not be dented or broken and would resume its original shape if twisted or bent. Two days later Brazel visited his uncle, Hollis Wilson, in Corona and heard about the stories of flying saucers being seen throughout the United States. Brazel made a decision to report what he had found on the property to Chaves County sheriff George A. Wilcox. Wilcox subsequently telephoned Roswell Army Air Field because he could not identify the debris that Brazel had brought in to validate his report and Major Jesse Marcel and Captain Sheridan Cavitt of the Counter-Intelligence Corps traveled to the ranch and recovered some of the material. Brazel was later held incommunicado by the military for several days after the crash site was cordoned off, and a team from the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project moved in to clear up the remaining materials from the Foster ranch.

• Bessie Brazel Schreiber – Mac Brazel's daughter described the crashed saucer material as "a sort of aluminumlike foil. Some of [these] pieces had a sort of tape stuck to them... [but] even though the stuff looked like tape, it could not be peeled off or removed at all. Some of these pieces had something like numbers and lettering on them, but there were no words we were able to make out. The figures were written out like you would write numbers in columns... but they didn't look like the numbers we use at all. (Friedman, S. & Berliner, D. 1992. Crash at Corona. p. 72.)

• Col. Al Clarke – A diplomatic courier that delivered secret correspondence and wreckage debris to Washington, D.C. on the direct orders of General Clemence McMullen, acting commander of Strategic Air Command (SAC). (Friedman, S. & Berliner, D. 1992. Crash at Corona. p. 111.)

Master Sgt. Harry B. Cooper – The father of Tim Cooper, he received an Air Force Commendation medal from Curtiss E. LeMay for his outstanding work from September 1957 through June 1963 in the USAF UFO Program. The citation states: “His exemplar knowledge of film processing and printing techniques provided necessary aids and photographic production for intelligence evaluation of gun camera and still photographs requested on call by the Foreign Technology Division and the National Photographic Interpretation Center in their contribution to the USAF UFO Program.”

• Col. Philip J. Corso – In his 1997 book, The Day After Roswell, the late Colonel Philip J. Corso stated that while working in the U.S. Army's Foreign Technology Desk in the early 1960's, he was given access to materials recovered from a crashed UFO found in the New Mexico desert in July 1947. Corso stated that this material was secretly seeded into US industry and assisted in the development of laser technology, integrated circuits, microchips, fiber optics and night-vision. Corso also stated that he viewed an alien body at Fort Riley, Kansas, in 1947 and read in the 1950's various reports of so-called cattle mutilations on file at the Pentagon. He additionally revealed that it was believed by many of the scientists that studied the UFO recovered at Roswell that the craft and the crew had a symbiotic relationship. The bodies found in the wreckage, he said, were genetically created beings designed to withstand the rigors of space flight but they were not the creators of the UFO itself. Corso speculated that the US Government might still have no real idea of who constructed the craft or who genetically engineered the bodies but offered the theory that the UFO was a form of time machine. At the time of his death from a heart attack on July 16, 1998 at the age of 83, Corso was working on a follow up book, The Day After Dallas that would reveal hitherto unknown secrets about the November 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

June Crain Transcript (512k) The 65-page transcript begins with a preface by Jim Clarkson describing how he came to meet June, interview her, and gain her trust. Next is a 3-page summary cross-indexing June's firsthand story with the Majestic Documents book. The remainder is all transcript. The highlights are breathtaking: handling unusual metal parts of the flying saucer, taking dictation from Werner Von Braun, mentions three UFO crashes, and a Top Secret Q clearance. Once she and many others were asked to sign a "TOO HOT" memo because of a careless Master Sergeant announcing he had just flown in from New Mexico with alien bodies and wreckage. The style, demeanor, and voice inflections — although not captured in the textual transcript — indicate sincerity and authenticity. June Crain Official Documents and Records (1.7 MB) Included is June Crain's "conveyance of rights to life story" to Sergeant Jim Clarkson along with his notarized affidavit of authenticity. The historical documents about June include War Department Notifications of Personnel Action for Wright Field Ohio, Efficiency Ratings, and detailed Position Descriptions. These documents are on original paper in the correct format. The documents clearly show that June worked at Headquarters Air Materiel Command (AMC), Area A, Supply Division Equipment Section, Materials Branch, photographic unit in 1948.

General Thomas DuBose – General Thomas DuBose was a colonel and General Ramey's chief of staff at Eighth Air Force Headquarters in Forth Worth, Texas, when the UFO crash at Roswell occurred in the summer of 1947. General DuBose testified that he had received a telephone call from General Clements McMullen at Andrews Army Air Field in Washington, D.C., ordering a cover-up to be put into place following the recovery of anomalous debris at the Foster ranch (near the town of Corona) in early July. The orders were for General Ramey to create a cover story to "get the press off our backs." DuBose retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1959 with the rank of Brigadier General. Prior to his death in 1992, DuBose prepared the following affidavit:

In July 1947, I was stationed at Fort Worth Army Air Field in Fort Worth, Texas. I served as Chief of Staff to Major General Roger Ramey, Commander, Eighth Air Force. I had the rank of Colonel. In early July, I received a phone call from Maj. Gen. Clements McMullen, Deputy Commander, Strategic Air Command. He asked what we knew about the object which had been recovered outside Roswell, New Mexico, as reported in the press. I called Col. William Blanchard, Commander of the Roswell Army Air Field and directed him to send the material in a sealed container to me at Fort Worth. I so informed Maj. Gen. McMullen.

After the plane from Roswell arrived with the material, I asked the Base Commander, Col. Al Clark, to take possession of the material and to personally transport it in a B-26 to Maj. Gen. McMullen in Washington, D.C. I notified Maj. Gen. McMullen, and he told me he would send the material by personal courier on his plane to Benjamin Chidlaw, Commanding General of the Air Material Command at Wright Field [later Wright Patterson AFB]. The entire operation was conducted under the strictest secrecy. The material shown in the photographs taken in Maj. Gen. Ramey's office was a weather balloon. The weather balloon explanation for the material was a cover story to divert the attention of the press. I have not been paid or given anything of value to make this statement, which is the truth to the best of my recollection. Signed: T. J. Dubose.

Pre-World War II "Creature" Retrieval? (319k) Reverand Turner H. Holt – Further evidence has surfaced to support the notion that the UFO crash at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 was not the first. We have obtained substantial documentation and witness testimony relating to the crash and recovery of a UFO and alien bodies at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1941 that is already posted to the website. In addition to this, we are including here an article that appeared in the Winter 2001-2002, Volume 26, Number 4 edition of the International UFO Reporter magazine that deals with a pre-Roswell event that occurred in the time frame of the Missouri crash. The article concerns an account related by the Reverend Turner Hamilton Holt who told his family that he had been shown by Cordell Hull (President Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of State) the remains of four strange bodies preserved in "glass jars" in a basement of the Capitol Building, Washington, D.C. The article, by William E. Jones of the Mutual UFO Network and Eloise G. Watson, reveals a wealth of information on Holt’s story, additional testimony from his family, and important information on Cordell Hull’s files.

• Lincoln LaPaz – Lincoln La Paz was born in Wichita, Kansas. He studied mathematics at Fairmont College, where he obtained his B.A. in 1920. He then went to Harvard University on a scholarship, obtaining an M.A. in 1922, and then taught at Darthmouth College in the period 1922-1925. He then enrolled at the University of Chicago, obtaining a Ph.D. in 1928. During the Second World War, he served as Research Mathematician at the New Mexico Proving Ground and as Technical Director, Operations Analysis Section, with the Second Air Force. During this time frame, his interests shifted to ballistics and later to the study of meteorites. In 1945, La Paz joined the faculty of the University of New Mexico, founded the Institute of Meteoritics, and served as director until 1966. From 1945 to 1953 he also served as Head of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy and, from 1953 to 1962, as Director of the Division of Astronomy. La Paz was an acknowledged pioneer in the field of meteoritics. He established active meteorite research programs at the University of New Mexico and described numerous new meteorites, many of which he had recovered. He also established the outstanding meteorite collection at UNM. His research resulted in the publication of over 120 scientific articles and books, and he also helped establish the journal "Meteoritics" and served as President of the Meteoritical Society. La Paz died on October 19, 1985 in Albuquerque. According to the late Counter-Intelligence Corps agent, Lewis Rickett, it was La Paz's job to determine the speed and trajectory prior to crashing of the UFO recovered at Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947. Rickett further stated that La Paz discovered a touchdown point five miles from the debris field that contained more debris and also sand that was apparently crystallized from an intense amount of heat. La Paz would later work with the U.S. Air Force on Project Twinkle - an official USAF operation that investigated sightings of mysterious "green fireballs" seen in the vicinity of atomic energy installations and military bases around the U.S. in the late 1940's.

• Jesse Marcel, Sr. – Acting on a telephone call received from Sheriff George Wilcox of the town of Roswell, Major Jesse Marcel (the Intelligence Officer at Roswell Army Air Field) was ordered by Colonel William Blanchard to investigate William Brazel's account of finding unusual debris at the Foster ranch in early July 1947. Marcel and a Counter Intelligence Corps agent, Captain Sheridan Cavitt, followed Brazel back to the ranch, spent the night there and examined a large piece of debris that Brazel had dragged from the pasture. On the morning of July 7, 1947, Marcel took his first step onto the debris field. Marcel would later state that: "something must have exploded above the ground and fell." As Brazel, Cavitt and Marcel inspected the field, Marcel was able to "determine which direction it came from, and which direction it was heading. You could tell where it started out and where it ended by how it was thinned out." According to Marcel, the debris was "strewn over a wide area, I guess maybe three-quarters of a mile long and a few hundred feet wide." Scattered in the debris were small bits of metal that Marcel held a cigarette lighter to, to see if they would ignite. "I lit the cigarette lighter to some of this stuff and it didn't burn," he said. Along with the metal, Marcel described finding small, weightless I-beam-like structures that were 3/8" x 1/4", that could not be bent or broken. Marcel also described finding metal debris the thickness of tin foil that was seemingly unbreakable. After gathering enough debris to fill his staff car, Major Marcel stopped at his home on the way back to Roswell Army Air Field so that he could show his family the strange material that he and Cavitt had found. Marcel died in 1986, but before his death stated that: "I didn't know what we were picking up. I still don't know what it was. It could not have been part of an aircraft, not part of any kind of weather balloon or experimental balloon. I've seen rockets sent up at the White Sands Testing Grounds. It definitely was not part of an aircraft or missile or rocket."

• Jesse Marcel, Jr. – Under hypnosis conducted by Dr. John Watkins in May of 1990, Major Jesse Marcel Sr.'s son, Jesse Marcel Jr., recalled being awakened by his father on the night that Marcel Sr., returned from the Foster ranch with the unusual debris found by rancher William Brazel. Marcel Jr. recalled under hypnosis helping his father carry into the house a large box filled with debris. Once inside, they emptied the contents of the debris onto the kitchen floor.

  Jesse Jr. described seeing lead foil and I-beams. Under hypnosis, he recalled the writing on the I-beams as being purple in color and "strange." He added that he "never saw anything like it...different geometric shapes, leaves and circles. I ask him what a flying saucer is. I don't know what a flying saucer is...It's a ship. [Dad's] excited!"

  Marcel Jr. added that: "The material was foil-like stuff, very thin, metallic-like but not metal, and very tough. There was also some structural-like material too - beams and so on. Also a quantity of black plastic material which looked organic in nature. Imprinted along the edge of some of the beam remnants were hieroglyphic-type characters."

• Dee Proctor - On July 4, 1947, Dee Proctor, the seven-year old neighbor of rancher William Brazel, was with Brazel when he discovered a large amount of lightweight, metallic debris on the Foster ranch, New Mexico, where Brazel worked as foreman. When Brazel and Dee drove back home, Brazel showed a piece of the wreckage to Dee's parents, Floyd and Loretta Proctor. It was agreed by all that the debris was unlike anything seen before.

• Loretta Proctor – Loretta Proctor was one of the first people (and one of the very few civilians) to see the Roswell debris retrieved at the Foster Ranch, Corona, New Mexico, by rancher William Brazel in 1947. In 1991, Proctor wrote the following affidavit:

  In July 1947, my neighbor William W. "Mac" Brazel came to my ranch and showed my husband and me a piece of material he said came from a large pile of debris on the property he managed. The piece he brought was brown in color, similar to plastic. He and my husband tried to cut and burn the object, but they weren't successful. It was extremely light in weight. I had never seen anything like it before. "Mac" said the other material on the property looked like aluminum foil. It was very flexible and wouldn't crush or burn. There was also something he described as tape which had printing on it. The color of the printing was a kind of purple. He said it wasn't Japanese writing; from the way he described it, it sounded like it resembled hieroglyphics.

  Some time later, my husband, my brother, and one of his friends saw "Mac" in Roswell, surrounded by soldiers. He walked right by them, without speaking a word. The Army kept him five or six days. When he got back, he said that the Army told him the object he found was a weather balloon. "If I see another one," he said, "I won't report it." He was upset about them keeping him from home that long. He wouldn't talk about it after he got back.

  "Mac" Brazel was a good neighbor, usually pretty friendly. He was not the kind of person who would tell a lie or create a hoax. He knew what weather balloons were like, because he had found them before. The piece of material I saw did not resemble anything from a weather balloon. I had seen weather balloons before. I had never seen anything like this. I have not been paid or given anything of value to make this statement. It is the truth to the best of my recollection. Signed: Loretta Proctor.

• Dan Sherman – Staff Sergeant Dan Sherman served with the US Air Force as an "Intuitive Communicator" and worked closely with the National Security Agency in the period 1992-5. In his book, Above Black - Project Preserve Destiny: Insider Account of Alien Contact and Government Cover-Up, Sherman provided information about the government's role in extraterrestrial contact and communications. According to Sherman, in 1992 he was ordered to the National Security Agency headquarters at Ft. Meade, Maryland, for training as an electronic intelligence analyst. This, however, would serve as a "cover" for the primary training that he also received at NSA, as an Intuitive Communicator. While at the NSA, Sherman was informed that, in 1947, the U.S. government made contact with an alien species referred to as the grays. An extraterrestrial-government program was begun in 1960, named Project Preserve Destiny. It was the purpose of this project "to genetically 'manage' a select number of human beings for the purpose of communicating with this alien race "intuitively." Sergeant Sherman was told that in both 1960 and 1963, his mother was visited by extraterrestrials, and that he had been genetically engineered for enhanced telepathic ability. Sherman was conceived in 1963. The military was aware of these special visits, stated Sherman and thus selected him for special NSA assignment. The project was terminated in 1968, when sufficient human embryos had been engineered and conceived to create a team of exceptionally telepathic individuals.

• William Rickett – Counterintelligence Corps officer at Roswell who spoke out about his experiences a few days after his official involvement, "the material was very strong and very light. You couldn't bend it, couldn't crease it. As far as I know, no one ever figured out what it was made of." Rickett escorted Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, famed meteor expert, from the New Mexico Institute of Meteoritics, on a tour of the crash site and surrounding area. (Friedman, S. & Berliner, D. 1992. Crash at Corona. p. 102.)