SIZE SECRET
DISK REPORTED FLOWN IN B-29
By Associated Press
ROSWELL, N. M., July 8 -- The Army Air Force here today announced a flying disk had been found on a ranch near Roswell and is in Army possession.
Lieut. Warren Haught [sic, Walter Haut], public-information officer of the Roswell Army Air Field, announced the find had been made "some time last week" and had been turned over to the air field through cooperation of the sheriff's office.
"It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned" by Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence office at Roswell "to higher headquarters."
The Army gave no other details.
In Washington D.C., Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey said today a battered object described as a flying disk found near Roswell, New Mexico, is being shipped by air to the A.A.F. research center at Wright Field, Ohio.
Ramey, commander of the Eighth Air Force with headquarters at Fort Worth, received the object from the Roswell Army Air Base.
In talking by telephone to A.A.F. headquarters at Washington, Ramey described the object as of "flimsy construction; almost like a box kite." It was so badly battered that Ramey was unable to say whether it had a disk form. He did not indicate the size of the object.
There were some "fragments of junk" found near the object near the New Mexico ranch where a rancher sighted it last week.
Ramey reported that so far as the A.A.F. investigation could determine, no one had seen the object in the air. Asked what the material seemed to be, A.A.F. officials here said Ramey described it as "apparently some sort of tin foil."
The rancher's name and location of his place were withheld.
George Walsh of radio station KSWS, which provided first news of the announcement, said only Major Marcell [sic, Marcel], Col. W. H. Blanchard, commanding officer at Roswell Air Field, and the rancher had seen the object here.
Later A.A.F. headquarters officials denied they had any information at all on the matter. They said they were trying to call Roswell by telephone to find out what had happened.
The War Department in Washington had nothing to say immediately about the reported find.
Haught's [sic, Haut] statement:
"The many rumors regarding the flying disk became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Atomic Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disk 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 some time last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disk 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 disk 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."
