Roswell 1947 - newspapers in 1947

ONLY MEAGER DETAILS OF FLYING DISC GIVEN

Kite-Like Device Found in N.M. Studied by Army

By William F. McMenamin

Washington, July 8 (UP). -- The mystery of the "flying saucers" took a new twist tonight with the disclosure that the army air forces has recovered a strange object in New Mexico and is forwarding it to Wright Field, Dayton, O., for examination.

Announcement of the find came first from the Roswell, N. Mex. army air base, near where a "saucer" was found three weeks ago.

AAF headquarters later revealed that a "security lid" has been clamped on all but the sketchiest details of the discovery.

AAF spokesman would say only that the "saucer" was a flimsily-constructed, kite-like object measuring about 25 feet in diameter and covered with a material resembling tin foil.

A telephonic report from Brig. Gen. Roger B. Ramey, commander of the Eighth Air Force at Ft. Worth, Texas, said the purported "saucer" was badly battered when discovered by a rancher at Corona, 75 miles northwest of Roswell, N.M. Ramey scoffed at the possibility that the object could have attained the supersonic speeds credited to the "flying saucers" allegedly spotted in recent weeks.

He reported that the object was too lightly constructed to have carried anyone and that there was no evidence that it had had a power plant of any sort.

It bore no identification marks and Ramey emphasized that no one had seen it in flight.

AAF sources ruled out the possibility that it might have been an army weather-kite. Helium balloons have been used for weather recording for the past seven or eight years. They said it had been sent to Ft. Worth by Superfortress for transhipment to the AAF experimental center at Dayton. AAF commanders in New Mexico refused to permit the object to be photographed on the grounds that it was "high level stuff," although Ramey indicated he was not attaching too great importance to the find pending an investigation.

The Roswell announcement came from Col. William H. Blanchard, commanding officer of the Roswell army air base, who specifically described the discovery as "a flying disc." He said the disc had been forwarded to higher headquarters, presumably the commanding general of the 8th air force at Ft. Worth, Tex.

Blanchard would reveal no further details.

Sheriff George Wilcox of Roswell said the disc was found about three weeks ago by W.W. Brizell [sic, Brazel], on the Foster ranch at Corona, 75 miles northwest of Roswell.

Wilcox said that Brizell [sic, Brazel] does not have a telephone and so did not report finding the disc until the day before yesterday. Brizell [sic, Brazel] told the sheriff he didn't know just what the disc was, but that at first it appeared to be a weather meter.

The sheriff's office notified the army, which sent intelligence officers to pick up the object. Then today the army announced possession of a disc.

The sheriff quoted Brizell as saying the object "seemed more or less like tinfoil." The rancher described the disc as about as large as a safe in the sheriff's office. The safe is about three and one-half by four feet.