Roswell 1947 - Documents on the witnesses

AFFIDAVIT

Bessie Brazel Schreiber

(1) My name is Bessie Brazel Schreiber.

(2) My address is [retained]

(3) I am employed at ___ (x) I am retired.

(4) William [Mac] Brazel was my rather. In 1947, when I was 14, he was the manager or the Foster Ranch in Lincoln Count, New Mexico, near Corona. Our family had a home in Tularosa, where my mother, my younger brother Vernon, and I lived during the school year. The three or us spent summers on the Foster place with dad.

(5) In July 1947, right around the Fourth, dad found a lot of debris scattered over a pasture some distance from the house we lived in on the ranch. None or us were riding with him when he round the material, and I do not remember anyone else being with him. He told us about it when he came in at the end or the day.

(6) Dad was concerned because the debris was near a surface-water stock tank. He thought having it blowing around would scare the sheep and they would not water. So, a week or two later, he, Vernon, and I went to the site to pick up the material. We went on horseback and took several feed sacks to collect the debris. I do not recall just how far the site was from the house, but the ride out there took some time.

(7) There was a lot or debris scattered sparsely over an area that seems to me now to have been about the size or a football field There may have been additional material spread out more widely by the wind, which was blowing quite strongly.

(8) The debris looked like pieces of a large balloon which had burst. The pieces were small, the largest I remember measuring was about the same as the diameter of a basketball. Most of it was a kind of double-sided material, foil-like on one side and rubber-like on the other. Both sides were grayish silver in color, the foil more silvery than the rubber. Sticks, like kite sticks, were attached to some of the pieces with a whitish tape. The tape was about two or three inches wide and had flower-like designs on it. The flowers were faint, a variety of pastel colors, and reminded me of Japanese paintings in which the flowers are not all connected. I do not recall any other types of material or markings, nor do I remember seeing any gouges in the ground or any other signs that anything may have hit the ground hard.

(9) The foil-rubber material could not be torn like ordinary aluminum foil can be torn. I do not recall anything else about the strength or other properties of what we picked up.

(10) We spent several hours collecting the debris and putting it in sacks. I believe we filled about three sacks, and we took them back to the ranch house. We speculated a bit about what the material could be. I remember dad saying. "-Oh, it’s just a bunch of garbage."

(11) Soon after, dad went to Roswell to order winter feed. It was on this trip that he told the Sheriff what he had found. I think we all went into town with him. but I am not certain about this, as be made two or three trips to Roswell about that time, and we did not go on all of them. (ln those days, it was an all-day trip, leaving very early in the morning and retuning after dark.) I am quite sure it was no more than a day trip, and I do not remember dad taking any overnight or longer trips away from the ranch around that time.

(12) Within a day or two, several military people came to the ranch. There may have been as many as 15 of them. One or two officers spoke with dad and mom. while the rest waited. No one spoke with Vernon and me. Since I seem to recall that the military were on the ranch most of a day, they may have gone out to where we picked up the material, I am not sure about this one way or the other, but I do remember they took the sacks of debris with them.

(13) Although it is certainly possible, I do not recall anyone finding any more of the material later. Dad's comment on the whole business was "They made one hell of a hullabaloo out of nothing."

(14) I have not been paid or given or promised anything of value to make this statement which is the truth to the best of my recollection.

Bessie Brazel Schreiber

(Signature and printed name) (Date)

Signature witnessed by:

PAMELA J. CAREY
NOTARY PUBLIC
STATE OF WASHINGTON
COMMISSION EXPIRES August 1 1994

(Signature and printed name) (Date)