Roswell 1947 - Documents on the witnesses

AFFIDAVIT

(1) My name is Walter Haut.

(2) My address is: [Confidential]

(3) I am retired.

(4) In July 1947, I was stationed at the Roswell Army Air base, serving as the base Public Information Officer. At approximately 9:30 AM on July 8, I received a call from Col. William Blanchard, the base commander, who said he had in his possession a flying saucer or parts thereof. He said it came from a ranch northwest of Roswell, and that the base Intelligence Officer, Major Jesse Marcel, was going to fly the material to Fort Worth.

(5) Col. Blanchard told me to write a news release about the operation and to deliver it to both newspapers and the two radio stations in Roswell. He felt that he wanted the local media to have the first opportunity to have the story. I went first to KGFL, then to KSWS, then to the "Daily Record" and finally to the "Morning Dispatch."

(6) The next day, I read in the newspaper that General Roger Ramey in Fort Worth has said the object was a weather balloon.

(7) I believe Col. Blanchard saw the material, because he sounded positive about what the material was. There is no chance that he would have mistaken it for a weather balloon. Neither is there any chance that Major Marcel would have been mistaken.

(8) In 1980, Jesse Marcel told me that the material photographed in Gen. Ramey's office was not the material he had recovered.

(9) I am convinced that the material recovered was some type of craft from outer space.

(10) 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.

[signed] Walter G. Haut

Signature witnessed by: 5-14-93 Max Littell. [signed]

December 18, 2005

Lt. Walter Haut, Spokesman Who Announced Wreckage Of Flying Saucer In Roswell, Died At 83

By Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE - The man made famous for issuing a news release that said a flying saucer landed in Roswell has died.

Army Lt. Walter Haut, a former spokesman for the Roswell Army Air Field, died Thursday in Roswell, his daughter, Julie Shuster, said. He was 83.

Haut listened closely on July 8, 1947 as base commander Col. William Blanchard dictated a news release about a recovered flying saucer and ordered Haut to issue it.

The Roswell Daily Record newspaper ran a bold headline July 9, 1947: "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region."

The same day, a statement was released saying it was only a weather balloon.

"I guess they changed their mind," Haut told The Associated Press in 1997.

Haut said he never was told exactly where the flying disc reported in his news release was found nor did he, himself, ever see a UFO.

But he remained a believer.

"There must have been something in the skies at that time," he said. "There's just too much evidence."

Haut and two other men founded The International UFO Museum in 1991 where he was president until 1996. More than 2 1/2 million people have visited the museum since it opened in 1992, Shuster said.

It wasn't until the late 1980s that Shuster said she and her sister learned about the flying saucer incident, not from their father but from a book.

"It was not a topic of conversation at the dinner table for anybody involved," she said.

Haut, born June 3, 1922, in Chicago is survived by his two daughters, Shuster and Marabeth Fields of Roswell, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A viewing is scheduled Monday in Roswell at the LaGrone Funeral Home. Funeral services are set for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Trinity United Methodist.