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I don't believe a UFO crashed at Roswell. I also share the sentiment that it was a Project Mogul balloon. I do feel the universe is immensely vast, and the likelihood of other life is highly probable. If we do ever experience alien technology, it may likely be an unmanned research vessel.
Honestly, I tend to agree with Hawking. If advanced aliens every expend resources to visit Earth, it is highly unlikely it will be a mission of goodwill. It will be for our natural resources. While I don't want to put a solely human spin on potential alien life, it hasn't really ever tuned out well for the less advanced natives who were "visited" by the technologically superior colonizer in our history. Just a thought!
That wasn't my experience at all.
When I visited Roswell in the summer of 2013, I was surprised by what a hustle-bustle prosperous place it appeared to be.
Yup. The closing of the base really hurt Roswell, and the 1970s were pretty grim for the place. But it seems to have recovered. I don't know that I would call it hustling or bustling, but it certainly shows no signs of dying.
Honestly, I tend to agree with Hawking. If advanced aliens every expend resources to visit Earth, it is highly unlikely it will be a mission of goodwill. It will be for our natural resources. While I don't want to put a solely human spin on potential alien life, it hasn't really ever tuned out well for the less advanced natives who were "visited" by the technologically superior colonizer in our history. Just a thought!
It is certainly a valid thought and well worth considering.
But it proceeds from an unproven assumption that any intelligent alien species is going to have values, views, and motivations resembling our own. There is simply no way to know that. And a vastly superior civilization --- one that is, say, ten thousand years ahead of our own --- probably no longer has to worry about resources. They can probably manipulate matter at the atomic level. Turning lead into gold or gold into water or water into helium gas would likely be child's play for them.
Aliens might come to Earth just to look around. Just to look at the silly humans. Or they might ignore humans entirely in favor of butterflies. Or maybe they're coming for the donuts. Who knows?
I LOVE a good conspiracy theory. I believe JFK's killing was a CIA/Mafia/RightWing conspiracy.
I believe Bigfoot exists.
I believe in UFO's as interdimensional and/or extraterrestial events.
I visited Roswell 2 years ago, I had looked forward to it for years. I was convinced it was the holy grail of UFO sites.
The more I saw and read and researched there, the more skeptical I became.
When I returned home from that trip, I finally read the full-length Roswell Report - all 990 illustrated pages. I resolved to keep an open mind. It took me a few months to read it all.
Often I would print out pages to make highlights and comparisons and to check against the original sources. It's meticulously sourced and annotated, and I'm a (retired) professional librarian so know how to obtain access to primary sources (long story short: microfilm obtained via Interlibrary Loans).
My conclusion: The Roswell UFO was absolutely a government surveillance balloon, specifically a Project Mogul balloon train as depicted on pages 991-993 of the report. No doubt in my mind.
The alleged "alien" bodies were crash test dummy type mannequins used in high altitude balloon experiments throughout the years. These mannequins contained sensitive sensors that recorded valuable data. When they returned to the ground, sometimes in actual crashes, they were quickly retrieved and because of their human shape were lifted and transported much like a body would be. There are pictures, specs, records, etc. about these in the report. None were involved with the Mogul balloon train that was retrieved in the initial Roswell event. Persons who witnessed the retrievals weren't asked about them until many years later. They confused their dates and their reports merged with the Mogul balloon wreckage to create the Roswell myth.
The Roswell Report doesn't dismiss any of the reports, articles, witness accounts, etc. It treats them all with great respect and slowly shows how a number of unrelated events combined with how memory tends to fade and distort over time led folks in the late 1960s to genuinely misremember events that had happened 20 years earlier.
It's an impressive document, fascinating to read. I fully intend to read it again. Anyone who has the least interest in Roswell can't knowledgeably comment unless they've read it.
So I still believe in extraterrestrial UFO's (I witnessed an impressive event in 1966) but I don't believe one landed in Roswell in the 1940s.
The crash test dummies were not used until 1952, 5 years after Roswell. Try again.
Plus, do you really believe the commander of the base would tell the newspaper they recovered a flying saucer after picking up pieces of a balloon, really?
Why would he say on his death bed it was a flying saucer but it was covered up. What would he have to gain?
It is certainly a valid thought and well worth considering.
But it proceeds from an unproven assumption that any intelligent alien species is going to have values, views, and motivations resembling our own. There is simply no way to know that. And a vastly superior civilization --- one that is, say, ten thousand years ahead of our own --- probably no longer has to worry about resources. They can probably manipulate matter at the atomic level. Turning lead into gold or gold into water or water into helium gas would likely be child's play for them.
Aliens might come to Earth just to look around. Just to look at the silly humans. Or they might ignore humans entirely in favor of butterflies. Or maybe they're coming for the donuts. Who knows?
Which is why I included the statement "I don't want to put an entirely human spin..." in my original post. Since it is unknown, anything is possible.
The crash test dummies were not used until 1952, 5 years after Roswell. Try again.
Plus, do you really believe the commander of the base would tell the newspaper they recovered a flying saucer after picking up pieces of a balloon, really?
Why would he say on his death bed it was a flying saucer but it was covered up. What would he have to gain?
Zero 7, biscuitmom answers your first point about the dummies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by biscuitmom
The alleged "alien" bodies were crash test dummy type mannequins used in high altitude balloon experiments throughout the years. These mannequins contained sensitive sensors that recorded valuable data. When they returned to the ground, sometimes in actual crashes, they were quickly retrieved and because of their human shape were lifted and transported much like a body would be. There are pictures, specs, records, etc. about these in the report. None were involved with the Mogul balloon train that was retrieved in the initial Roswell event. Persons who witnessed the retrievals weren't asked about them until many years later. They confused their dates and their reports merged with the Mogul balloon wreckage to create the Roswell myth.
As to the second point the Moghul balloon was not like any balloon design that had come before, the base commander may well have believed that they had recovered a crashed saucer.
What would anyone have to gain by a death bed confession, well firstly since we were not witness to it we don't really know there ever was a death bed confession.
It is possible that the commander felt that his reputation may have taken a hit by being duped into thinking it was flying disk.......therefore he sticks to his story to try to maintain his reputation, even to his dying days.
That wasn't my experience at all.
When I visited Roswell in the summer of 2013, I was surprised by what a hustle-bustle prosperous place it appeared to be.
There seemed to be a sizeable government - local, state, county, federal, military - presence, along with all the economic benefits those bring.
Granted I had just driven through so many NM ghost towns that in comparison Roswell was a metropolis. Also it was my first visit so I had nothing previous with which to compare it.
I had no problems finding restaurants, albeit it none with a UFO theme, thank goodness. I got enought of that silliness in Sedona AZ. I was impressed by all the Roswell amentities. Kudos especially to the Roswell Public Library staff!
Instead of "is" regarding Roswell's economy I should have typed in "was" in my post. I have a friend who lived for many years in Hagerman but has been with his aging parents in Calif. the last few years. My last time there was in 2011. But like Mark S. suggested and also Bisquitmom, there HAS been growth down there the last several years. Big box retailers take a close look at cities before they slap a store down there but also the last several years both Home Depot and Sam's Club have put in st ores there on the north side of town (hwy. 285) And quite a few homes in the 200K and up range have been built on the west side of town.
I'm not sure what is cranking the economy there but something is. I was talking in my previous post over the situation from the late 60's up to the early 90's. In Sept. of 1991 I remember cutting out an article in the Denver Post regarding Roswell's economy. It had really hit the skids at that time and the article zeroed in on the real estate situation, particularly in the RIAC area south of town.
One thing about the UFO stuff in 1997, it DID stir up interest in the area. When it went to double digit unemployment and an uncertain future, well, the area did whatever it could to prop up the area, to create interest in the area. Nothing wrong with THAT!
Plus, do you really believe the commander of the base would tell the newspaper they recovered a flying saucer after picking up pieces of a balloon, really?
Absolutely. It was the height of the Cold War. If it was a crashed balloon designed to detect Soviet atomic weapons, then I VERY MUCH believe they would have said anything but what it was. They would have claimed Atlantean attack ships if they'd thought the public would buy it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zero 7
Why would he say on his death bed it was a flying saucer but it was covered up. What would he have to gain?
Notoriety, thanks to the UFO craze. Or maybe he was just following orders until the end.
Granted, it's just as much speculation on my part as yours. But my point being we don't have any conclusive evidence of a crashed alien spacecraft. We do have a lot of credible evidence that it was not a "flying saucer."
Granted, it's just as much speculation on my part as yours. But my point being we don't have any conclusive evidence of a crashed alien spacecraft. We do have a lot of credible evidence that it was not a "flying saucer."
True, it's all speculation at this point. We have no conclusive evidence of it having been a downed alien spacecraft. Similarly, to date, we have no conclusive evidence that it was any type of weather balloon. Only some government-issued possible explanations. I can't believe, if it WAS a balloon, that no parts of the wreckage were preserved, so that it MIGHT be conclusive.
So it's all simply conjecture at this point.
Sort of like Kecksburg, PA.
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