Mac Brazel
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person
Contents 6
| Type | Person |
|---|---|
| Also known as | William "Mac" Brazel |
| On the Timeline | 1 event, 1991 |
William W. "Mac" Brazel (died 1963) was the New Mexico ranch manager who found the debris at the centre of the 1947 Roswell incident. His report to the local sheriff led Roswell Army Air Field to announce the recovery of a "flying disc", and his account remains a key piece of evidence in debates over the case.[1]
The discovery
Brazel managed a ranch near Corona, New Mexico. In June 1947 he found a large area of debris on the ranch made of rubber strips, tinfoil, paper, tape and light wooden sticks. The ranch had no telephone or radio, and at first he did not know about the wave of "flying disc" reports sweeping the country.[1]
Reporting it
On 5 July 1947 Brazel went into Corona, where his uncle, Hollis Wilson, suggested that the material might come from a "flying disk". The next day Brazel drove to Roswell and told Sheriff George Wilcox, who called Roswell Army Air Field. The base's intelligence officer, Major Jesse Marcel, returned with him to the ranch to collect debris, and on 8 July the base announced that it had recovered a flying disc. Within a day senior officers in Fort Worth identified the material as a weather balloon.[1][2]
His account
.jpg)
In an interview published in the Roswell Daily Record on 9 July 1947, Brazel described the debris as rubber strips, "tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks", said no engine or metal parts had been found, and said he had at first paid little attention to it before going back with his wife and daughter to gather some up. He also told reporters he was sure that what he had found was not a weather balloon.[1]
Later claims
After interest in Roswell revived in the late 1970s, his son William Brazel Jr. told authors Charles Berlitz and William Moore that the military had detained his father and sworn him to secrecy. Skeptics note that several people reported seeing Brazel in Roswell during the period he was supposedly in custody, and that he gave an interview to the local radio station KGFL. His daughter Bessie Brazel Schreiber, who helped collect the debris at the age of 14, later described material consistent with the balloon equipment of the secret Project Mogul, which the Air Force said in the 1990s was the source of the debris. Brazel died in 1963, before the revival of interest in the case.[1][3]
On the UAP Timeline
- Jud Roberts and the Mac Brazel interview (30 December 1991) — A Roswell radio manager says he interviewed rancher Mac Brazel and was warned off broadcasting it.
References
- Roswell incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region", Roswell Daily Record (8 Jul 1947), via Wikisource · en.wikisource.org · archived copy
- Project Mogul — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
No discussion yet.