The Roswell incident: what happened in 1947

About Roswell incident

The full story, section by section

The story of Roswell incident in 13 parts. Tap any part to read it in full.

1. BackgroundThe summer of 1947 was the first summer of the Cold War.Read this part → The Roswell Army Air Field sign, about 1946. The base was home to the 509th Bomb Group. · Photo: United States Army Air Forces, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
2. Discovery of the debrisOn 4 June 1947 the NYU team launched a long train of balloons, Flight 4, from Alamogordo.Read this part → Maj. Jesse Marcel with foil debris at Fort Worth Army Air Field, July 1947. · Photo: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
3. The "flying disc" announcementOn 8 July 1947 the RAAF public information officer, Lieutenant Walter Haut, issued a press release.Read this part → Roswell Daily Record. July 8, 1947. Top of front page. Article titled: "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region". The flying saucer article is readable when the image is at larger sizes. See size links under the image. See the image th… · Photo: Roswell Daily Record., Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
4. The weather balloon explanationThe material was flown to Fort Worth Army Air Field.Read this part → Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey (left, holding a memo) and Col. Thomas DuBose with the debris in Ramey's office, Fort Worth. · Photo: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
5. Three quiet decades (1947–1978)Reporting stopped soon after the official explanation.Read this part → Frank Scully (right) and the con man Silas Newton (centre), promoters of the 1948 Aztec crashed-saucer hoax. · Photo: Feoffer, (original photograph by David Mathias, Denver Post), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
6. Revival (1978–1980)In 1978 the nuclear physicist and ufologist Stanton Friedman interviewed Jesse Marcel, who had accompanied the debris from the ranch to Fort Worth.Read this part → Jesse Marcel in 1947. His 1978 interview with Stanton Friedman revived the case. · Photo: US Govt (Roswell Army Air Field staff), Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
7. Majestic 12After the book appeared, Richard C.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.
8. Alien bodies and rival accounts (1989–1994)The first claims of bodies came from second-hand accounts attributed to Barnett and to "Pappy" Henderson after their deaths.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.
9. Government investigationsIn 1993 Representative Steven Schiff of New Mexico, a Republican with an interest in UFOs who pressed officials for information, grew frustrated with the Defense Department's answers.Read this part → Project Mogul balloon train components, from the Air Force's 1995 Roswell Report. · Photo: United States Air Force, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
10. Project Mogul afterwardsMogul ran from 1947 until early 1949.Read this part → The atmospheric physicist Charles B. Moore, Mogul's project engineer, with a radar reflector like those flown in 1947. · Photo: DaveThomasNMSR, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
11. Later hoaxes and claimsIn 1995 the British entrepreneur Ray Santilli presented black-and-white footage he said showed the autopsy of a Roswell alien, bought from an elderly Army Air Forces cameraman.Read this part → Recovery of an anthropomorphic test dummy, from the Air Force's 1997 report Case Closed. · Photo: United States Air Force, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
12. AssessmentThe secrecy around the 1947 recovery was due to Cold War military programmes, not aliens.Read this part → Photograph from Roswell Report: Case Closed (1997) · Photo: United States Air Force, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
13. LegacyRoswell has embraced its fame. Its tourism is built on UFO museums, including the International UFO Museum and Research Center that Haut and Dennis helped found in the early 1990s, and alien-themed businesses.Read this part → The International UFO Museum and Research Center on North Main Street, Roswell. · Photo: AllenS, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

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Key people

The people at the centre of the story — witnesses, investigators, officials and sceptics:

• Jesse MarcelJesse Marcel was a U.S. Army Air Forces intelligence officer who investigated crashed debris near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947.
• Kenneth ArnoldKenneth Arnold was an American aviator and businessman who reported seeing nine shiny, fast-moving objects near Mount Rainier, Washington, on June 24, 1947. His widely publicized account inspired nat…
• William BlanchardWilliam Hugh Blanchard was a U.S. Air Force officer who served during World War II and eventually reached the four-star rank of Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force from 1965 until his death in 1966.
• Walter HautWalter Haut served as the public information officer for the Roswell Army Air Field in 1947, where he issued the famous press release announcing the recovery of a flying disc. Over the years, his acc…
• Thomas DuBoseThomas Jefferson DuBose was a U.S. Air Force brigadier general and the chief of staff to Roger Ramey at the Eighth Air Force in Fort Worth, Texas, during the 1947 Roswell incident.
• Frank ScullyFrank Scully was an American journalist, author, and humorist who wrote for Variety and published several books. He is best known for popularizing a 1948 crashed flying saucer story in New Mexico, wh…
• Stanton FriedmanStanton Terry Friedman was an American-Canadian nuclear physicist who became a professional ufologist after leaving physics in 1970. Operating mainly from the United States and Canada, he became best…
• Jesse Marcel Jr.Jesse Marcel Jr. was an American physician and military flight surgeon who maintained for decades that he saw unusual debris brought home by his father after the 1947 Roswell incident. He publicly as…
• Mac BrazelNew Mexico ranch foreman Mac Brazel discovered strange debris on his sheep ranch in June 1947, which he reported to the local sheriff. His find prompted the Roswell Army Air Field to initially announ…
• Paul BennewitzPaul Bennewitz was an American businessman and UFO investigator based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who came to believe he was filming alien craft and uncovered a secret underground alien base near Kir…
• Jaime ShanderaJaime Shandera is an American television producer from Los Angeles who became involved in UFO research. In December 1984, he received an anonymous package containing film of the "Majestic 12" papers,…
• Carl SaganCarl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, and science communicator who lived from 1934 to 1996. He played a major role in space missions, discovered Venus's high surface temp…
• Vannevar BushVannevar Bush was an American engineer, inventor, and science administrator who lived from 1890 to 1974. During the Second World War, he headed the Office of Scientific Research and Development, coor…
• Glenn DennisGlenn Dennis was a mortician in Roswell, New Mexico, who became known as a witness to the 1947 Roswell incident. He claimed that the local army air field asked him about small caskets and that a nurs…

Related cases & events

Events and sightings linked to Roswell incident:

🗓️ Event · 9 min readThe Roswell Report: Case ClosedThe Roswell Report: Case Closed is a 1997 United States Air Force report authored by Captain James McAndrew. Released at a Pentagon briefing on June 24, 1997, it argued that accounts of alien bodies linked to the 1947 Roswell incident were actually misremembe…🗓️ Event · 6 min readGAO Roswell records reportOn July 28, 1995, the U.S. General Accounting Office reported to Representative Steven Schiff on its investigation into government records concerning the 1947 Roswell crash.🗓️ Event · 11 min readThe Day After RoswellThe Day After Roswell is a 1997 book by retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Philip J.🗓️ Event · 8 min readHangar 18 (film)Hangar 18 is a 1980 science-fiction thriller film about a government cover-up of a crashed alien spacecraft brought to a Texas air base. The story follows surviving astronauts and scientists who discover that humans are descendants of aliens before an explosi…🗓️ Event · 8 min readPhilip Corso's Roswell claimsPhilip J. Corso was a U.S.🗓️ Event · 10 min readArthur Exon's Roswell statementsRetired United States Air Force Brigadier General Arthur Exon told researchers in 1990 that debris and bodies from the 1947 Roswell incident were brought to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and managed by a secret high-level group. Although his military backgr…🗓️ Event · 4 min readLos Alamos nurse claimAn unnamed retired nurse claimed through researcher Leonard Stringfield that non-human bodies were flown into Los Alamos, New Mexico, after the Second World War. The account remains unverified hearsay because the nurse is anonymous, no supporting records exis…🗓️ Event · 8 min readOliver Henderson and the Roswell flightOliver Wendell "Pappy" Henderson was a decorated World War II pilot and transport pilot for the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell Army Air Field. After his death in 1986, family members, a business partner, and former crew members shared second-hand accounts statin…🗓️ Event · 5 min readFrederick Benthal's Roswell photographs claimArmy Air Forces photographer Frederick Benthal claimed that in July 1947 he was flown to Roswell, New Mexico, where he photographed small bodies inside a tent near a crash site. He first shared his account with researchers in the early 1990s, and his story wa…

Programs, organizations & documents

The official programs, groups and papers involved:

🏛️ Program or study · 6 min readProject MogulProject Mogul was a top-secret US Army Air Forces project conducted from 1947 to early 1949 that used high-altitude balloons and microphones to listen for Soviet atomic bomb tests. Although the balloon method worked, it was expensive and soon replaced by seis…🏢 Organization · 13 min readU.S. Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the air service branch of the U.S. armed forces that became an independent service in September 1947.🏢 Organization · 9 min read509th Bomb GroupThe 509th Bomb Group was a United States Army Air Forces unit created in 1944 to deliver nuclear weapons during the Second World War. Operating from Tinian in 1945, the group carried out the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After the war, the unit w…🏢 Organization · 10 min readGeneral Accounting OfficeThe General Accounting Office, renamed the Government Accountability Office in 2004, is the audit and investigation agency of the United States Congress that handles matters related to public funds and government spending. Between 1994 and 1995, the agency co…📄 Document · 16 min readMJ-12MJ-12, or Majestic-12, is an alleged secret committee supposedly formed in 1947 by President Harry S. Truman to recover and study crashed alien spacecraft. The name originated in the early 1980s from documents that surfaced as part of a disinformation campaig…🏛️ Program or study · 10 min readCrash retrievalCrash retrieval is the alleged recovery of crashed non-human craft and their occupants by the United States government or others, starting with the 1947 Roswell incident. Numerous unverified claims and hoaxes have emerged over the decades, including testimony…🏛️ Program or study · 9 min readReverse engineeringReverse engineering is the process of studying an existing device, system, or software to understand how it works in order to copy, improve, or counter it. This practice consists of information extraction, modeling, and review, and has been widely used in ind…🏢 Organization · 8 min readThe Black VaultThe Black Vault is an American online archive of US government documents founded in 1996 by John Greenewald Jr. It has grown into one of the largest free civilian collections of declassified records on the internet, holding millions of pages obtained through …🏢 Organization · 8 min readFederal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is the United States' domestic intelligence and security service and its principal federal law-enforcement agency, founded in 1908 and renamed in 1935. Over its history, the agency has investigated various matters, includin…

Books, films & documentaries

Where to read and watch more:

🎬 Book or film · 5 min readWitness to RoswellWitness to Roswell is a 2007 book by Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt that argues an alien spacecraft crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 and was covered up by the government.🎬 Book or film · 5 min readThe X-FilesThe X-Files is an American science-fiction drama series created by Chris Carter that originally ran on Fox from September 1993 to May 2002. FBI agents Fox Mulder, a believer, and Dana Scully, a skeptic, investigate unsolved paranormal cases and uncover a gove…

Related topics & places

Ideas, terms and places that come up in the story:

📍 Place · 8 min readRoswellRoswell is a city in south-eastern New Mexico that became world-famous for the July 1947 incident in which the local army air field initially reported recovering a flying disc before stating it was actually debris from a Project Mogul balloon train. Today, th…📍 Place · 15 min readRoswell Army Air FieldRoswell Army Air Field was a U.S. military air base located in New Mexico that opened in 1941 to train pilots and bombardiers during World War II.📍 Place · 6 min readFort WorthFort Worth is a city in Texas that is significant in UFO history because debris from the Roswell incident was flown to its army air field in July 1947. At the airfield, reporters photographed the material while General Roger Ramey presented it as a weather ba…📍 Place · 19 min readWright-Patterson Air Force BaseWright-Patterson Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force facility formed in Ohio in 1948 by merging Wright Field and Patterson Field.📍 Place · 5 min readPlains of San AgustinThe Plains of San Agustin are a high basin in west-central New Mexico that serve as the location of the Very Large Array radio telescope. They are also known in UFO lore as the claimed site of a 1947 flying-saucer crash based on second-hand accounts. This unp…📍 Place · 6 min readKirtland Air Force BaseKirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force installation located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that serves as a major center for military research, nuclear weapons work, and the largest known repository of nuclear weapons in the world. Originally begin…📖 Term · 17 min readUnidentified flying objectAn unidentified flying object, or UFO, is an unexplained phenomenon or object seen in the sky, with the modern craze originating in the United States in June 1947. While popular culture often equates UFOs with alien spacecraft, most investigations reveal them…🧭 Topic overview · 30 min readSecrecy & cover-up (topic)This overview page covers official secrecy, classification, and cover-up claims regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena from 1947 to 2023. It outlines historical classified studies, released government records, and modern claims of hidden reverse-engineeri…🧭 Topic overview · 22 min readBeings & bodies (topic)This topic overview covers reports and claims about non-human beings, bodies, and biological material spanning from 1947 to 2023. It outlines various second-hand and anonymous accounts involving crash-retrieval stories and alien abductions, mostly centered in…

🗓️ Roswell incident on the UAP timeline

1. 8 July 1947Roswell press officer Walter Haut's affidavit says his commander told him the base had recovered crash debris from a disc. Read the article →
2. 8 July 1947Roswell newspaper editor Art McQuiddy says the base announced a recovered disc, then asked him to call it a weather balloon. Read the article →
3. 8 July 1947Col. Thomas DuBose's affidavit says the Roswell debris went via Fort Worth to Wright Field and the balloon photos were a cover story. Read the article →
4. 8 July 1947Lt. Robert Shirkey's affidavit says he saw debris loaded for flights from Roswell to Fort Worth and Wright Field. Read the article →
5. 12 April 1954An Air Force helicopter trainee says he was sent to a desert crash near Roswell in 1954. Read the article →
6. July 1989Gen. Arthur Exon says he was told Roswell was an alien craft recovery. Read the article →
7. 6 March 1991Jesse Marcel Jr. says his father showed him strange Roswell debris in 1947. Read the article →
8. 9 July 1991Oliver Henderson's widow swears he told her he flew Roswell crash debris and bodies. Read the article →
9. 16 September 1991Gen. Thomas DuBose says the Roswell balloon story was a cover and the event was above Top Secret. Read the article →
10. 30 December 1991A Roswell radio manager says he interviewed rancher Mac Brazel and was warned off broadcasting it. Read the article →
11. 1 September 1994Army photographer Frederick Benthal says he photographed the Roswell crash and bodies. Read the article →
12. 28 July 1995Rep. Steven Schiff says Roswell base records were destroyed, per a GAO audit. Read the article →
13. 24 June 1997The Air Force's 'Case Closed' report says Roswell 'bodies' were crash-test dummies. Read the article →
14. March 1999A man says his father told him on his deathbed about the Roswell crash. Read the article →
15. 1 March 2002A general reportedly tells Eric Davis two unusual materials were recovered at Roswell. Read the article →
16. 28 June 2008Bill Richardson says Los Alamos and the Pentagon refused his questions about Roswell. Read the article →
17. 12 September 2009Eric Davis suggests Roswell materials may have been held at Lockheed in Sunnyvale. Read the article →
18. 8 July 2012Retired CIA officer Chase Brandon says he saw a box labelled 'Roswell' at the agency. Read the article →
19. 12 December 2020Jesse Marcel's grandson says his family held unusual Roswell debris. Read the article →

Search the timeline →

🏛️ Official records

• FBI teletype on the Roswell “disc” (1947)Federal Bureau of Investigation · July 8, 1947A short teletype from the FBI’s Dallas office, sent the day the Roswell story broke. It passes on what Army Air Forces officers told the Bureau about the object recovered near Roswell, New Mexico.

🛸 UFO sightings near Roswell

196 sightings on ufos.dev were reported within 150 km. The most-upvoted:

Sightings that mention Roswell incident

Open the sightings map → Search sightings →

More in the encyclopedia

Other articles that link to or mention Roswell incident:

• Arthur ExonArthur Exon was a United States Air Force brigadier general, decorated fighter pilot, and World War II prisoner of war who lived from 1916 to 2005. During his career, he commanded Wright-Patterson Ai…
• Chase Brandon's Roswell boxIn July 2012, retired CIA officer Chase Brandon claimed in an interview that he had once seen a box at CIA headquarters containing documents and photographs proving an alien crash at Roswell. He made…
• Kevin RandleKevin Randle is an American ufologist, author, and military veteran who is widely known as a leading expert on the Roswell incident. He served in the U.S.
• Ramey memoThe Ramey memo is a folded typed paper held by Brigadier General Roger Ramey in a 1947 photograph taken in Fort Worth, Texas. Researchers have spent decades attempting to read its partly legible text…
• Karl PflockKarl Pflock was an American CIA intelligence officer, government official, and author who became a full-time UFO researcher focusing on the Roswell incident. After years of investigation, he conclude…
• Homer Rowlette deathbed accountThis article is about the second-hand deathbed accounts of Sgt. Homer G. Rowlette Jr.
• Bill ClintonBill Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001, following his time as attorney general and governor of Arkansas. During his presidency,…
• Tom CareyTom Carey is a UFO researcher known for investigating the 1947 Roswell incident alongside co-author Donald R. Schmitt. They published a 2007 book featuring a disputed affidavit from former press offi…
• Brad SparksBrad Sparks is an American UFO researcher who is best known for compiling and revising a comprehensive database of Project Blue Book unknown cases. His work includes detailed studies of historical UF…
• Raechel's EyesRaechel's Eyes is a 2005 book by Helen Littrell and Jean Bilodeaux about Marisa Littrell and her college roommate Raechel, who was allegedly a human-alien hybrid placed by an Air Force colonel. The b…
• Rendlesham Forest incidentThe Rendlesham Forest incident involved reported sightings of unexplained lights and an alleged craft landing by U.S. Air Force personnel in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, in late December 1980.
• Crashes & retrievals (topic)This topic overview covers claims from 1947 to 2023 that governments have recovered and studied crashed non-human craft or debris. Beginning with the 1947 Roswell incident in New Mexico, ufology clai…
• Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the United States civilian foreign intelligence agency created in 1947. Between the late 1940s and 1960s, the agency closely monitored UFO reports primarily f…
• Vallée meets D'Amato on secret programs (1992)On May 22, 1992, UFO researcher Jacques Vallée met with C. Richard D'Amato, a Senate Appropriations Committee counsel. According to Vallée's published journals, D'Amato stated that mysterious triangu…
• Luis ElizondoLuis Elizondo is a former American Army counterintelligence officer and Defense Department official who became a prominent figure in the modern UFO debate after resigning in October 2017. He stated t…
• Leslie KeanLeslie Kean is an American investigative journalist and author known for her reporting on unidentified flying objects and her 2010 best-selling book on the subject. She co-authored a 2017 New York Ti…
• U.S. NavyThe United States Navy is the maritime branch of the US armed forces and has played a significant role in the history of unidentified aerial phenomena. Over the decades, its pilots and ships have rep…
• Leonard StringfieldLeonard Stringfield was an American ufologist from Cincinnati, Ohio, who directed the civilian UFO group CRIFO in the 1950s and later worked with organizations like NICAP and MUFON. He is best known …

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