Ramey memo
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 9
| Date | 2004 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Nuclear & missile sites (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| People | Roger Ramey, David Rudiak |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 158 |
| Year | 2004 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2004 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 4 |
The Ramey memo is a folded sheet of paper held by Brigadier General Roger Ramey in a press photograph taken in his office at Fort Worth on 8 July 1947, as the Roswell debris was presented as a weather balloon. Researchers have spent decades trying to read its partly visible typed text; some say it mentions "victims of the wreck", but the critical areas remain unreadable.[1][2]
The photograph
The photograph was taken by J. Bond Johnson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and shows Ramey crouching beside the debris holding the message. The date is known because a dated caption sheet accompanied the picture, which appeared in newspapers the next day. The negative is held in the Special Collections of the University of Texas at Arlington.[1][3]
The readings
In the 1990s and 2000s researchers enhanced scans of the photograph. Physicist David Rudiak argued that the text included the phrases "the victims of the wreck" and "in the 'disc'", which would contradict the balloon explanation, and said about ten readers agreed with those phrases; he used character-recognition methods to rank possible letters, finding "victims" more likely than alternatives such as "finding" or "remains". A researcher's reading was reported in the Santa Fe New Mexican in 2002, and the analysis was presented at the 2004 UFO Crash Retrieval Conference.[1][2]
New scans
In April 2015, after nearly two years of preparation led by New Zealand researcher Martin Dreyer, Rudiak made dozens of scans of the original negative at Arlington under varied conditions. Debris on the negative and the fold of the paper obscured some letters, and the results were, in Kevin Randle's words, less than spectacular: the processing improved the image only slightly, and the key areas remained unreadable.[1]
Assessment
Other analysts have read different words or argued that the resolution is too low to read anything reliably, and critics note that even "disc" or "victims" need not imply an alien craft. Randle says he is agnostic about the memo's content. It remains one of the most debated images in the Roswell case.[1][4]
In the testimony
The testimony cites: 2nd Annual UFO Crash Retrieval Conference, p225.
People and topics
- Roger Ramey — Eighth Air Force commander who presented the Roswell balloon in 1947.
- Fort Worth — The Texas city where the Roswell debris was shown to the press in 1947.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Roswell — The New Mexico town at the center of the 1947 crash story.
- David Rudiak — Physicist who analyzed the Ramey memo.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Roswell incident — The July 1947 recovery of debris near Roswell, New Mexico, announced as a "flying disc" and then explained as a weather balloon.
On the Timeline
- Bill Cooper and Behold a Pale Horse (2004) — Bill Cooper claims underground bases host cooperation between aliens and humans.
- Marconi director claim (2004) (2004) — A Marconi director is said to have worked on a communication system and an unlimited power source.
See every 2004 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Kevin Randle, "Ramey memo update", A Different Perspective (Sep 2015) · kevinrandle.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Patrick Gross, Santa Fe New Mexican, 22 November 2002, UFOs at close sight · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- "Roswell UFO incident" collection, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries · libraries.uta.edu · archived copy
- Roswell incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
Further reading
- Roswell incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFOs and the Air Force: records — National Archives · archives.gov · 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.
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