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RAAF Captures Flying Saucer
On Ranch in Roswell Region

Roswell Daily Record, Tuesday, July 8, 1947.

No Details of
Flying Disk
Are Revealed

Roswell Hardware
Man and Wife
Report Disk Seen

The intelligence office of the 509th Bombardment group at Roswell Army Air Field announced at noon today, that the field has come into possession of a flying saucer.
According to information released by the department, over authority of Maj. J. A. Marcel, intelligence officer, the disk was recovered on a ranch in the Roswell vicinity, after an unidentified rancher had notified Sheriff Geo. Wilcox, here, that he had found the instrument on his premises.
Major Marcel and a detail from his department went to the ranch and recovered the disk, it was stated.
After the intelligence officer here had inspected the instrument it was flown to higher headquarters.
The intelligence office stated that no details of the saucer's construction or its appearance had been revealed.
Mr. and Mrs. Dan Wilmot apparently were the only persons in Roswell who seen what they thought was a flying disk.
They were sitting on their porch at 105 South Penn. last Wednesday night at about ten o'clock when a large glowing object zoomed out of the sky from the southeast, going in a northwesterly direction at a high rate of speed.
Wilmot called Mrs. Wilmot's attention to it and both ran down into the yard to watch. It was in sight less then a minute, perhaps 40 or 50 seconds, Wilmot estimated.
Wilmot said that it appeared to him to be about 1,500 feet high and going fast. He estimated between 400 and 500 miles per hour.
In appearance it looked oval in shape like two inverted saucers, faced mouth to mouth, or like two old type washbowls placed, together in the same fashion. The entire body glowed as though light were showing through from inside, though not like it would inside, though not like it would be if a light were merely underneath.
From where he stood Wilmot said that the object looked to be about 5 feet in size, and making allowance for the distance it was from town he figured that it must have been 15 to 20 feet in diameter, though this was just a guess.
Wilmot said that he heard no sound but that Mrs. Wilmot said she heard a swishing sound for a very short time.
The object came into view from the southeast and disappeared over the treetops in the general vicinity of six mile hill.
Wilmot, who is one of the most respected and reliable citizens in town, kept the story to himself hoping that someone else would come out and tell about having seen one, but finally today decided that he would go ahead and tell about it. The announcement that the RAAF was in possession of one came only a few minutes after he decided to release the details of what he had seen.

NOTE:
In contrast to the above article which appeared in the Tuesday, July 8th paper, on the VERY NEXT DAY, that is, Wednesday morning July 9th, the paper reported that the "flying disk" found near Roswell: 1947 was NOT a disc or saucer, but instead a weather balloon or weather device. Some quote General Ramey while others quote "informed" sources, including senators in Washington. Reports are military officials toured news media offices in Roswell, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe retrieving original copies of the press release sent out the day before by RAAF that revealed the Army had a "flying disk" in their possession. A wire recording interview was also confiscated. (see)
In September, 1947, two months following the crash down, when famed astronomer and meteor expert Dr. Lincoln La Paz was recruited by the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps to determine the speed, direction, and trajectory of the craft prior to its impact --- which was especially interesting in the fact that the party line was telling the public the object was nothing more than a mere slow moving wind blown weather device --- La Paz kept running into what has been described as a " sea of reluctant witnesses." It was difficult for him to pinpoint much of anything initally, accurate trajectory or otherwise. To get around the "reluctant witness" problem La Paz interviewed a fairly large number of spanish speaking people in and around the general Roswell-Corona area, especially along the suspected flight path, a group that was somehow collectively overlooked by the powers that be.
Interesting as well, on July 10th, 1947, La Paz, who had thousands and thousands of hours of scientific time observing celestial objects, reported seeing a huge eliptical-shaped object flying in the sky near Fort Sumner, New Mexico, while driving by car with his wife and children. He saw a luminous unknown object sort of oscillating beneath the clouds. Its brightness was stronger than the planet Jupiter and its shape regular and elliptical. The nature of this object was unknown to the astronomer.

In a Life Magazine article dated April 7, 1952 La Paz is quoted as saying: 'The object "..exhibited a sort of wobbling motion" and then disappeared behind some clouds. It reappeared and "projected against the dark clouds gave the strongest impression of self-luminosity." The object then moved slowly from south to north and two and a half minutes behind a cloudbank. According to La Paz's calculations, confirmed by his wife, the object was huge, as large or larger than the infamous "Battle of Los Angeles" object as presented in UFO Over Los Angeles seen by thousands in February, 1942, being some 235 feet long and 100 feet thick (NOTE: according to reports as cited in the above link, the Los Angeles UFO was, however, thought to be closer to 800 feet in length). Its horizontal speed ranged between 120 and 180 miles per hour and its vertical rise between 600 and 900 miles per hour.' See: COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND ASTRONAUTICS, U.S. House of Representatives, July 29, 1968, Case 21.

Please note the change in stories by the next-day July 9th issue of the paper with the large headline at the top and the small headline partway down, below, that reads: Harassed Rancher who Located "Saucer" Sorry He Told About It. For the complete text of the smaller article with much more background information and additional insights into the crash and reasons for the sudden erupt changes in the story, please click the link: