The UFO Iconoclast(s)

 

Have UFOs crashed to earth?

Was Roswell "real"?

Have alien bodies been retrieved and autopsied?

Many people certainly believe so. Even I ("The Scourge Of Roswell") used to believe so.

And there's something else, too; something surprising: key elements of the official world want you to believe that UFOs have crashed. They're pleased you believe. They rub their hands together in secret glee as they congratulate themselves on a job well-done.

Yes: it's truly ironic that those same key elements may well be up to their collective necks in crashed UFO tales - but there's a possibility that none of them may have any basis in literal UFO reality whatsoever.

Instead, there is good evidence that the collective UFO research community may have been the unwitting victim of a huge con-trick; one designed to (a) hide classified military ops under a crashed UFO banner; and (b) control and manipulate a group of people (namely us) that the official world perceives as being (at times, at least) troublesome and a potential threat to national security.

So, with that said, where do we begin? Where else: the early years of the UFO, the 1940s.

Psychological Saucers

It’s worth noting (mainly because few have bothered to note it, or to understand and appreciate the significance of the matter) that one of the “Recommendations” of a lengthy Technical Report prepared by the Air Force’s flying saucer study, Project Grudge, way back in August 1949, states: “That Psychological Warfare Division and other governmental agencies interested in psychological warfare be informed of the results of this study.”

The Department of Defense’s official definition of psychological warfare is: “The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives.”

As the above Grudge revelations show, way back when in the formative years of Ufology, certain players were looking to understand how the subject could be used psychologically.

Saucers and the CIA

A 1952 document from then-CIA director Walter B. Smith to the Director of the Psychological Strategy Board, titled “Flying Saucers,” states:

“I am today transmitting to the National Security Council a proposal in which it is concluded that the problems connected with unidentified flying objects appear to have implications for psychological warfare as well as for intelligence and operations. I suggest that we discuss at an early board meeting the possible offensive or defensive utilization of these phenomena for psychological warfare purposes.”

According to Gerald Haines, historian for the National Security Agency and the CIA, in the early 1950s, “The CIA…searched the Soviet press for UFO reports, but found none, causing the group to conclude that the absence of reports had to have been the result of deliberate Soviet Government policy. The group also envisioned the USSR’s possible use of UFOs as a psychological warfare tool. [My italics.] In addition, they worried that, if the US air warning system should be deliberately overloaded by UFO sightings, the Soviets might gain a surprise advantage in any nuclear attack. Because of the tense Cold War situation and increased Soviet capabilities, the CIA Study Group saw serious national security concerns in the flying saucer situation. The group believed that the Soviets could use UFO reports to touch off mass hysteria and panic in the United States. The group also believed that the Soviets might use UFO sightings to overload the US air warning system so that it could not distinguish real targets from phantom UFOs.”

Significantly, the CIA Study Group “did find that continued emphasis on UFO reporting might threaten ‘the orderly functioning’ of the government by clogging the channels of communication with irrelevant reports and by inducing ‘hysterical mass behavior’ harmful to constituted authority. The panel also worried that potential enemies contemplating an attack on the United States might exploit the UFO phenomena and use them to disrupt US air defenses.”

This, in essence, is the CIA’s official stance with respect to the UFO puzzle. The CIA was most concerned about the way in which the Soviets might exploit the UFO subject as a tool of psychological warfare and spread bogus UFO accounts to clog intelligence channels.

In other words, it was not UFOs per se that particularly interested or alarmed the CIA, but the way in which the subject itself could be manipulated for other, more novel purposes.

As we shall now see, it was during these formative years that the American intelligence community began to realize how it, too might make use of the crashed UFO mystery to further muddy the waters concerning the incidents in New Mexico in 1947.

And so it was that, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, several crashed UFO tales surfaced – all of which bore the hallmarks of official involvement, both in their creation and dissemination.

The Aztec Affair



Aztec player, the notorious Silas Newton

Next to the so-called Roswell Incident of July 1947, certainly the most talked-about “UFO crash” of all is that which is alleged to have occurred in the vicinity of Aztec, New Mexico, in 1948.

According to information related to the author Frank Scully in the late 1940s, and subsequently published in his best-selling 1950 book, Behind the Flying Saucers, the wreckage of four alien spacecraft, and no fewer than 34 alien bodies, had been recovered by American authorities as a result of a number of separate incidents in 1947 and 1948, and were being studied under cover of the utmost secrecy at defense establishments in the United States.

Scully was willing to admit that the bulk of his information had come from two primary sources: Silas Mason Newton, who was described in a 1941 FBI report as a ‘wholly unethical businessman,’ and one ‘Dr. Gee’, the name given to protect eight scientists, all of whom had supposedly divulged various details of the crashes to Newton and Scully. According to Scully’s sources one such UFO was found in Hart Canyon, near the town of Aztec, in March 1948.

After the Aztec saucer had crashed, said Scully, it was found essentially intact by elements of the military that gained access to the object via a fractured porthole. Inside they found the bodies of no fewer than sixteen small, human-like creatures, all slightly charred and undoubtedly dead. The UFO was then dismantled and the bodies of the crew were transferred to Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio for study.

At the time of its release, Scully’s book caused a major sensation. In both 1952 and 1953, however, J. P. Cahn, a reporter who had previously worked for the San Francisco Chronicle, authored two detailed exposes, which cast serious doubt on the claims of Newton and ‘Dr. Gee’ – identified not as ‘eight scientists’ but as one Leo Gebauer, who had a background as equally dubious as that of Newton.

Yet, as the years have shown, the Aztec crashed UFO incident refuses to roll over and die – indeed it has now spawned a whole industry.

Even today, the Aztec story continues to perplex and intrigue: a fascinating piece of documentary evidence relative to the Aztec case surfaced in the late 1990s, thanks to the late investigative author Karl Pflock – and it is one that may ultimately shed more light on the psychological warfare angle of the crashed UFO mystery.

“In 1998, under curious circumstances,” stated Pflock, “I was made privy to a fascinating document about one of the most controversial cases of the Golden Age of Flying Saucers, the so-called Aztec crash of 1948. I had little more than passing interest in the case until 1998, when a source, who insists on complete anonymity, showed me a handwritten testament, set down by the key player in this amazing, often amusing, truth-is-stranger-than-fiction episode.

“[I]t seems that what I was shown was…something penned by sly old Silas Newton, but what can we say about the veracity of its content? After the Denver Post revealed he was Scientist X, Newton received two visitors at his Newton Oil Company office in Denver. These men claimed to be with a highly secret U.S. Government entity, which they refused to name. Were they Air Force OSI agents, who Newton hyped into something more mysterious? Newton writes, ‘They grilled me, tried to poke holes in my story. Had no trouble doing it and laughed in my face about the scientific mistakes I made. They never said so, but I could tell they were trying to find out if I really knew anything about flying saucers that had landed. Did not take those fellows long to decide I did not. But I sure knew they did.’”

Pflock expands further and the tale becomes decidedly intriguing:

“Newton’s visitors told him they knew he was pulling a scam and then gave him what may have been the surprise of his life. ‘Those fellows said they wanted me to keep it up, keep telling the flying saucer story and that they and the people they worked for would look out for me and for Leo. I could just go on doing what I always did and not worry about it.’”

Pflock asks:

“Did the U.S. Government or someone associated with it use Newton to discredit the idea of crashed flying saucers so a real captured saucer or saucers could be more easily kept under wraps? Was this actually nothing to do with real saucers but instead some sort of psychological warfare operation?” [My italics.]

Klondike and the Crown

And then there is Operation Klondike. Following the collapse of Nazi Germany, several of Hungary’s national treasures, including the Crown of St. Stephen, were handed over to the United States military for safekeeping. They were duly delivered, in the early 1950s, to Fort Knox in an elaborate operation code-named Klondike. The treasure was eventually returned to Hungary in 1978.

This would be just another story of political intrigue were it not for one strange fact: according to a memorandum in the State Department, the soldiers designated to guard the treasure were told that the boxes contained “the wings and engine of a flying saucer.”

This type of misinformation may well have been common. “Is it effective?” asked researcher William Moore. “Certainly in the Klondike situation it was, because unsubstantiated stories about parts of a flying saucer being stored at Fort Knox continue to be part of the UFO crash/retrieval rumor mill to this very day. How many other similar rumors have a similar origin is anybody's guess.”

The Spitzbergen Saucer That Wasn't

For many years, tales have circulated to the effect that in the early 1950’s a UFO crashed on the island of Spitzbergen, Norway, and, under circumstances similar to those that allegedly occurred at both Aztec and Roswell, was recovered along with its deceased alien crew.

On March 22, 1968, the State Department forwarded to a host of official bodies within the American intelligence community (including the CIA, the National Security Agency and Army Intelligence) a translation of a March 12, 1968 news article titled “Flying Saucers? They’re A Myth!” that had been written by Viillen Lyustiberg, science editor of the Novosti Press Agency in Russia and that included a small mention of the Spitzbergen allegations.

The relevant section of the article stated: “An abandoned silvery disc was found in the deep rock coal seams in Norwegian coal mines on Spitzbergen. It was pierced and marked by micrometeor impacts and bore all traces of having performed a long space voyage. It was sent for analysis to the Pentagon and disappeared there.”

The CIA, Army, State Department and NSA have all declassified their files pertaining to their apparent interest in Soviet news articles on UFOs in general and the Spitzbergen event in particular.

However, the NSA’s copy of the document differs significantly from those of its allied agencies. On the NSA’s copy, someone had circled the specific section of the article that referred to the Spitzbergen crash with the word “PLANT.”

This, again, would seem to suggest that this was a faked crashed UFO story, purposefully planted by persons currently unknown but known to the all-powerful National Security Agency.

Monkeys in the Desert?



The 10th of 11 atomic-tests that comprised Operation Upshot-Knothole

And, finally, there is Kingman.

For years, interesting stories and accounts have circulated concerning the crash of a UFO at Kingman, Arizona in 1953 - and at the height of Operation Upshot-Knothole: a series of eleven nuclear test shots conducted over the border at the Nevada Test Site.

Perhaps a UFO really did crash at Kingman; however, I have uncovered files showing that in the same precise time-frame (and specifically as part of the Upshot-Knothole tests), the military was secretly test-flying drone aircraft in the area with monkeys on-board.

Might such a drone have crashed? Either by accident or design, was a crashed UFO story created to hide the security aspects of the affair?

While the image of an unmanned drone aircraft packed with a “crew” of monkeys flying across – and ultimately crashing in – the deserts of the southwest might sound laughable and bizarre in the extreme, official papers establishing that such tests were indeed undertaken have surfaced.

A document titled Early Cloud Penetration, dated January 27, 1956, and prepared by the Air Research and Development Command at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, states in part:

“In the event of nuclear warfare the AF is confronted with two special problems. First is the hazard to flight crews who may be forced to fly through an atomic cloud. Second is the hazard to ground crews who maintain the aircraft after it has flown through the cloud…In the 1953 Upshot-Knothole tests, monkeys were used so that experiments could be conducted on larger animals nearer the size of man. QF-80 drone aircraft were used, their speed more nearly approximating that of current operational aircraft.”

And that's just the 1940s and 1950s.

In the near future, I will do a follow-up post to this one that offers similar revelations pertaining to later, alleged UFO crashes.

You may disagree with me, and that is of course your right to do so. However, it seems to me that - for years - the crashed UFO community has been well and truly played, manipulated, and even controlled.

The trick to overcoming this is to throw out your belief systems and start fresh, with no preconceived ideas about crashed UFOs, and no emotion-driven need to believe in wrecked saucers, dead aliens, underground cryogenic chambers filled with ET body-parts, and all the rest.

Do that, be totally unbiased, and you may find some surprising facts about the origins of certain crashed UFO events.

Whether this will please you, dismay you, or cause you to throw out all your files and walk away from the subject remains to be seen, of course...

Sources:

Project Grudge Technical Report No. 102-AC 49/15-100, Lt. H.W. Smith and Mr. G.W. Towles, Air Materiel Command, 1949.

JCS Pub 1, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs 1947-90, Gerald K. Haines, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 1, No. 1, Central Intelligence Agency.

The Day After Aztec, Karl Pflock, self-published.

Behind the Flying Saucers, Frank Scully, Henry Holt Publishers, 1950.

UFO Crash at Aztec, William Steinman & Wendelle Stevens, UFO Photo Archives, 1987.

Far Out, No. 1, 1992.

Flying Saucers? They’re a Myth! Viillen Lyustiberg.

Air Research and Development Command, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, Early Cloud Penetration, 27 January 1956 .

 

 

[Installment Two of Tony Bragalia's probe of the Roswell incident's memory metal -- Installment One may be found below]

Recent investigation shows that a scientist for the acclaimed Battelle Memorial Institute -Dr. Howard C. Cross- likely directed the study of Roswell-like "memory metal" under a Wright Patterson Air Force Base contract soon after the crash event in 1947. Newly found details confirm that Cross led a dual life- as both a metallurgist and a secret government UFO researcher.

Memory metal (or shape-recovery) debris was reliably reported by many witnesses to the Roswell 1947 UFO crash. In an earlier article appearing on this site, Battelle was revealed to be the lab that Wright Patterson contracted to begin work on "Roswellian" memory metal studies in the months immediately after the crash. Wright Patterson has been claimed by many witnesses (and in a verified FBI memo written by agent Percy Wyly) to be the very base to which the Roswell debris was flown.

As outlined in the first article on the Battelle-Roswell Connection, the Battelle memory metal report's existence was confirmed by footnotes that were discovered appearing in metallurgical studies completed by other organizations working under Wright Patterson auspice. These footnotes cite a (still missing) 1949 Battelle "Second Progress Report" on the development of Nickel and Titanium alloy. This alloy comprises Nitinol, which remains the world's best-performing shape-recovery alloy. Tellingly, this was the first time that any metal alloy had ever been studied by the U.S. military that had the potential to "remember" its original shape. Based on the sections of the studies to which the footnotes refer, we know that the Battelle Second Progress Report related to the first-ever Phase Diagram on Nickel-Titanium, needed to make memory metal. All of the studies containing these footnotes to the missing Battelle memory report are themselves concerned with shape-recovery metals development and were completed after the "official" discovery of Nitinol.



Under this Wright Patterson military contract, Battelle was to analyze and attempt new metallurgical processes on Nickel and Titanium which -when specially processed and combined- create Nitinol, a "morphing metal" similar to that reported at Roswell. Citations to what must necessarily exist -Battelle's "First Progress Report" on the memory metal- have never been located. The footnotes that were discovered to the missing Battelle's Second Progress Report on memory metal are fully detailed on page 274 of the newly expanded and released book, Witness to Roswell. Additional support was provided through information given by two Air Force Generals (including a former Wright Patterson Base Commander) as well as the confession of a high-level Battelle scientist who analyzed the debris.

In the previous article on this subject, it was revealed that it was Battelle's Dr. Howard Cross that likely directed these early, Roswell-inspired memory metal studies:

DR. CROSS WAS BATTELLE'S TITANIUM EXPERT. IN THE LATE 1940s, DR. CROSS WAS "FEEDING" TECHNICAL INFORMATION ON TITANIUM (WHICH IS REQUIRED TO MAKE MEMORY METAL) TO THE U.S. NAVAL LAB. THIS IS THE VERY LAB WHERE NITINOL MEMORY METAL WAS SAID TO BE "OFFICIALLY" DISCOVERED SOME YEARS LATER.

A brief reference found in a decades-old government report shows that a technical summary report entitled "Titanium Base Alloys" was authored by Battelle's metallurgist Dr. Howard Clinton Cross. The paper was presented by him to the Office of Naval Research in December 1948. The Office of Naval Research is the very place where the "memory metal" Nitinol (a Nickel and Titanium alloy) would be "discovered" over a decade later! Titanium (in its purest possible form) is required in combination with Nickel to make Nitinol. Titanium was an important element to Dr. Cross- and his organization was experimenting with combining it with Nickel- in the months immediately following the Roswell crash.

Other details about Dr. Cross reveal that he had a very curious background. Cross helped to direct Battelle's metals alloy research in the late 1940s. For many years, according to studies he authored, he conducted research work in various materials science and engineering areas, including Titanium. But strangely, he also helped to direct Battelle's USAF-sponsored Project Blue Book UFO research in the early 1950s. Other information that is detailed below shows that after the Roswell Incident, Cross worked quietly -but very closely- with the heads of various departments of the U.S. government on various aspects of the UFO phenomena.

Why would a materials engineer studying exotic alloys in 1948 later help to lead Battelle's government-funded studies on Flying Saucers? It is likely this is because Dr. Cross had studied the Roswell morphing metal . He held technical knowledge about the craft's construction and was given security clearances that enabled him to become a valuable asset to US military and intelligence in analyzing and investigating especially complex UFO cases. Newly developed information reveals that Dr. Cross was far more than a "mere metallurgist" who worked on Titanium alloys. Though Cross is a person about whom information is difficult to gain (and it is now understood why this is so) his name does "pop up" in some very strange places. The Battelle metallurgist was of such importance that he was able to deal freely with the heads of the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the CIA and Air Force Intelligence. His dual life and his close relationships with the uppermost echelons of the United States government on the UFO matter post-Roswell are only evident today in hindsight:

CROSS LIKELY WORKED ON USAF PROJECT BLUE BOOK REPORT NO. 14 AND OTHER GOVERNMENT UFO STUDIES



Cross authored a January 9, 1953 memo (stamped Secret in red ink) to Wright Patterson Air Force Base's Colonel Miles E. Goll. Goll was at the time the head of Intelligence Analysis for the Air Materiel Command. In it, Cross makes clear he had authority to speak in an official capacity on behalf of Battelle about their UFO work for the government. In the memo, Cross insisted that Wright Patterson delay the work of the CIA's UFO study group, the Robertson Panel. Cross wanted to first have Battelle complete its Air Force commissioned statistical study on UFOs, later known as Project Blue Book "Report No. 14." The CIA itself even consulted with Cross and concurred with him on the need for delay. Ultimately though, both the CIA and Battelle were overruled by the Air Force. Information now being developed lends support that it was Battelle that also authored the (missing) Project Blue Book Report No. 13- the report number immediately preceding Battelle's confirmed authorship of Blue Book's "Report No. 14." Some believe that it is the missing Blue Book Report 13 that details the debris discovered at Roswell.

CROSS WAS OBSESSIVELY SECRET ABOUT HIS WORK

Cross was obsessive about confidentialty and did not want the Battelle organization mentioned by name in its Blue Book UFO studies for Wright Patterson. He wanted secret authorship and requested that Battelle's name not be used. Project Bluebook leader Edward Ruppelt -in a book he authored years later- referred to Battelle's UFO studies only as "Project Bear." Again, though a Battelle leader and active in USAF UFO studies, history has managed to protect Dr. Cross. Very little is publicy available about this secretive man- and now we know why. Cross even obfuscated his name. In both his metallurgical work -and his work for government UFO studies- he frequently identified himself variously as "H.C. Cross," "Howard Cross," or simply as "Dr. Cross." Signatures or pictures of Dr. Cross have never been located.

CROSS AUTHORED THE MYSTERIOUS "PENTACLE" UFO MEMO TO WRIGHT PATTERSON



(Click here to see Pentacle memo full size)

Decades after it was written in 1953, a memo marked "Secret" was discovered under unusual circumstances. It is sometimes called the "Pentacle" memo and was written by Battelle's Howard Cross. Dr. Cross directed this letter to a "Colonel Miles Goll" of Air Materiel Command. In the memo, Cross urged the Air Force to consider a strange UFO-related operation. Cross only typed his name in closing the document, but did not sign it- and then only as "H.C. Cross." In this document, Dr. Cross outlined a scheme for the Air Force to "stage" the appearance of "artificial" UFOs. Cross wanted to see how target populations would report their "sightings" - and the impact that these UFOs would have on them. There is no evidence that this was done. We can now see that Dr. Cross was not only directing metals studies at Battelle (and conducting statistical analysis of UFO studies for Blue Book) but he was even addressing the psychological and observational aspects of the phenomena with Air Force Intelligence. Cross was obviously highly knowlegable about many facets of the UFO issue- which is very curious given that he was officially a "mere metallurgist."

In 1968, noted U.S. Air Force UFO study scientist Dr. J. Allen Hynek approached Dr. Cross about the memo, which had been brought to Hynek's attention. Cross agreed to meet alone with Hynek to discuss it, but instead Cross brought with him four "colleagues." When Hynek started reading from his notes about the memo, Cross defiantly snatched the paper out of Hynek's hands and chastised Hynek that it was an "old story." Cross clearly did not want to discuss the matter and he did not return the notes to Hynek. Hynek -rather meek- was stunned. Cross was an expert in the physics of metals. His authority and involvement in far-ranging UFO study is impossible to comprehend - unless he had prior UFO related work experience, perhaps studying the materials of construction of UFO's.

CROSS WORKED CLOSELY ON UFOS WITH THE HEAD OF WRIGHT PATTERSON'S CHIEF OF ANALYSIS

"Colonel Miles Goll" is the individual to whom Cross authored the aforementioned "Pentacle" memo on UFOs. Miles Goll is key to the Roswell mystery. Goll -very tellingly- was Chief of Analysis for the highly-classified "T-2" unit at Wright's Air Materiel Command. Goll's group had a mission to provide technical intelligence and analysis of fallen enemy aircraft or other recovered technologies with defense applications. Additionally, they were to prevent strategical, tactical or technological "surprise." They were to provide any intelligence that was gathered to the engineering section to use in attempts to reverse-engineer or replicate such technology. They were to also faciltate the transfer of enemy aircraft technology to U.S. defense contractors. Finally, they provided counter-intelligence to obfuscate and confuse all of these activities. One is almost forced to think that if Roswell was a UFO related event, that Goll's group -the one working with Battelle's Dr. Cross- was surely involved. More about Battelle's "Wright Patterson Paymasters" will be detailed in a forthcoming article.

CROSS HAD A WORKING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CIA CHIEF OF SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE ABOUT UFOS

The Battelle metallurgist had such "clout" that he was visited by the CIA Chief Of Scientific Intelligence, H. Marshall Chadwell, on official matters. According to archived records of the now-defunct UFO study group NICAP, we find the notation: "Dec 12, 1952, CIA/OSI Chief Dr. H. Marshall Chadwell, Dr. HP Robertston and Fred Durant visit Project Blue Book and Battelle's Dr. Howard Cross." Those familiar with official government UFO studies such as Blue Book and the Robertson Panel will recognize the above names- except the name Dr. Cross.

CROSS WAS CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE PREDECESSOR TO NASA

Dr. Vannevar Bush was at one time chair of NACA, the predecessor organization to NASA. Cross likely worked with Bush. Available documents show that Cross consulted with NACA on potential space flight materials. Vannevar Bush is implicated in a November 1952 memo from government engineer Wilbert Smith of Canada: "Their modus operandi are unknown but concentrated effort is being made by a small group headed up by Vannevar Bush." Smith learned this from Dr. Robert Sarbacher, who confirmed this to a researcher in 1985. Sarbacher was a leading US physicist who was a DOD consultant in the 1950s. In forthcoming articles, it will be shown that Battelle moved the memory metal research to NASA. Today, NASA is a leader in the development of shape-recovery technologies, including for future spacecraft applications.

CROSS OBSERVED THE SKIES FOR UFOS.

He had his own UFO sighting in 1951. Buried in the Project Blue Book files (and categorized as an "unknown") there is a mention that "Howard Cross of Battelle Memorial Institute" observed an unusual "bright oval with clipped tail" on October 2 at Columbus, OH. Cross told the Air Force that it "flew straight and level, fading into the distance after 1 minute."

U.S. NAVAL COMMANDER SUMMONED CROSS TO INVESTIGATE FALLEN DEBRIS DURING THE 1952 UFO "FLAP"

According to news articles and further research by the late Todd Zechel, U.S. Naval Commander Alvin Moore had recovered an unusual "broken-off" cylinder object from his property in suburban DC during the famous 1952 UFO flap. Moore told Zechel that he took the material to associates at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS.) He said that those scientists and CIA scientists, as well as a scientist from Battelle, examined the debris piece. That scientist was none other than Dr. Howard Cross. Moore said, "Only Howard Cross of Battelle for the USAF, said that he thought it could be a piece from an open hearth furnace- which made no sense since it had come crashing from the sky." The piece was later determined to be terrestrial, but of indeterminate manufacture. Cross was a Battelle expert in both metals and UFOs. He had gained unique metallurgical expertise (due to his exposure to the Roswell debris) that the government felt was valuable in applying to other possible UFO crashes.

CROSS MANAGED THE VERY SCIENTIST WHO AUTHORED BATTELLE'S "MISSING" PROGRESS REPORTS ON MEMORY METAL IN THE LATE 1940s

Perhaps the most telling item about Dr. Cross is that it has been confirmed that he worked closely -and co-authored with- Battelle scientist L.W. Eastwood. Copies of papers that Dr. Cross and L.W. Eastwood wrote together are on file and available for review. Incredibly, it is L.W. Eastwood that is one of the authors (along with Craighead and Fawn) of Battelle's missing reports to Wright Patterson in the late 1940s on the Nickel Titanium memory metal (Nitinol.) Information available on Dr. Cross is very scarce, but in one metals study located, Cross is referred to by the title "Research Director." Given this -and all that we now know about him- it may be that Dr. Cross was the manager of the memory metal scientists.



Future articles will explore:

- Why the "official history" of Nitinol is riddled with holes and deficiencies
- Government studies on "the mind" and its relationship to morphing metal
- How Battelle, Military Intelligence and NASA direct shape-recovery alloy research today
- The hidden meaning of "morphing" and why it is vital to understanding the UFO phenomena



N.B. Dr. Howard Cross died in 1992. Through his legacy, we further the connection between Battelle and Roswell. But Battelle has demonstrated a troubling pattern. When it comes to Battelle's reports relating to both the UFO subject and to their early memory metals work - they are "missing."

 

 

Tony Bragalia's revelations concerning the possibility of a Nitinol connection to the Roswell story are highly intriguing.

However, at this stage I urge caution - not because I dispute that Tony has uncovered notable data on the early years of Nitinol research - he most assuredly has. And not because accounts of crashed UFOs have been made in connection with this story - they have: see, for example, the story of Elroy John Center as related by Tony.

The reason why I urge caution is that this is not the first time that a Nitinol connection has been made to Roswell. Indeed, I was provided with a story concerning crashed UFOs and Nitinol on February 20, 2004, and which was published in July 2005, in my book Body Snatchers in the Desert.

The purpose of this post is not to examine every aspect of Tony's report (I will leave that to others) but to highlight the fact that there is an alternative angle to this whole saga that few have thus far realized.

I will be the very first to readily admit that problematic is the fact the source of the story as related to me had no desire to speak on-the-record; and so, as a result, within the pages of Body Snatchers he was referred to as "The Colonel."

That does not mean, however, we should dismiss testimony just because it comes from a source that preferred to remain in the shadows. Anyone remember Deep-Throat?

So, for that reason, I present the following. My goal is not to state with utter certainty that the following data is correct and Tony is wrong (only if the relevant documentation that Tony is chasing down ultimately surfaces and confirms his suspicions, or fails to confirm them, will we be able to advance that argument in one direction or the other).

Rather, I present the data so people can see both sides of the coin.

The first thing I would have to say is that we can really only interpret the words of the Colonel with two scenarios in mind: (1) that his story is the truth; or (2) that his story is disinformation that was deliberately released in anticipation of someone like Tony eventually uncovering a Nitinol-crashed-UFO-Roswell connection.

The second thing I would say is that whether the story of the Colonel is true or not, the fact that he provided it to me 5 years ago, and it was originally published 4 years ago (long before this current Nitinol-Roswell development surfaced), does strongly suggest he had insider knowledge of something that connected Nitinol to the Roswell story and crashed UFOs - and which is now only just starting to surface on a wider and larger scale.

As you will now see, however, the Colonel's view on the Nitinol-crashed UFO issue actually takes some strange turns, and is ultimately shown to have nothing to do with real, literal crashed UFOs. Indeed, his position is one of a far more down-to-earth nature.

And, with that all said, here is the relevant extract from my book, Body Snatchers in the Desert:"

...according to the Colonel, in the early 1960s a Soviet spy known to be operating in Washington, D.C. was suspected of having received classified data from someone allied with the U.S. Army’s Foreign Technology Division (FTD).

"A plan was hatched to reveal some very specific but bogus information to the traitor that could be easily traced to the Soviet contact when it was duly passed on – thus identifying the traitor as well.

"The concocted story, states the Colonel, was that, in 1961, the FTD had got its hands on a quantity of strange, metallic debris from a crashed UFO that was being analyzed under cover of the strictest security.

"This story was duly and carefully leaked to the suspected Soviet sympathizer and, apparently, the ruse worked: the traitor passed on the information to his Russian handler and arrests were quickly and quietly made without any real secrets having been compromised.

"Interestingly the Colonel states that this led to rumors among officials that the Army’s FTD had gotten its hands on crashed UFO materials.

"Perhaps of relevance to this incident is the 1997 publication of one of the most controversial UFO books of all time: The Day After Roswell, co-written by Lt. Col. Philip J. Corso, who was a prime mover in the Army’s Foreign Technology Division in the early 1960s. Corso claimed that while he was with the FTD he had hands-on access to recovered debris from the Roswell crash of 1947 – debris that Corso asserted until his dying day was extraterrestrial in origin.

"The Colonel believes that, wittingly or unwittingly, Corso’s story can be traced back to the ruse laid down to smoke out the Soviets’ informant.

"The Colonel states that, in reality, the odd metal material that the FTD obtained and utilized in its operation was Nitinol.

"In 1961, Nitinol, which stands for Nickel Titanium Naval Ordnance Laboratory, was discovered to possess the unique property of having shape memory (returning to its original shape when heated), which a number of individuals claimed the recovered materials on the Brazel ranch possessed.

"The Colonel states that shortly afterwards a supply of Nitinol was presented to the FTD to begin smoking out the Soviet source with a crashed UFO story.

"How this all relates to the Corso story is not fully clear; but it is an intriguing slant on the whole controversy and it should be noted that it was during this precise time period in which Nitinol came to the fore, 1961-2, that Corso served with the FTD."

(Extracted from Body Snatchers in the Desert by Nick Redfern, published July 2005.)

That in essence is the story. But the big question remains: is it true? My answer is that I truthfully don't know. I have to remain balanced and agnostic.

But, I will say this: nobody, of course, doubts the existence of Nitinol. The big question is: were its origins (or at least its partial development) connected to the recovery of unusual materials from the Foster Ranch, New Mexico in the summer of 1947?

Should we consider the possibility that the stories and rumors of crashed UFOs and their connection to the development of Nitinol are not valid, but instead have their origins in an operation designed to smoke-out activities of an espionage-style nature?

At this stage it seems to me that we can say the following with certainty: (1) Tony has uncovered notable information on the early years of Nitinol research; (2) thus far - despite the fact that some of this research was undertaken in the late 1940s and early 1950s - nothing has surfaced that links these "Progress Reports" to the 1947 events at Roswell; and (3) comments have been made with respect to Nitinol in a crashed UFO context.

I do, however, wish to comment on Tony's words pertaining to Battelle scientist Elroy John Center. Tony says that Center: "...stated that he analyzed metal from a crashed UFO when he was employed by the Institute."

Tony also adds that Center confirmed his exposure to this metal came in "June of 1960."

And Tony also states that "Center understood that this debris material was retrieved by the US government from the earlier crash of a UFO."

The Colonel told me that the plan to smoke-out the Soviet spy with Nitinol and fabricated crashed UFO tales began in "the early 1960s." Center had access to unusual materials and was told the crashed UFO story in June of 1960: the time-frame is very close indeed.

Tony reports that Center "understood" that this material came from a crashed UFO.

"Understood" is a very interesting word to use. Does it mean Center was actually just told by someone else that the material was from a crashed UFO? Does it mean that this was the rumor flying around Battelle?

If "understood" means that Center saw hard, undeniable evidence of crashed UFOs and alien life, then all questions are answered.

But if "understood" means as I would interpret the usage of the word - something that Center was told and, as a result, then came to accept - then, really this is not that much different from the story of the Colonel, who stated that the Nitinol operation he had an awareness of "led to rumors among officials that the Army’s FTD had gotten its hands on crashed UFO materials."

If the Colonel's scenario is the correct one, we could argue that Center had access to a wholly terrestrial Nitinol-type material, but that this came to be associated with rumors of crashed UFOs - just like those that the Colonel said were in circulation in this time within the official world, as a result of the espionage-op.

I would stress that having been exposed to a Nitinol-crashed UFO story half-a-decade ago, I am deeply interested in these new revelations and documents, and remain open-minded on where it will all ultimately lead.

But whether these same revelations and documents will ultimately be shown to have anything to do with literal extraterrestrials who met their deaths in the New Mexico in the summer of 1947, or with some strange and convoluted Cold War operation, is an issue that I strongly suspect will remain open and unanswered for a long time.

 

 

Newly discovered documents reveal that in the months immediately following the purported 1947 UFO crash at Roswell, secret government studies began on a material that was previously unknown to science. The "memory metal" that was studied precisely matches some of the debris material reported by several witnesses to the crash. Evidence shows that -under military direction- these unique metal studies were undertaken by a contracted laboratory that possessed advanced technical capabilities that the U.S. government itself did not have at the time. A former high-level scientist employed by the involved laboratory has offered a confession that he was tasked to study the crashed UFO material. Information provided by two U.S. Air Force Generals also offers direct support for this discovery.

The documents suggest that after the crash, the US government attempted to develop a unique material that is today referred to as memory metal. This shape-recovery alloy was reported by several witnesses to the Roswell crash in the summer of 1947. The lightweight "morphing" material was able to be crumpled or deformed and then return itself instantly and seamlessly to its original state. The metallurgical discoveries that resulted from these studies were then "seeded" for further technology development to other government agencies (including NASA) and through a series of military contracts to universities and industry.

The laboratory contracted by Wright Patterson Air Force Base to perform these studies was Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, OH. It has been credibly reported that Wright Patterson Air Force Base was the very base where the Roswell UFO debris was flown after the crash.

BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE:



WRIGHT PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE:



Recently obtained documents reveal that these studies for Wright Patterson were conducted at Battelle under the direction of Dr. Howard C. Cross. In the late 1940's, H.C Cross was Battelle's expert scientist in exotic metallurgy and Titanium alloy research.

Curiously –although he was a research metallurgist- Cross was also Battelle’s "point person" in later studies on UFOs that Battelle conducted in the early 1950's for the U.S. Air Force's official UFO study, Project Bluebook. Cross is likely an author of Project Bluebook's still-missing Report Number 13. He is also the author of a strange letter from Battelle to Wright Patterson known as "The Pentacle" memo. Dr. Cross' historic role will be detailed in a forthcoming article.

Founded in 1929, Battelle is engaged in research, development and commercialization of technological innovation. They specialize in materials science and engineering, life sciences, energy science and national security. Battelle contract operates many of our country's National Laboratories. This includes some of the U.S.'s most sensitive installations such as Oak Ridge, Lawrence Livermore and Brookhaven laboratories. Battelle is headquartered in proximity to Wright Patterson- and remains one of the nation's leading defense contractors. Their metallurgical capabilities and technical talent continue to be recognized as world-class.

The full story of the Roswell-Battelle connection is related in the newly published sequel book "Witness to Roswell" (Revised and Expanded Edition, 2009) by Tom Carey and Don Schmitt in chapter contributions made by this author. Scientific citations, references and report images are also included in this updated edition.



THE DEBRIS AND MEMORY METAL:



The direct connection between the Roswell debris and the Battelle studies is revealed in a material known as Nitinol.

Nitinol is a specially processed combination of Nickel and Titanium, or NiTi. It displays many of the very same properties and physical characteristics as some of the crash debris materials that was reported at Roswell. Both are memory metals that "remember" their original shape and both are extremely lightweight. The materials are reported to have similar color, possess a high fatigue strength and are able to withstand extreme high heat.

Today Nitinol is incorporated in items as far-ranging as medical implants and bendable eyeglass frames. It is produced in many forms including sheet, wire and coil. Newer "intelligent metal" systems are being studied by NASA in the creation of bendable or flappable wings, as self-actuators and as a "self-healing" outer hull "skin" for spacecraft. It is believed that the memory metal found at Roswell came from the outer structures of a downed extraterrestrial spacecraft.

The earliest known combination of Titanium and Nickel reported in the scientific literature was in 1939 by two Europeans. However, this crude sample was a "by-product" of research entirely unrelated to the study of Nitinol. Its "memory metal" potential was not sought or noted. The scientists would have been unable to purify Titanium to sufficient levels at that time-and they would not have known about the energy requirement needed to create the "morphing" effect.

The next time that we see the unique combination of Titanium and Nickel emerge in science is by military scientists associated with Naval Intelligence at the US. Naval Ordnance Lab. It was there that Nitinol was "officially" created in the early 1960s. But Nitinol's "official" history –including the date and reasons for discovery- is conflicting. More on this murky history will be detailed in a future article. Recently gained information suggests that it was in fact Battelle's metallurgist and UFO researcher Dr. Howard Cross who "fed" the US Navy information (including the “phase diagram” and details on Titanium processing) that is required to create Nitinol.

Research by this author has confirmed that Nitinol studies actually began at Battelle immediately after the Roswell crash -and not in the early 1960s. And it was Wright Patterson (the base where the crash material was flown) that contracted this secret work.

This confirmation is given in a brief footnote found in a study by one of Nitinol's "official" inventors at the U.S. Naval Lab. In that military report on Nitinol, the author footnotes a 1949 Battelle study which clearly pertains to the refinement of Titanium and Nickel. The citation relates to a "phase diagram" that examines states of matter and how the two metals could be successfully alloyed. If processed in the right way, the result is Nitinol memory metal. It is possible that the “official” co-inventors of Nitinol were unaware that the memory metal’s impetus was to be found in the study of the Roswell debris- or perhaps not.

Only three other references to this Titanium and Nickel memory metal report by Battelle have ever been found. In each case, they appear only as buried footnotes- and only in metals studies which were themselves conducted under U.S. military auspice. In one case this included having a "Project Monitor" present from Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
A historical analysis of the scientific literature shows that no other alloys had ever been studied by the U.S. military as a potential "memory metal" prior to this late 1940's time frame -and Battelle's Wright Patterson study contract.

Wright Patterson needed Battelle to accomplish this work. Much of the reason for this is because Battelle had something that Wright Patterson did not- an advanced arc furnace that was capable of melting and refining Titanium to the purity required to make memory metal.

The history of Titanium (which is required to make Nitinol) is itself also very revealing. We learn through review of the literature that, according to Encyclopedia Britannica: "After 1947, Titanium changed from a laboratory curiosity to an important structural metal." According to the Industrial Arts Index, the number of science abstracts published on Titanium spiked dramatically from 1946 (and prior years) as compared to abstracts on Titanium written after 1947. In Rand Corporation's 1962 abstract "The Titanium Decade" we learn that: "A far larger Titanium industry arose from the point of view of production capacity than was needed to produce the material that was actually used in aircraft. The time period of 1948-1958 involved virtually all of the costs." An astonishing $2.5 billion (in today's dollars) was spent on Titanium research by the US government in the years immediately following 1947.

THE SCIENTISTS AND THE REPORTS ARE IDENTIFIED



The Battelle memory metal report is titled "Second Progress Report on Contract AF33 (038)-3736" and was completed for Wright Patterson Air Force Base in 1949. It is authored by C.M. Craighead, F. Fawn and L.W. Eastwood. It appears to be part of a series of such contracts conducted through the early 1950s. Interestingly, the scientists who authored the report were very closely associated with Battelle's chief Titanium metallurgist (and later, Battelle's UFO researcher for Project Bluebook) Dr. Howard Cross, previously mentioned. The scientists went on to author reports on exotic metallurgy that related to such areas as "metal and superplasticity," "metal transformation," and "metal microstructures."

Based on the sections of the studies that were found that reference this Battelle report- we know that this “progress report” offers the first “phase diagram” ever produced to attempt to successfully alloy Titanium and Nickel. This would be required to make memory metal. We can also infer that it examined refinement of Titanium to high purity levels. High purity Titanium is required to create the shape-recovery effect.

No references have ever been located to something that must surely exist- Battelle's "First Progress Report" on the memory metal. While the Second Progress Report (completed in 1949) refers to techniques to process the alloy, the First Progress Report (authored in 1947 or 1948) probably relates to the actual analysis of "Roswellian" memory metal.

Although Nitinol is not identical to the Roswell debris material, it represents our best attempts at re-creation of the found memory metal. The impetus for this "shape-recovery" metallurgical research has to be the crash debris discovered at Roswell in the summer of 1947.

THE REPORTS ARE MISSING

A year long effort was made by this author to locate Battelle's First and Second Progress Reports on memory metal. Though footnotes have been located to the reports in military sponsored studies on memory metal, access to the actual reports remains impossible.

Battelle's own Historian/Librarian was unable to locate the documents. In a later follow-up call to Battelle, Sarasota Herald Tribune reporter Billy Cox was told that Battelle is still unable to find the report and that it remains a "mystery." Likewise, Wright Patterson Air Force Base's own Archivist and Manager of its Special Collections was unable to locate the documents. Both librarians from each organization worked together to find them. They are baffled and suggest that it may mean that the reports were destroyed (though there is no record of this) or that they may remain highly classified.

The U.S. DOD's Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) is the master repository of our nation's military-sponsored technical reports and studies. Their database also fails to locate the Battelle reports. Finally, with the guidance of reporter Billy Cox, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Secretary of the Air Force/WPAFB was filed by this author. Information has yet to be provided that is responsive to this request.

It is hoped that the Second Progress Report will one day be located. This is because if it does contain "phase diagrams" for the alloying of Nickel and Titanium- it will confirm the work on memory metal. It would strongly suggest that shape-recovery alloys were precisely what Battelle was attempting to create for the military in the time period directly after the Roswell crash. The likelihood that the First Progress Report by Battelle on memory metal will ever be found is even more remote.

CONFIRMATION BY TWO U.S. AIR FORCE GENERALS

In an interview conducted in the 1990's, former Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Brigadier General Arthur Exon confirmed the existence of the Roswell metal reports. Exon, the Base Commander of Wright Patterson in the 1960s, related that he was privy to some of the details on the composition of the crash debris and the variety of tests that were performed on it. Astonishingly, Exon stated of the debris: "It was Titanium and some other metal they knew about, and the processing was somehow different." Of course, special "processing" of Titanium and the “other metal” that “they knew about” (Nickel) is required to create Nitinol.

Exon added tellingly, "And it wouldn't surprise me if the material wasn't still around, certainly the reports are." Exon was likely referring to the Battelle Progress Reports on memory metal done for Wright Patterson in the late 1940's.

General Arthur Exon:




Air Force General George Schulgen (who led Intelligence at the Pentagon at the time of the Roswell incident) authored a previously-marked “secret” draft memo on the flying saucer issue on October 30, 1947- about four months after the crash.

In the verified version of this memo is found a section entitled "Items of Construction." Schulgen instructs his officers to be aware of flying objects and their materials of construction. He specifically notes the "unusual fabrication methods to achieve extreme lightweight" and that the material is of a "composite construction...using various combinations of metals."

Schulgen is describing precisely some of the very characteristics of Nitinol. Just like the Roswell debris material, it is an "extreme lightweight" intermetallic alloy. As a novel "composite construction," it is created by an "unusual fabrication" method that "uses a combination of metals"- perhaps like Titanium and Nickel.

General Shulgen’s 1947 Memo:



U.S. Pentagon 1947:



BATTELLE SCIENTIST CONFESSES TO UFO CRASH DEBRIS ANALYSIS

Battelle scientist Elroy John Center has stated that he analyzed metal from a crashed UFO when he was employed by the Institute. Center was a Senior Research Chemist who worked for Battelle for nearly two decades, from 1939 to 1957. This has been confirmed by both his University of Michigan alumni files and by the location of scientific papers that he authored during his employment while at Battelle.

A graduate Chemical Engineer, Center authored papers that appeared in highly technical journals. His areas of research included the chemical testing of metals; the microdetermination of metals in alloys; and the spectroscopic analysis of unique materials. Center was likely involved in early analysis of the Roswell debris. A groundbreaking metals analysis technique that Center developed has been found cited in studies related to the “polygraphic determination of Titanium” in alloys. Specially-selected Titanium is required to create the Roswell-like "memory metal" Nitinol.

Center's family members confirm that he had an intense interest in UFOs and the extraterrestrial. In May of 1992, noted historical researcher Dr. Irena Scott of Columbus, OH (herself a former Battelle scientist) interviewed a close professional associate of Elroy Center. Elroy had privately related to him in June of 1960 that while he was employed at Battelle he had been involved in a very strange laboratory project. Center said that earlier he had been tasked by his superiors to assist on a highly-classified Battelle study that was contracted by the government. He said that the project involved work on a very unusual material. Center understood that this debris material was retrieved by the US government from the earlier crash of a UFO. Center referred to the item he studied as a "piece." He explained that this "piece" was not something with which anyone was familiar. He also said that the debris had been inscribed with strange symbols that he called "glyphics." Similar markings have of course been reported by some of the witnesses to the Roswell crash debris. Center stopped short of providing any further details. The Battelle scientist passed away in 1991.

FUTURE INFORMATION

Forthcoming details on the Battelle-Roswell Connection will document:

- Battelle metallurgist Dr. Howard Cross' other secret studies on UFO sightings and UFO debris

- The identities of Battelle's Wright Patterson "paymasters"

- Bizarre "mental influence" tests conducted on Nitinol by the US military and NASA using purported psychics to "morph" the material with “mind energy”

- Why “morphing” may be the key to the UFO mystery

- How today's research on "intelligent metals" and "adaptable metals" is guided by NASA, the US military and Battelle



BATTELLE AND ROSWELL

The Battelle-Roswell Connection is fast becoming established. Its implications are profound. In 1947 a spacecraft not of earth - whose materials of construction were unknown to science- fell from the sky to forever change history.

 

 

Tony Bragalia is interviewed by Billy Cox for The Sarasota Herald-Tribune about Roswell and the memory metal recovered from the alleged 1947 UFO crash.

Click here to read article

 

 

A very disturbing theme recurs from time to time in the UFO literature. Some maintain that Nazi scientists had perfected advanced aerial craft including "flying saucers" - both in Germany during WWII and as captured "Paperclip" scientists in the US. This supposed Nazi technology is seen by these "researchers" as the genesis of early man-made UFOs. Even now it is seen by some as the reason for today's state-of-the-art "Dreamland" flying machines- or even as the true cause of the Roswell crash!

This lie has been repeated in many books and magazines from the very beginning of the UFO phenomena. It continues even now with the publication of material from authors such as Martin Cannon, Nick Redfern, Nick Cook, William Lyne, Michael Heiser, Mark Ian Birdsall, Joseph Farrell and David Hatcher Childress.

The belief that secret Nazi UFO technologies existed during WWII -and that the US took these technologies to develop further- is as unsettling as it is untrue. "Nazi UFOs" have been proposed by some on numerous websites and in such books as "The Facade," "Pentagon Space Aliens," "The Hunt for Zero Point," "Man-Made UFOs" and "Hitler's Flying Saucers." They elevate Nazi scientific know-how to a level that it does not deserve.

DISCOVERED- THE FIRST MENTION OF "NAZI UFOS"

I believe that I have found the "original impetus" for such nonsense...




Incredibly, in 1947 (the very year of the beginning of the modern UFO era) a fictional book entitled Rocket Ship Galileo authored by German-American Robert A. Heinlein, unquestionably "set the stage" for all future books and theories about Nazi saucers.

In this sci-fi novel, three teenagers work with their uncle, a "Dr. Cargraves," to construct a spaceship to go to the moon. The boys land on the Moon only to discover that the Nazis have already arrived! When the teens locate a secret Nazi lunar base, they discover wonderous technology. The boys and their uncle somehow overcome the Nazis and pilot the Nazi spaceship (which was of course was more advanced than the one developed by the American teens and their uncle) back to Earth. Every element of Nazi and Operation Paperclip saucer myth is set forth in this book. The idea that the Nazis had perfected advanced craft -and that we retrieved this technology- is a featured theme in the novel. It is one that is repeated to this very day.

The first known mention of the Nazi-UFO connection presented as non-fiction appeared in a March 30, 1950 article in the German tabloid, Der Spiegel. It continued with a series of 1950s "Police Gazette" neo-Nazi stories. In the 1960s strange books by authors such as Renato Vesco and "Michael X. Barton" -with titles like "The German Saucer Story" - made their way on book shelves.The idea that somewhere, someone is continuing the line of secret black projects the Nazis had initiated- is at the crux of these books and theories. Some of these theories are frightening in that they point to the supposed "reality" of a surviving "Third Power" of former Nazis.

Frauds such as "contactee" George Adamski put forth the concept of aliens of distinctly "Aryan" stock. Idealized as tall, blonde and blue-eyed, these aliens were human and possessed advanced technological wonders. The obvious connection between the idea of German-like superiority and Flying Saucers was again emblazoned upon the public psyche. In his book Messengers of Deception, author Jacques Vallee noted the connections between early contactees (such as George Hunt Williamson) and American Nazism. Such "German influence" is seen even today with reports of interactions with "Nordic" aliens.

Less troubling (but finding its origin from the same cesspool) is the notion that captured German scientists collaborated with US scientists to test-fly advanced or novel "gliders" and "balloon craft" at our bases in New Mexico. It is said that such aerial black experiments -designed by Germans and using captured Japanese or even deformed children- accounts for the crash at Roswell. Books such as Nick Redfern's "Body Snatchers in the Desert" promote this idea.

World War II is an historical period that has received more attention than any other. The focus of what happened has always been on the German's- their reprehensible experiments and their inhumane ways. But the history of Nazi Saucers just does not exist in mainstream history. Rather, such ideas rely on claims without proof, extreme right-wingers and on the profit motives of unscrupulous writers and publishers of the sensational.

From the beginning people speculated about the origin of the unidentified objects flying in our skies. In 1950, it perhaps made sense to consider that the technological achievements of the Nazis may have included the development of such saucers- but it makes no sense in 2009.

When carefully examined, we find that "Nazi UFOs" simply never existed. Every photograph presented on websites and books of such craft are faked with models, photoshops or artistic renderings. Others are misidentified, prosaic objects. And in every case where a German "saucer scientist" is identified- we find that the "scientist" did not exist- or was a false claimant.

REASONS FOR NAZI UFO BELIEFS

When we look at the people who promote such theories- we find that their beliefs are rooted in one of two reasons:

1) Anti-semitism or pro-Nazi sympathies; or just the opposite-
2) A continued hatred and fear of the evil experiments conducted by Nazis in remote locations

Those who are motivated by the first reason promote fantasies such as an "escaped Hitler" residing in Antartica and building Flying Saucers- or even that ET itself teamed with the Reich on how to construct such craft. Other, more occult fantasies (relating often to the "Thule Society" or the "Black Sun" group) associate Nazis with rituals and rites that led them to contact with mysterious "dark powers" that directed them on how to construct advanced aerials.

Those motivated by the second reason promote the fantasies of continued flight experiments on US soil by captured Nazi scientists of unusual or advanced aircraft using unwitting or unwilling passengers. In both cases though, there is a certain "elevation" of Nazi achievement over our own capabilities. But it is an advantage that simply never existed. Fake photos, fraudulent science, and lying or misguided witnesses and authors are at the heart of such beliefs:

FAKE PHOTOS



Famous rendition of a Nazi UFO is the "Schauberger" UFO. It is in reality a Water Turbine.




"The Bell" or "Die Glocke" is promoted by British aviation writer Nick Cook as a test rig for Nazi anti-gravity saucers. It is actually the frame for a Cooling Tower! Wider shot photos reveal a conventional power plant nearby.



One example of several (usually blurry) "artistic renderings" or photoshops depicting supposed Nazi saucers

FRAUDULENT SCIENCE

German scientists who engineered such Nazi saucer craft (with names like Meithe, Schauberger, Schriever and Habermohl) fail utterly to check out. They either never existed or they were not the engineering technologists that they claimed to be, but simply theorist "wannabes."

Others who were real engineers, such as the German "Horten Brothers," are implicated by some as having developed strange "flying wings." In actuality, the US had possessed at the time far superior designs than the Hortens for all-wing, wingless, delta-wing and wedge-craft aerial vehicles.

One of the brothers wrote to the president of Northrop Aircraft in the late 1940s asking if he could come to work for them. He was rebuffed because Horten had nothing to offer that we didn't already have. Historical documents show that both Northrop and the US military thought the Hortons "odd" and off-base when it came to things that fly. Even Russia ignored them.

ROSWELL AND THE NAZI-TERRESTRIAL CONNECTION MYTH



Author Nick Redfern carries this myth-torch today. Initially Mr. Redfern's thesis seems compelling- it even did to me. Closer examination though reveals huge flaws. In his book Body Snatchers in the Desert (and on his blogs) Mr. Redfern perpetuates the idea that German scientists (captured by us after WWII during Operation Paperclip) continued their heinous human experiments. This time though, it is in the form of sickening, secret test flights under the direction of US government personnel at New Mexico bases and national labs. Mr. Redfern maintains that this is the likely cause of the Roswell crash.

In Mr. Redfern's world, even after the war -and on US soil- the evil Nazis continued to toil on strange craft and to conduct heinous human experimentation in remote locations. The "fear of Nazis" meme is continued- even after the Reich was conquered and the war criminals were captured. And this meme sounds suspiciously like others that tell of "continued Nazi activity," but instead in other remote locations like Antartica.

Mr. Redfern's book's subtitle is very telling- "The Horrible Truth at the Heart of the Roswell Story." It reflects the continuing fear that our government experiments with its citizens. Of course, our government had indeed conducted -and now admitted to- horrible radiation tests, tests using LSD, tests on the retarded and worse. But Mr. Redfern goes one further by adding a "captured Nazi engineers" twist. He cobbles together a speculative scenario that attempts to show an unholy collusion between Paperclip scientists and US scientists.

Like similar authors before him, Redfern has yet to produce even a single official document or genuine photo to make such a direct connection. Instead -like similar authors before him- he props his thesis with information from discredited researchers like Timothy Cooper, faked film like the Alien Autopsy and anonymous testimony from people that he did not discover, but who approached him- people like "Mr. Levine, "The Colonel" and "The Black Widow."

He identifies by name only a couple of (third-hand) sources, William "Bill" Slater of the US Psychology Strategy Board in the early 1950s, and Alan "Al" Barker, formerly with the US Army Psychological Warfare Center, also during the early 1950s. We have yet to be offered proof of their existence and military station. Even years since the book's publication- they have curiously failed to come forward (or, to my knowledge- to be talked to by anyone at all other than Mr. Redfern.) This itself is damning to his theory. Whenever I discover a potentially valuable "witness" to Roswell or the UFO phenomena, I most always contact another researcher so that he or she can confirm my reporting.

Mr. Redfern believes that small, diseased or deformed Japanese from the notorius Unit 731 were brought to America by the US military to continue biological and flight experimentation on them. As an insightful Amazon reviewer wrote of Redfern's tome, Nick "reveals his confusion regarding the differences between Japanese people and alien bodies. Surely after five years of fighting the Japanese, any witness would know the difference between a physically handicapped Japanese person and an extraterrestrial."

Mr. Redfern does not seem to understand the history of flight. Well-conditioned, normal-sized adult men were used to test flight extremes. Using diseased or deformed midgets or those with otherwise compromised constitutions makes no sense- and would provide meaningless data. These are simply not the types of people that would be used because the results of their flights would not provide the kind of information relevant to healthy, real-world pilots or passengers.

Recently on his blog Mr. Redfern has been reduced to citing the writings of one "Kathy Kasten" to support his thesis. Ms. Kasten maintains that she was literally "guided by voices in her head" to find proof that Roswell was a secret terrestrial experiment. Kathy also believes that she was "irradiated" by the CIA and her by own father. Though her writings today on the subject are less delusional, she continues to relate false histories on the subject in publications such as the appropriately named Paranoia magazine, which Mr. Redfern recommends reading.

Mr. Redfern's deformed version of the Paperclip program ignores that the operation's noble aim was to grab the best German researchers -like Werner Von Braun- to use for what the Germans were really good at- Rocketry. This led to the Apollo programs and moon landings. These misleading "revisionist" assertations on aeronautics find their roots in good ole' rockets!

THE TRUTH

The Roswell crash -and the UFO phenomena- have nothing whatsoever to do with German innovation or experimentation. Instead, they represent a technology designed not by Nazis -or even by Mankind. The truth is that they speak to a science so advanced that it is altogether Unearthly.

 

 

The missing years of Jesus – from age 12 to about 30 – are not “documented” but there has been some speculation that he visited places far-flung from Judea; India and even England have been suggested, with circumstantial hints supporting those scenarios.

But things are quite different when it comes to the Roswell episode in July 1947. No one has a clue why the Roswell story absolutely disappeared for thirty years.

There was no mention – nothing at all, anywhere – about the incident from 1947 until 1978, when Stan Friedman opened the Roswell can of worms after being confronted with a tale about the so-called flying disk crash from a “witness” (Jesse Marcel, Sr.).



Our concern here is not what has transpired since 1978 but why there is no reference, none, to the Roswell “crash” during those intervening years, between 1947 and 1978.

We’ve scoured our vast batch of UFO magazines, newspaper clippings, and other UFO materials for some inkling of Roswell, and have, like others, found nothing.

This strikes us as particularly strange, if a flying saucer had actually crashed near Roswell, and its significant army base.

The canard that the people of 1947 were subservient to some amorphous military order(s) to keep silent about what supposedly transpired – a flying disk from another world crash near their community – is patently silly.

The people of Roswell, like others in the Southwest, were a hardy, non-wimpy breed – persons who came from hardscrabble stock, tough to the core, unlikely to be cowed by orders to keep their mouths shut – for 30 years.



And, as we’ve posted elsewhere, why did no one sneak a fragment of the alleged debris that was so wondrous in nature?

And why did no one take a photo of that wondrous debris, or the purported crash site, when cheap Kodak cameras were extant, and ubiquitous?

The thirty-year hiatus in information or recollection and reminiscences makes no behavioral sense.

Joseph Capp’s gung-ho support of Roswell witnesses belies the obeisant stance that these Capp-lauded witnesses undertook and maintained for over 30 years. Is such reserve concomitant with the lofty natures that Mr. Capp and others attribute to the panoply of witnesses who’ve surfaced after Mr. Friedman and a few others “broke” the Roswell story and the assumed cover-up?

The story, the witnesses, the resultant Roswell mythos don’t quite compute.

It’s that thirty-year absence of anything Roswell-related that undermines the hypothesis that extraterrestrial beings had a mishap in the desert near Roswell in 1947.

No one, with any American bravado or ethical behavior, would have kept quiet for 30 years, despite some vague warnings from military types. Many of whom would have moved on or died long before 1978 arrived.

This is what makes Roswell, for some of us, hard to swallow.

 

  Here's a link to The Daily Grail, where Greg Taylor notes some complimentary information that bolsters Nick Redfern's Roswell theory, as expounded in his book, Body Snatchers in the Desert:

The Daily Grail

 

  Nick Redfern provided this link to a book that seems to confirm what he wrote in his book "Body Snatchers in the Desert" --

Roswell: A Quest for the Truth

 

  The RRRGroup contends, as many of you know, that the 1964 Socorro. New Mexico event, witnessed by police officer Lonnie Zamora, was a Hughes Aircraft test of a lunar landing module.

New York resident Matthew Gilleece discovered a logo on a piece of equipment being sold on eBay that (very) closely resembles the insignia or symbol that Lonnie Zamora saw and drew for UFO investigators and the Air Force.

Here are Zamora’s drawing:






And here’s a common representation:



And here are images (found by Matt Gilleece) of the logo for Hughes Connecting Devices, an adjunct of Hughes Aircraft, extant in 1964:







Matt Gilleece will have a follow-up to his find, and we’ll have an updated posting about the Zamora sighting at our UFO web-site and here….