What about the information we get from newspapers? Does it reflect the truth? Is it fiction? Are there fabricated additions that are merely assumed to be correct? Are there inaccuracies? It’s likely a mixture of all of these.
This is why one shouldn’t take everything in newspapers at face value. Data should be cross-referenced with multiple sources, and the most probable information should be considered trustworthy.
The same applies when analyzing the Ramey Memo.
Investigations should be as unbiased as possible. Strong expectations can influence outcomes. In short, whoever intensely hopes for something will start to see it everywhere—in clouds, coffee grounds, or grainy photos.
This wishful thinking can impact the reconstruction process, leading to inaccurate results.
Particularly regarding the Ramey Memo, well-known Roswell book authors have not always worked without a degree of wishful thinking. Reconstructions from the ’90s and early 2000s have largely proven to be incorrect with today’s methods. Yet, these authors naturally continue to stand by their reconstructions, as they sold books based on these interpretations. This could be seen as sensationalism: books sell better when they claim something sensational rather than present a dry truth. The reality at the time was that it was simply impossible to conduct analyses that could reconstruct the full text. Such “texts” were presented by well-known authors, claiming words appeared in areas of the memo where, as we can now demonstrate, symbols are actually located rather than text. This places nearly all of those past reconstructions in serious doubt, and with each passing day, it’s increasingly confirmed. With today’s methods, we have a much better chance of deciphering the actual text.
Returning to newspapers: as we’ve reported, multiple names of key figures from that time were misspelled in the media. They were similar-sounding, but ultimately incorrect. The issue here is that the misspelled names predominated, while the correct names were far fewer. The most notable example is Walter Haut, the press officer for the Roswell Army Air Field, who was almost always incorrectly referred to as “Warren Haught” in the media. A curious detail is that he was even incorrectly named in the Ramey Memo itself.
The Courier Journal: July-09-1947:
Is it true that Walter Haut was incorrectly referred to as “Warren Haught” in most newspapers? Yes.
Is it true that Walter Haut was the Public Information Officer for the Roswell Army Air Field? Yes.
Is it true that Colonel William Blanchard instructed Walter Haut to release a press statement mentioning the recovery of a flying disc? Yes.
All three questions and answers above are confirmed by newspaper articles and proven by records.
- WALTER HAUT (correct name), Warren Haught (incorrect name) – Public Information Officer
For the analysis of misspelled names, we used our new ROSWELL-NEWSPAPER-AI.
Another question that has arisen is whether Hoyt Sanford Vandenberg was also involved in the matter. This is at least what some book authors claim. After all, he was Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from June 1946 to April 1947, just shortly before the incident.
In contrast to what many UFO researchers suggest, Vandenberg himself had minimal to no involvement in the Roswell incident. This is also verified by the Roswell Report, which details Vandenberg’s activities during that period. The report includes old records of Vandenberg’s schedule, carefully documenting his daily tasks. It further highlights a common trend in the press, where details are often exaggerated to appear credible, though they sometimes stray from the truth. For instance, newspaper reports frequently claimed that Vandenberg directly contacted the press office to address the incident himself. However, it has been definitively shown that, while Vandenberg was informed a few days earlier about another supposed UFO sighting (later debunked), he apparently wasn’t personally briefed about Roswell. Vandenberg had returned to active service with the Air Corps in April 1947 and, as of June 15, 1947, had taken up the role of deputy commander and chief of air staff, which certainly kept him occupied during that time.
Is it true that Mac Brazel’s name was initially unknown to the public?
One article states:
“Action was immediately taken and the disk was picked up at the rancher’s home. It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned by Major Marcel to higher headquarters.”
“The rancher’s name and location of his place were withheld.”
Another article reads:
“Army Holding Flying Disk
DISCOVERY IS REPORTED IN NEW MEXICO
Details Withheld; Name of Finder Being Kept Secret”
In yet another article:
“Lieutenant Haught said in a statement to newsmen that ‘the many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th (atomic) Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff’s office.’”
And in another article:
“Officers at the base say that the ‘disc’ was flown in a Superfortress to ‘higher headquarters,’ undisclosed. The intelligence office reported that it gained possession of the ‘disc’ through the cooperation of an unidentified Roswell rancher on whose ranch it landed and George Wilson, sheriff at Roswell.”
The fact that the name was revealed only a short time later suggests that Walter Haut initially withheld it, as well as the exact location of the find. There is no dispute that the rancher’s name was initially unknown to the public. Therefore, the answer to the question is YES: the rancher’s name was initially unknown for a short time, albeit very briefly.
Was a “flying disc” recovered, or was it actually a UFO?
The first question should be: what exactly did people understand by “UFO” or “flying disc” at the time?
Even before the Roswell incident, there had already been multiple sightings of unidentified flying objects. General Vandenberg himself had briefly dealt with such a case, but it was quickly dismissed as nothing out of the ordinary.
“Activity reports, located in General Vandenberg’s personal papers stored in the Library of Congress, indicate that on July 7, he was busy with a ‘flying disc’ incident. However, this particular incident involved Ellington Field, Texas, and the Spokane (Washington) Depot. After considerable discussion and information gathering, it was deemed a hoax.”
Newspapers also reported:
“Ramey had informed his Washington superiors that the object was ‘of very flimsy construction – almost like a box kite.’ He said it had been smashed and was apparently made with a cover of some kind of material like tinfoil.”
“Reports from Ramey, AAF spokesmen in Washington, and Sheriff George Wilcox of Roswell indicated that the object, if reconstructed, would have a diameter of 25 feet; was too flimsy in construction to carry any person; and apparently had no source of power or capacity for speed, especially not the supersonic speeds attributed to flying saucers.”
There was nothing that suggested any kind of propulsion. This statement was made by several independent sources: the sheriff, who had no connection to the Army, also claimed to have found no engines or similar parts.
Speculation might lead some to imagine extraterrestrial beings as small as a human hand, meaning that very large parts wouldn’t necessarily need to be found. However, this contradicts what some authors later presented in their books, where they mentioned alien bodies about the size of children.
Curiously, claims of recovered alien bodies only began appearing decades later. There were no prior hints or mentions of such discoveries from any of the individuals involved at the time.
Critics argue that all witnesses may have been sworn to secrecy. UFO skeptics, on the other hand, question why so many UFOs would happen to crash on Earth in the first place. Additionally, they point out that humans, for example, would likely first send drones to explore a distant planet before traveling there themselves, as is the case with Mars. Anything else would be far too risky without sufficient data.
Rewards for Finding a Disc:
Various rewards were even offered from different sources for anyone who found and handed over one of these “flying discs.”
“A reward to the first Dayton person finding one of the mysterious discs was offered Wednesday by ‘Rags’ Ragland, head of the Dayton School of Aviation, Dayton Municipal airport.
“Ragland said the lucky (?) person would be given free flight instruction or flying time at the school. ‘We want to keep abreast of the latest developments in aviation,’ Ragland said. ‘We might want to add the discs to our equipment here.’”
“Reports of flying saucers whizzing through the sky fell off sharply today as the Army and Navy began a concentrated campaign to stop the rumors.
“One by one, persons who thought they had their hands on the $3,000 offered for a genuine flying saucer found their hands full of nothing.”
Foreign newspapers were having good time kidding the “flying discs.”
A cartoon in El Universal, Mexico City, showed a farm couple watching discs in the clouds with the husband saying:
Don’t be alarmed, they’re just tortillas (round, plate like Mexican bread), You know their price is
sky high.
Lassen ‘White Discs’
Are Soaring Seagulls
A state forest ranger in Lassen County yesterday identified “white discs” as flocks of soaring seagulls, while residents of Siskiyou County
reported seeing strange sausage shaped and saucer like objects flying high at BM. Monday.
There were also additional amusing reports:
The Greenville News 1947 07 09 1
The first claimant for the $3,000 in rewards for a flying saucer came from Loyd Bennet, an Oelwein, Ia., salesman, He exhibited a shiny, steel disc, about 6% inches in diameter which he said he found in his yard this morning.
A newspaperman who examined the disc thought it was the bottom from a smoking stand.
At least a few residents in every state in the nation had reported “discs” in the air.
Was everything shown at the press conference, or were some items left out?
Yes, that’s correct; not everything was shown. However, officially, this did not involve any UFO wreckage.
It is documented that Ramey gave a radio interview, as reported by several newspapers, where he also mentioned that the discovery seemed incomplete.
The News and Observer: July-09-1947
Additionally, Ramey may have attempted to protect the so-called secret Project Mogul.
On July 10,1947, following the Ramey press conference, the Alamogordo News published an article with photographs demonstrating multiple balloons and targets at the same location as the NYU group operated from at Alamogordo Army Air Field. Professor Moore expressed surprise at seeing this since his was the only balloon test group in the area.
He stated, “It appears that there was some type of umbrella cover story to protect our work with MOGUL.”
Although the Air Force did not find documented evidence that Gen. Ramey was directed to espouse a weather balloon in his press conference, he may have done so because he was either aware of Project MOGUL and was trying to deflect interest from it, or he readily perceived the material to be a weather balloon based on the identification from his weather officer, Irving Newton.
The fact is that the Army quickly attempted to quell the rumors following the first published press release about an alleged recovered “flying disc” by holding a press conference in the afternoon. The report spread like wildfire around the world, overwhelming the Army with inquiries from all over. With the press conference and a clarification from Roger Ramey, the matter was intended to be put to rest. Afterward, calm was swiftly restored.
Various newspapers reported on this:
AN OFFICER at the Fort Worth field said “about four a day go up from every Army weather station in the country.” The spokesman added:
“This type of balloon is also used by many local weather stations.”
The incident aroused the possibility that other of the mystery discs have been weather balloons reflecting the sun at high altitudes as they were carried briskly along by the wind.
Reports of the saucers fell off sharply as the Army and Navy began a concentrated campaign to stop the rumors.
One more important question remains, which the news also addressed. Some reports indicated that the found parts were forwarded to Wright Field.
Col. William H. Blanchard, commanding officer of the Roswell (N, M.) army air base, announced the discovery, describing the object as a “flying disc.” Brig. Gen, Roger B. Ramey, Fort Worth, commanding general of the Eighth air force, then announced the object would be flown to Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, for investigation.
The Army Air forces in Washington quickly followed with a statement that Ramey had reported to headquarters that “an object” reported to be a “flying saucer” was being forwarded to Wright Field.
Perhaps there was a premature report in this regard. Roger Ramey himself deemed the forwarding unnecessary after it was determined that the object was a weather balloon.
Thus, it was reported in the newspapers:
General Ramey said the object found in New Mexico definitely was a United States Army device.
Plans to fly the existing debris to Wright Field for further investigation were officially canceled.
According to investigations in the 1990s, no base could confirm the arrival of any parts from that time that resembled a flying saucer or anything similar. After reviewing the records from that period, there was no evidence that anything specific had officially arrived or been shipped. All relevant facilities were thoroughly examined.
However, according to UFO advocates, this could also be part of a cover-up.
What we can now confirm, however, is that there was indeed a transfer. We will soon reveal detailed information about it. The puzzle is coming together more and more.