Original photos taken at the press conference:

How did the aforementioned press conference, where the Ramey memo is visible in the photos, come about?

First of all, there was a Press Release:

• On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) released a statement claiming they had recovered the remains of a “flying disc.”

Here’s how it is said to have happened:

James Bond Johnson, a reporter and backup photographer who was working for the “Fort Worth Star-Telegram“ at the time, returned to the newsroom on the afternoon of July 8, 1947. The newspaper had both a morning and an afternoon edition. His editor, who was in charge of the morning edition, came running over and asked Johnson if he had a camera on hand. Johnson confirmed that he did, and mentioned that he had a recently acquired “Four by Five Speed Graphic” camera in his car.

Picture of a >Four by Five Speed Graphic” camera<

He then told Johnson to head over to General Ramey’s office to take some photos. Apparently, something had crashed somewhere out there, and it was about to be presented. We just got an alert on the AP wire—a teletype (flash) message that the material was on its way to Ramey. Johnson then drove straight to Carswell (Fort Worth Army Air Field), which took about 30 minutes. There, he was admitted directly onto the site and was directed to Ramey’s office.

According to his recollections, he went in, opened his case, and took out his camera. He posed General Ramey with the debris, which was piled up in the middle of his rather large and luxurious office. It seemed inappropriate to have that foul-smelling junk piled on the floor. It was spread out on the floor of the fairly luxurious, large office, which was probably at least 5 by 6 meters in size. It smelled of burnt rubber, and Johnson wondered what was so important about it that they had spread it out on the floor. He posed General Ramey with the debris. At that time, Johnson was informed that it wasn’t a flying saucer, as initially reported, but actually a crashed weather balloon. Johnson didn’t talk much with General Ramey, as he seemed very busy. Johnson was on site for no more than 20 minutes before returning to his office in the newsroom.

But where did the memo that Ramey was holding come from? Johnson gave several answers. At one point, he said it was the telegram printout from the AP wire that he had taken with him and handed directly to Ramey before taking the photos. Ramey had read the memo with interest. If this is true, then the memo was not of military origin but came through the news channels. Later, Johnson claimed that it wasn’t the memo he brought but a document that was lying on Ramey’s desk. Before taking the photos, he handed Ramey the document to help him pose better. If this is true, then it would indeed be a military document that Ramey is holding in the photos.

For more details, read the very interesting blog by Kevin Randle.

>Ramey Memo and Barry Greenwood<

>Ramey Memo, Johnson, …<

Quote from the USAF report Part I: “Brig. Gen, Roger M. Ramey was the Commanding General, Eighth AirForce, in 1947. He is alleged to have participated in the cover-up of the recovery of an extraterrestrial vehicle by substituting debris from an ordinary weather balloon for that of an alien spacecraft. In fact, General Ramey displayed the original debris recovered from the ranch, which came from a MOGUL balloon train. Ramey withheld only the components that would have compromised the highly sensitive project.”

• Summary: On afternoon the press conference was held during which General Roger Ramey, the commander of the 8th Air Force, retracted the previous statement. He presented the debris and explained that it was actually the remains of a weather balloon. Photos from the press conference showed Roger Ramey and Jesse Marcel, along with Thomas Dubose and Irving Newton, with the purported weather balloon debris.

The Ramey Memo

The original document no longer exists. However, several photos were taken during the press conference, showing RAMEY with this memo. Unfortunately, it is mostly obscured. Yet in one picture, the front side is visible. Due to the image quality of cameras at the time, the small portion where the memo is visible, the angle, shadows, and poor letter quality, almost nothing is legible. There have been many attempts to make the memo readable again. So far, there is no satisfactory result. We aim to use the latest techniques and methods to solve the mystery, at least to be able to read what is on the MEMO.