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AI 整理 : 「機密解除された Roswell UFO 資料」に関するドキュメンタリー動画

· 約56分

前置き​

History Channel の動画を AI(NotebookLM plus) で整理した。

概要

ロズウェル事件の真相：UFOの隠蔽か軍事機密か

この文章は、ロズウェル事件に関する複数の視点と調査結果をまとめたものです。

1947年にニューメキシコ州ロズウェルで牧場主が発見した奇妙な残骸から始まり、アメリカ政府が当初「空飛ぶ円盤」の回収を発表した後に気象観測気球の残骸だと訂正したことで、長年にわたる隠蔽の疑念が生じました。

その後の政府による機密解除文書の公開や、目撃証言、そして空軍による2つの公式報告書によって、この出来事の真相が多角的に検証されています。

この情報からは、極秘の軍事プロジェクトが多数存在し、それらがUFO目撃談や異星人遭遇の証言と誤解された可能性が示唆されていますが、一部の調査員は政府の報告書が事件の全貌を明らかにしていないと考えています。

情報源 : 動画(42:50)​

Roswell UFO Declassified Documents - Full Documentary - 動画 Dailymotion https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3dmrvy

要旨

ロズウェル事件の真相に関する詳細なブリーフィング資料

このブリーフィング資料は、ロズウェル事件に関するドキュメンタリー動画「Roswell UFO Declassified Documents - Full Documentary」の文字起こしから、主要なテーマ、重要な事実、および主張を整理し、関連する引用を交えながら詳細にレビューします。

  1. ロズウェル事件の発生と初期報道 (1947年)
  • 初期の発見と報道: 1947年7月、ニューメキシコ州ロズウェル近郊の牧場主マック・ブラゼルは、嵐の後に「紫色の象形文字のようなもの」や「不自然なほど弾力のあるホイルのような素材」を含む奇妙な残骸を発見しました。「これは当時、砂漠で見つかる他の何とも違っていた。」
  • 「空飛ぶ円盤」の報道: ブラゼルからの連絡を受けたロズウェル陸軍航空基地の指揮官ブランチャード大佐は、広報担当のウォルター・ホーグトに「空飛ぶ円盤を捕獲した」というプレスリリースを発表させました。「私がそれを地元のニュースメディアに持っていくと、そこから文字通り世界中に広まった。」この報道は即座に公衆の圧倒的な関心を呼び、基地の電話回線はパンクし、全国紙の一面を飾りました。
  • 公式発表の撤回: 数時間後、残骸はフォートワース、テキサス州に空輸され、高級空軍専門家による調査が行われました。ロジャー・ラミー准将は、当初のプレスリリースを撤回し、残骸が「空飛ぶ円盤」の証拠であることを否定しました。代わりに、それは「撃墜された気球の反射レーダー標的の残骸」であると発表しました。「ロズウェル事件に関する意見の相違はここから始まる。」
  1. 政府の初期の隠蔽工作と冷戦期の背景
  • 隠蔽の疑念: ラミー准将による説明の撤回は、多くの人々に隠蔽を疑わせました。「彼らは我々が慣れ親しんでいたものとは異質の物を隠そうとしていたと思う。」UFOコミュニティでは、政府が残骸をすり替えたのではないかという「間違いなく隠蔽だ。あれこれ言うまでもない。」という議論が巻き起こりました。
  • 冷戦と国家安全保障: 1947年は冷戦が始まりつつあった時期であり、空軍はUFOの報告が「ソ連から、あるいは別の惑星から」の国家安全保障に対する深刻な脅威の証拠である可能性を懸念していました。
  • プロジェクト・ブルーブック: 1949年、空軍はUFO目撃情報の本格的な調査を開始し、「プロジェクト・ブルーブック」を立ち上げました。主な懸念は、ソ連が「空飛ぶ円盤へのアメリカ人の信仰を利用して、米国への攻撃準備を隠蔽する」可能性でした。
  • CIAのU-2偵察機隠蔽: 1950年代、CIAは独自のUFO調査を行い、「実際の脅威はない」と結論付けましたが、その結果を公表せず、UFO目撃情報を「意図的に誤解させ、混乱させる」ために利用しました。これは、CIAの最も秘密裏に守られていた秘密である「U-2スパイ機」を保護するためでした。「CIAは、最高機密のスパイ機から関心をそらすために、一般の人々にそれを未確認飛行物体だと考えさせるよう奨励した。」しかし、この偽情報は逆効果となり、「政府が地球外生命体との遭遇の証拠を隠しているという憶測の嵐を煽った。」
  1. 目撃証言の出現とUFO研究の加速 (1978年以降)
  • ジェシー・マーセルの新証言 (1978年): 事件発生から30年以上経った1978年、残骸を回収した将校の一人であるジェシー・マーセルが初めて公に口を開き、新たな事実を語りました。彼は、残骸が「長さ4分の3マイル、幅数百フィートの範囲に広がっていた」と主張し、空軍の気球説に反論しました。「代わりに、彼はそれがエイリアンの墜落着陸の証拠である可能性があると推測した。」
  • UFO研究者の掘り下げ: マーセルの証言はUFO研究者の関心を呼び、彼らはロズウェルとその周辺地域を調査し始め、多くの関係者やその家族、友人を追跡しました。これにより、「新たな全体像が浮かび上がった。」
  • ジェラルド・アンダーソンの証言: 新たに機密解除された資料の中から発見された1991年のビデオテープで、当時5歳だったジェラルド・アンダーソンは、ロズウェルから約200マイル離れたソコロ近くの砂漠で、父親と叔父とともに「直径約35フィートの大きな銀色の円盤状の物体」と「人間ではない4体の遺体」を発見したと証言しました。彼はエイリアンを「身長4フィート以下で、大きな頭と細長い手足」を持つ「顔立ちが奇妙に特徴のない」ものと描写しました。
  • グレン・デニスの証言: ロズウェルの葬儀屋だったグレン・デニスは、1947年に陸軍航空基地の病院で、エイリアンの遺体解剖を目撃したとされる看護師ナオミ・マリア・セルフとの出会いを語りました。「彼女は私に向かって叫んだ、『グレン、できるだけ早く出て行って！大変なことになるわよ。』」看護師は、遺体が「鼻孔が2つしかなく、口はわずか1インチで、歯も舌もなかった」と描写し、「ひどく焼かれ、切断されていた」と述べました。
  1. 政府の追加報告と秘密プロジェクトの公開 (1995年、1998年)
  • プロジェクト・モーグルの公開 (1995年): 公衆の関心の高まりを受け、空軍は1995年の報告書で、ロズウェル事件の残骸が「プロジェクト・モーグル」という極秘プロジェクトのものであることを初めて認めました。このプロジェクトは「ソ連の核実験を、気球によって高空に持ち上げられたマイク、つまり盗聴装置で監視する試み」でした。モーグル気球は「ワシントン記念塔と同じくらい高く」、多数のゴム製気球とレーダー反射板、音響測深ブイからなる「当時ニューメキシコで最大の人工物」でした。「彼らが描写したことと、私たちがプロジェクト・モーグルで飛ばされていたと知っていることとの類似点は、実質的に一点一点一致している。」
  • エイリアンに見えるダミーの説明 (1998年): 空軍は1998年の第2次報告書で、目撃されたエイリアンの遺体に関する説明として、「オペレーション・ハイダイブ」という1950年代の極秘プロジェクトを公開しました。これは、人間型ダミーを使用して高高度パラシュートをテストするものでした。政府は、これらのダミーが「エイリアンと簡単に間違われる可能性がある」と主張しました。ダミーは「奇妙で生命のない表情、目立つ顔の特徴の欠如、光沢のある青白い肌、ワンピースのジャンプスーツ」を持っており、目撃者がエイリアンを描写した特徴と酷似していました。
  • 高高度飛行実験の公開: 第2次報告書では、1940年代から1960年代にかけて行われた他の高高度実験も明らかにされました。これには、最大15,000ポンドの科学ペイロードを運び、高度170,000フィートまで上昇する巨大な気球列車や、NASAが建造した「自力推進と誘導着陸が可能」な大気圏再突入プロトタイプのテストが含まれていました。「これらのプロトタイプの中には、今日でも地球外の起源を持つように見えるものもある。」
  1. 目撃証言の矛盾と政府の説明への反論
  • デニス看護師の身元問題: グレン・デニスがエイリアンの解剖を語ったとされる看護師「ナオミ・マリア・セルフ」の身元は、依然として大きな謎です。人事記録には、ロズウェルの病院にこの名前の看護師が勤務していた記録は「1947年にも、それ以外の時期にも」ありませんでした。デニスが「嘘をついたか、出会った年を間違えた」可能性が指摘されています。
  • KC-97タンカーとプロジェクト・エクセルシオール: 空軍は、デニスの証言の詳細は、1950年代に発生したKC-97タンカーの墜落事故（乗組員がひどく焼死し、遺体がバラード葬儀場に運ばれた）や、高高度パラシュート実験「プロジェクト・エクセルシオール」の事故（赤い髪のキャプテン・キッティンジャーが同行し、顔が腫れ上がったパイロットが病院に運ばれた）によって説明できると理論付けました。デニスの証言に含まれる「白い将校と黒い軍曹」という描写は、1947年当時は軍が人種差別されていたためあり得ず、後年、軍が統合された後に発生した出来事であれば説明が可能とされました。
  • UFO研究者による反論: しかし、一部のUFO研究者は、政府の説明に納得していません。「（ハイダイブの）ダミーは6フィートもある。誰もそんな間違いをするはずがない。」と、目撃者が報告した「小柄な」エイリアンとの矛盾を指摘しています。彼らは「まだ政府がすべてを語っていない」と確信しています。
  1. 継続する論争とロズウェルの神話
  • 公文書の重要性: 科学編集者で航空宇宙歴史家のジム・ウィルソンは、機密解除された公文書を慎重に調査し、ロズウェル陸軍航空基地の「通常活動に何の支障もない」日々の記録を見出しました。「これらは、エイリアンの宇宙船の大量回収努力や、隠蔽の兆候の証拠を示していない。」
  • 未公開の秘密プロジェクトの可能性: しかし、ドキュメンタリーの専門家は、空軍の報告書が「UFO現象に関わる多くのプロジェクト」に言及していないと指摘しています。彼らは、高高度気球のテストに関連する宇宙生物学実験（動物を宇宙に放ち、高速度で地球に帰還させる危険な実験）や、40フィートの空飛ぶ円盤型航空機「レンティキュラー再突入機」（核兵器を搭載し、ソ連への核攻撃を想定したもの）のような、他の極秘プロジェクトが存在した可能性を示唆しています。
  • 政府の隠蔽は「軍事機密」と関係: ジム・ウィルソンをはじめとする多くの専門家は、ロズウェル事件における政府の隠蔽が「エイリアンとは何の関係もなく、軍事機密とは大いに関係がある」と確信しています。
  • エイリアンの証拠の欠如: 「ロズウェルで円盤が墜落したのなら、国家安全保障政策にそれに対処する努力の証拠が見られるはずだ。」しかし、そのような証拠は存在せず、政府は「地球の脅威」には巨額を投じているが、「別の惑星からの可能性のあるものには何も」していません。
  • ロズウェル神話の永続性: 具体的な証拠が不足しているにもかかわらず、「ロズウェルでのエイリアン墜落という信念が非常に魅力的である」ため、UFOの真の信者を納得させることはありません。ロズウェルは現在、「UFO現象の代名詞」となり、年間何十万人もの人々が訪れる観光地となっています。ウォルター・ホーグトとグレン・デニスは、町の主要な観光名所の一つである「UFO国際研究センター」の共同経営者となりました。「ロズウェルの神話、ロズウェルの伝説は、それ自身の命を宿し、現実よりも大きく、強くなっている。」
timeline と 主要関係者

ロズウェル事件のタイムライン​

1940年代​

  • 1947年7月7日: ニューメキシコ州ロズウェル郊外で嵐が発生。
  • 1947年7月8日: 牧場主のマック・ブラゼルが自身の土地で謎の残骸を発見。バルサ材、紙、紫色の象形文字、そして異常に弾力のある箔のような素材が含まれていた。彼はこの残骸をロズウェル陸軍飛行場に関連するものと推測し、地元の保安官を通じて基地に連絡。
  • 1947年7月: ロズウェル陸軍飛行場の司令官ブランチャード大佐が、広報担当のウォルター・ハウトに「空飛ぶ円盤を捕獲した」というプレスリリースを発表させる。このニュースは世界中に広がり、公衆の反応は即座かつ圧倒的だった。
  • 1947年7月: 残骸は数時間以内にテキサス州フォートワースに空輸され、空軍高官によって検査される。
  • 1947年7月: ロジャー・レイミー准将が残骸を調べ、元のプレスリリースを撤回。「空飛ぶ円盤の証拠」であることを否定し、代わりに「反射レーダー標的の残骸」だと発表。これがロズウェル事件を巡る論争の始まりとなる。
  • 1949年: 空軍がUFO報告の調査を本格的に開始。「プロジェクト・ブルーブック」が発足。

1950年代​

  • 1950年代: CIAがUFOに関する独自の調査を実施し、「脅威はない」と結論付ける。しかし、その結果を公表せず、UFO目撃報告をU-2偵察機の秘密を隠すための情報攪乱に利用。
  • 1950年代: 「オペレーション・ハイダイブ」が実施される。これは高高度パラシュートのテストのため、人型ダミーを使用する極秘プロジェクト。
  • 1956年: ロズウェル陸軍飛行場病院に勤務する医師と看護師のスキャンダルに関する軍法会議の記録が残される（看護師の身元は不明）。
  • 1950年代後半～1960年代初頭: 「プロジェクト・エクセルシオール」が実施される。高高度パラシュートの人間への影響をテストする極秘プロジェクト。これにはキャプテン・ジョー・キッティンガーが関与し、キャプテン・ダン・フルガムの着陸事故も発生。

1970年代​

  • 1978年: マック・ブラゼルの牧場から残骸を回収した将校の一人であるジェシー・マーセルが、初めて公の場で新たな証言を行う。当初は「バルサ材、プラスチック、箔の破片」としていたが、実際は「長さ4分の3マイル、幅数百フィートにわたる広範囲の残骸」であると主張。「異星人の墜落」の可能性を示唆。
  • 1978年以降: UFO研究者たちがロズウェルに集結し、関係者の追跡調査を開始。新たな証言が次々と浮上。

1990年代​

  • 1991年: ジェラルド・アンダーソンが政府の調査官に対し、幼少期にソコロ郊外で「銀色の円盤形物体」と「4体の非人間的な遺体」を発見したと証言（このビデオは後に機密解除資料から発見される）。
  • 1995年: 米空軍が最初の公式報告書を発表。ロズウェル事件の残骸が「プロジェクト・モグル」という極秘プロジェクトの高高度気球の残骸であったことを認める。これは、ソ連の核実験を監視するための気球であり、以前の「単なる気象観測気球」という説明がカバーアップであったことを認める形となった。
  • 1998年: 米空軍が2番目の公式報告書を発表。「オペレーション・ハイダイブ」で使用された人型ダミーが、目撃者が「異星人」と誤認した可能性があると説明。また、KC-97タンカーの墜落事故や「プロジェクト・エクセルシオール」での事故が、グレン・デニスの証言に影響を与えた可能性を指摘。グレン・デニスの証言における年代の矛盾（黒人軍曹の存在など）も説明。

2000年代以降​

  • 2001年11月26日: ヒストリーチャンネルがワシントンD.C.郊外の国立公文書館で、機密解除されたばかりのロズウェル事件に関する最高機密文書の初公開を行う。これには17冊のノート、数百枚の写真、数十人の証人の証言録音テープ、22本のフィルムやビデオが含まれる。
  • 現在: ロズウェルはUFO現象の代名詞となり、観光地化。政府の報告書にもかかわらず、多くの人々は政府がまだ真実を隠していると信じ続けている。

登場人物リスト​

  • マック・ブラゼル (Mack Brazel): ロズウェル郊外の牧場主。1947年7月に自身の土地で謎の残骸を最初に発見した人物。彼の発見がロズウェル事件の始まりとなった。
  • ブランチャード大佐 (Colonel Blanchard): 1947年当時のロズウェル陸軍飛行場の司令官。当初、「空飛ぶ円盤を捕獲した」というプレスリリースを承認した。
  • ウォルター・ハウト (Walter Haught): ロズウェル陸軍飛行場の広報担当者。ブランチャード大佐の指示で、空飛ぶ円盤捕獲のプレスリリースを配布した。後年、グレン・デニスと共にUFO国際研究センターの共同オーナーとなる。
  • ロジャー・レイミー准将 (Brigadier General Roger Ramey): フォートワースの空軍基地で残骸を検査した高官。当初のプレスリリースを撤回し、残骸が気象観測気球のものであると発表した。
  • ジェシー・マーセル (Jesse Marsall): マック・ブラゼルの牧場から残骸を回収した将校の一人。1978年に公の場で、当初の政府発表と異なる、より広範囲で異質な残骸についての証言を行い、事件の再燃に大きく貢献した。
  • ジェラルド・アンダーソン (Gerald Anderson): 幼少期（5歳）に、ロズウェルから約200マイル離れたソコロ郊外で、墜落した円盤状の物体と4体の非人間的な遺体を発見したと主張する目撃者。彼の証言はビデオで記録され、後に機密解除資料に含まれていた。
  • グレン・デニス (Glenn Dennis): 1947年当時、ロズウェルのバラード葬儀場に勤務していた葬儀屋。ロズウェル陸軍飛行場病院で、異星人の遺体解剖を目撃したとされる看護師（ナオミ・マリア・セルフ）と出会い、脅迫されたと主張。彼の証言は後に多くの矛盾を指摘された。後年、ウォルター・ハウトと共にUFO国際研究センターの共同オーナーとなる。
  • ナオミ・マリア・セルフ (Naomi Maria Self): グレン・デニスがロズウェル陸軍飛行場病院で異星人の遺体解剖を目撃したと主張する空軍看護師。しかし、人事記録には彼女の名前は見つからず、その存在はロズウェル事件の永続的な謎の一つとなっている。
  • キャプテン・ジョー・キッティンガー (Captain Joe Kittinger): 「プロジェクト・エクセルシオール」を率いたパイロット。高高度パラシュート降下実験の第一人者で、赤毛であったとされる。
  • キャプテン・ダン・フルガム (Captain Dan Fulgham): 「プロジェクト・エクセルシオール」に参加したパイロット。1959年の着陸事故で頭部が大きく腫れ上がり、ロズウェルの病院に運ばれた。この事故がグレン・デニスの証言の一部に影響を与えた可能性が指摘されている。
  • ケビン・ランドール (Kevin Randall): UFO研究家。グレン・デニスの証言の信憑性を疑問視し、ナオミ・マリア・セルフの徹底的な調査を行った結果、彼女の記録が見つからなかったことを認めている。
  • ジム・ウィルソン (Jim Wilson): ポピュラーメカニクス誌のサイエンスエディター兼航空宇宙史家。機密解除された一次資料を綿密に調査し、ロズウェルにおける異常な活動の欠如を指摘。また、「レンズ型再突入機」など、政府が公表していない他の極秘プロジェクトの存在についても言及している。
  • UFOコミュニティの「専門家」と「調査官」: ヒストリーチャンネルによって招集され、国立公文書館で新たに機密解除された文書を調査したチーム。彼らはロズウェル事件の真相解明を目指す。
展開

（以下は、"Roswell UFO Declassified Documents - Full Documentary" というドキュメンタリー動画の文字起こしです。 この文字起こしから、主要な事実と主張を整理して。）

November 26, 2001. The History Channel convened a team of investigators at the National Archives outside Washington, D.C. These experts came here for an exclusive first look at top-secret government files, only now being declassified, decades after the United States government began its cover-up of the Roswell incident. Until this day, the public had been denied access to these boxes, containing 17 notebooks of top-secret information, hundreds of photographs, transcripts and audiotapes of dozens of witnesses, and 22 films and videos. (0:01:01)

Inside these boxes, our experts discovered new evidence of a controversy over the handling of the Roswell incident that raged behind the scenes. Through these files, our experts retraced the steps of the government's own investigation. Finally, we get to look at the records that were generated by the researchers who were at the center of this story. (0:01:29)

Among the boxes of files and photographs, researchers were surprised to find a crate containing what government inventories listed only as an unidentified metallic object. Even those who were skeptical of the UFO reports at Roswell hoped that this crate might contain what so many have sought for so long.

I hope to see some physical evidence. (0:01:57)

That's what's always missing. In these newly declassified materials, we hoped to uncover clues that would solve one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century. What really happened in the desert outside Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947? July 7th, a storm swept across the desert outside Roswell. Rancher Mack Brazel went out the next day to inspect his fields and fences for storm damage and discovered a small pile of debris. (0:02:35)

He gathered up a sample and took it home to show his family. Some of it was clearly balsa wood and paper, but the family was mystified by what looked like purple hieroglyphics and an unfamiliar foil-like material that seemed unnaturally resilient. This rancher who retrieved the wreckage initially must have been surprised and shocked by what he found. It simply wasn't like anything else you'd find in the desert at the time. (0:03:01)

As originally reported back in 1947, Brazel assumed that the debris was associated somehow with operations at nearby Roswell Airfield. Through the local sheriff, he contacted the base and two officers were sent out to retrieve the unidentified materials. And when they brought it back to the base, Colonel Blanchard, who was the commander there, directed that his press guy, Walter Haught, put out a press announcement saying that they had captured a flying saucer. (0:03:35)

I did that and took it to the local news media and from there it went around literally the world. The public reaction was immediate and overwhelming. The base switchboard was jammed with calls and the story made the front pages of newspapers across the country. Once the news media started grabbing it, telephone calls from morning to night and from night to morning. (0:04:06)

There was a tremendous amount of active interest not just amongst the public but in the government, in the military. They were very concerned. They thought people were seeing something real and it was something that was intruding into our airspace and they had serious concerns about it. Within hours, the material was flown to Fort Worth, Texas, for inspection by high-ranking Air Force experts. (0:04:32)

Brigadier General Roger Ramey examined the debris. Immediately he retracted the original press release, denying that the debris was evidence of a flying saucer. Instead he said, the foil and balsa wood scraps were remnants of a reflective radar target from a downed weather balloon. And here's where the disagreement over the Roswell incident begins. To some, the misidentification of the debris was a simple mistake. (0:04:59)

But others weren't buying the Air Force's new and improved story. I think that they were trying to cover up materials that they had picked up that were foreign to anything that we were familiar with. Years later, the authenticity of the debris displayed by Ramey became the subject of heated debate in the UFO community. Was it actually the foil and balsa wood debris Mack Brazel had retrieved? Or had the government substituted something else as part of a cover-up? It was definitely a cover-up. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. (0:05:35)

There was a cover-up about what happened near Roswell in July of 1947, but it had nothing to do with a crash flying saucer. In 1947, the year of the first sightings at Roswell, the Cold War was just beginning to heat up. The Air Force was concerned that UFO reports might be evidence of a serious threat to national security, either from the Soviet Union or possibly even another planet. (0:06:10)

So, in 1949, they began investigating these sightings in earnest with Project Blue Book. We have also talked to some people and claimed to have contacted beings from outer space. The primary concern of the Air Force was the potential of a Soviet surprise attack. They were concerned about UFOs, particularly in the 1952 period, by the idea that the Soviets could exploit American belief in flying saucers to hide preparations for a strike on the United States. Project Blue Book wasn't the only government investigation into UFOs conducted during the 1950s. The CIA did its own research and eventually concluded that there was no actual threat involved. (0:07:07)

But instead of going public with their findings, the CIA used reports of UFO sightings to deliberately mislead and confuse the American public, all in an effort to protect the agency's most closely guarded secret, the U-2 spy plane. (0:07:21)

The CIA for many years was testing its own high-altitude planes, spy planes, that they wanted to keep secret from the public and from America's enemies. In the process, they collaborated with the Air Force in misleading the American public about sightings of strange craft. The CIA tried to deflect interest away from their top-secret spy planes by encouraging the public to think of them as unidentified flying objects. (0:07:56)

When public sightings of U-2s were reported, the CIA claimed that they were UFOs, UFOs that they then explained away as optical illusions caused by natural phenomena. In many cases, the explanations that came out were just so ludicrous that they perpetuated the myth that the government was lying and covering something up. We are your friends. But the CIA had underestimated the public's interest in UFOs. Their disinformation campaign backfired, fueling a firestorm of speculation that the government was hiding evidence of extraterrestrial encounters. (0:08:39)

Even more people became curious about what was really happening in the skies over the southwest. Nowhere was that reaction more extreme than in the case of Roswell. The military shot itself in the foot about Roswell by coming forward with this misleading cover story initially, and because it was not forthcoming with the public, the public filled in the blanks on its own. (0:09:06)

When we return, eyewitnesses come forward with new details of an alien crash landing at Roswell. Today, Roswell, New Mexico is synonymous with the UFO phenomena, and for the U.S. Air Force, it has become a PR nightmare, breeding suspicion and mistrust among the American public. Some believe that the government was withholding actual physical evidence of an alien landing at Roswell, evidence that ufologists were hoping to find among the government's recently declassified files in the case. (0:09:44)

But this collection of formerly classified files would never have been generated in the first place, except for an event that occurred in 1978, more than 30 years after the Roswell story first hit the headlines. In 1978, Jesse Marsall, one of the officers who recovered the debris from Mack Brazel's ranch, went public for the first time with a new version of the facts. (0:10:16)

According to the original 1947 reports, the debris he found was nothing more than a handful of balsa wood, plastic and foil. But in Marsall's new version of the story, he claimed that the debris blanketed an area three-quarters of a mile long and several hundred feet wide. In this updated account, Marsall contradicted the Air Force explanation that the debris was from a downed weather balloon. (0:10:45)

Instead, he speculated that it could have been evidence of an alien crash landing. UFO researchers immediately caught wind of the story and began to dig deeper. They descended on the town of Roswell and the nearby airfield, tracking down many of the principals and their friends and relatives. A new picture began to emerge. In the updated accounts, the two officers from Roswell airfield who went out to retrieve the debris were now joined by a platoon of soldiers who set up a blockade and combed the fields, picking up vast amounts of debris that were trucked to Roswell airfield and kept under the tightest possible security. (0:11:33)

According to these new stories, massive amounts of debris were airlifted via several large military transports to a secret location. (0:11:39)

As UFO researchers continued to dig, new witnesses came forward volunteering details of a second crash site, among them Gerald Anderson, who was five years old at the time. Anderson told a fantastic tale of a discovery he made with his father and uncle while searching for rocks in the desert outside Socorro, New Mexico, about 200 miles from Roswell. In this videotape, discovered among the newly declassified materials and seen here on television for the first time, Anderson repeated his story to government investigators in 1991. There was a large silver disk-shaped object that was embedded in the side of the ridgeline. (0:12:30)

I would estimate its size from an adult perspective to be something like 35 feet in diameter. When we got up to it, there were four bodies there, not human. In Anderson's fantastic story, there were four aliens at the crash site, two dead, one severely injured, one ambulatory. He described the aliens as diminutive in size, not more than four feet tall, with large heads and long, thin limbs. (0:13:05)

He remembered their faces as strangely featureless. Then came an even more stunning revelation, this time from a man named Glenn Dennis. In 1947, Dennis was a mortician at the Ballard Funeral Home in Roswell. He recalled driving an injured airman to the hospital at Roswell Airfield shortly after the initial discovery of debris on Brasel's Ranch. Inside the hospital, Dennis claimed to have encountered a friend of his, an Air Force nurse by the name of Naomi Maria Self. Well, she screamed at me, Glenn, get out as fast as you can, because, she says, you're going to get in a lot of trouble, get out as fast as you can. (0:13:52)

Dennis claimed that he was then confronted by a red-headed Air Force captain and a black sergeant, who threatened him and then escorted him off the base. He said, get this S.O.B. out of here. And then I got mad and started telling him, go to hell, I was a civilian and all this. According to Dennis, he arranged to meet the nurse again the next day. (0:14:15)

In this second encounter, she gave him a graphic and disturbing account of the events that had driven her to hysterics. She said that she had been called into the operating room by doctors, who were conducting autopsies on bodies like none she had ever seen before. They only had two orifices for the nostrils here, and the mouth was only like one inch. No teeth, no tongue. (0:14:50)

As the nurse described it, the bodies were burned and mutilated, clearly crash victims. And they gave off an overpowering odor that eventually forced doctors to abandon the autopsies. She was evidently very traumatized. She drew a little picture, apparently, of the body that she had seen and immediately destroyed it and took a look over her shoulders if people were listening, which they well might have been. (0:15:17)

And then he tried to get back in touch with her soon after that and she was gone, shipped out. (0:15:20)

These new eyewitness accounts about the events at Roswell fired the public imagination as never before. Books, movies and television programs about the Roswell case fanned the flames. The Air Force was inundated with questions about the events at Roswell. As the myth grew, they began to be driven nuts by requests for this kind of information, that kind of information. They wanted desperately to get this all behind them. (0:16:02)

The sheer volume of files recently declassified in the Roswell case is a testament to the government's high level of concern. As our story continues, the public outcry about UFO sightings at Roswell forces the government to reveal top secret projects that were kept hidden for more than 50 years. As investigators combed through the recently declassified materials in the Roswell case, they discovered log books filled with detailed launch records, records of a top secret project being carried out in 1947. These logs provide first hand evidence of a project that the government kept under wraps for almost 50 years, until this report on the Roswell incident was published in 1995. In this report, the Air Force revealed the project for the first time, admitting that the weather balloon story was indeed a cover-up. According to this 1995 government report, the debris did include remnants of radar targets and balloon fabric, but not from an ordinary weather balloon. (0:17:19)

It turns out that what this debris was from was from a highly classified project called Mogul. Project Mogul was this top secret experiment, an attempt to monitor Soviet nuclear tests with microphones, listening devices, hoisted high into the air by balloons. Formerly classified government films show that, unlike smaller weather balloons, Project Mogul involved several large balloons strung together, forming a long train that, once in flight, could stretch up to 650 feet. (0:17:56)

The Mogul balloon was as tall as the Washington Monument. It was 20-some rubber weather balloons. You had three to five of the radar reflectors, you had ballast canisters, you had the sonobuoy for detecting signals. So this was the biggest man-made object in New Mexico at the time. According to the government's original report, what Mack Brazel found on his land was actually the remnants of one of these Project Mogul balloons. (0:18:32)

Deep inside a vault at the National Archives, this mysterious wooden crate was stored among the recently declassified files. Does it hold evidence of Project Mogul, or proof of an alien crash landing at Roswell? We can now see for ourselves the balsa and paper construction and the shiny foil-like material that mystified so many eyewitnesses when General Ramey first displayed it in 1947. Most investigators, even those who believe that we have been visited by UFOs, are now convinced that a Project Mogul radar target like this one is at the heart of the Roswell mystery. (0:19:31)

When you read and listen to the descriptions by the witnesses, the people who actually saw this material, the people who actually handled this material, the parallels between what they described and what we know was being flown on Project Mogul are effectively one for one. Others, however, still doubt that the Air Force has revealed everything they know about the case. (0:19:56)

They put together this report and said, well, we found out it was this Project Mogul balloon and Mogul was highly classified and that's the end of the story. But it really isn't the end of the story, because they didn't deal with all of the facts. They dealt only with the facts that they thought were consistent with their theory of Project Mogul. By revealing the details of Project Mogul in their 1995 report, the Air Force had hoped to close the book on the Roswell case. Instead, they raised even more questions. (0:20:26)

What was the case about? What really happened in the desert outside Roswell, New Mexico, in the summer of 1947? And what other secrets the government might still be hiding? Where was the debris? Where were the alien bodies described by so many eyewitnesses? So the Air Force decided to prepare a second report, more detailed, more expansive, addressing more of the strange and fantastic stories that surround Roswell. The second government report was a bonanza for both UFO investigators and national security specialists. (0:21:01)

To explain the eyewitness accounts at Roswell, the US Air Force was forced to release information and film footage on a wide range of top-secret government projects. These files contained the nuts and bolts information about secret Air Force projects that spanned decades. We have the day-to-day details of top-secret balloon flights, of all manner of experimental craft that were tested in secret in the desert. (0:21:34)

The bulk of the second Air Force report was devoted to Operation High Dive, a top-secret project carried out during the 1950s. Operation High Dive was designed to test high-altitude parachutes using anthropomorphic dummies. The government claimed that these dummies could easily be mistaken for aliens. They pointed out the close resemblance between eyewitness descriptions of aliens and the dummies, the strange, lifeless expressions, the lack of prominent facial features, shiny, pallid skin, and the one-piece jumpsuits. (0:22:23)

Of course, these dummies, while they're human-like, that's just exactly it. They're human-like. They're not quite human. They're very peculiar looking in some regard. I think that these dummies, while they resemble a human form, also look unearthly. Naturally, if you'd have seen one of these dummies coming down in the desert on a parachute or otherwise, and if you're a civilian who's heard some stories about strange aircraft and aliens and the like, you might draw the conclusion that aliens had landed in your desert. (0:22:51)

In addition to Operation High Dive, the second Air Force report revealed other top-secret high-altitude experiments carried out during the 40s, 50s, and 60s. In these experiments, massive balloon trains carried scientific payloads weighing up to 15,000 pounds to altitudes as high as 170,000 feet, more than 32 miles above the Earth's surface. As shown in these recently declassified films, high-altitude balloons were also used to test atmosphere re-entry prototypes built by NASA. Some of these prototypes were capable of cell propulsion and guided landings. (0:23:43)

And even today, many of these prototypes seem otherworldly in origin. In the 1940s and even into the 1950s, most people knew about airplanes from newsreels of movie stars getting onto DC-3s. They had a very clear idea of how big an airplane was, that it had big wings, that it had propellers. (0:24:00)

And that was their frame of reference for what an aircraft, a flying machine, should look like. Something round was truly out of this world. A balloon floating at 100,000 feet, it's a huge object. It's potentially several hundred feet in diameter. The balloons can also seem to hover, and then if they're caught by a high-altitude jet stream, suddenly take off at 100 or more miles an hour. (0:24:29)

So you had a very exotic-looking object, which was disc-shaped, behaving in a manner that a conventional airplane couldn't. So, of course, they will be reported as flying saucers. The Air Force's second report offered some plausible explanations for many of the more outrageous elements of eyewitness accounts at Roswell. But was it really a complete accounting of the government's top-secret activities? Were they still hiding evidence that could shed light on the case? Coming up next, independent investigators reveal new evidence of top-secret projects that may explain some of the most dramatic claims of eyewitnesses. (0:25:15)

In the weeks after the U.S. government's files on the infamous Roswell incident were declassified, the History Channel's experts examined the contents of the 11 boxes of files, films, and photographs. They were looking for evidence that might help explain the many fantastic claims made about alien crash landings at Roswell in the summer of 1947. Claims not fully accounted for in either of the Air Force's two official reports. (0:25:52)

But in the search for answers, our investigators were surprised to discover new mysteries. There are a few items in these files that are hard to explain. There is, for example, a lengthy court-martial record dating from the 1950s. These 300 pages of court transcripts tell the sordid details of an affair between a doctor and a nurse assigned to the Roswell Airfield Hospital. In the court transcript, the nurse was described as having a highly suggestible hysterical personality. (0:26:32)

Could this be the nurse that Glenn Dennis claimed to have encountered who described alien autopsies at the hospital in Roswell? Elements of the two stories seem to match. But there is one overriding discrepancy. The trial happened in 1956, almost nine years after Dennis claimed to have had his encounter. The identity of this nurse is one of the most persistent mysteries in the Roswell case, stumping both government and independent UFO investigators. (0:27:06)

Personnel records showed that no nurse by the name of Naomi Maria Self had ever been assigned to a hospital in Roswell. Not in 1947 or at any other time. In its 1998 report, the Air Force speculated that Glenn Dennis had been lying or mistaken about the year he encountered the mysterious nurse, claiming that many details of Dennis' story could be explained by accidents that occurred as part of regular flight activities much later, in the 1950s. There was a crash of a KC-97 tanker taking off from the airbase there at Roswell. And all the crew were killed and burned very, very badly. (0:27:46)

And a number of the bodies were brought to the base hospital at Roswell. And the descriptions of those bodies and what transpired when they were brought there matches very closely with the story that Glenn Dennis told about the alien bodies allegedly being brought in about nine years before. The bodies were later taken to the Ballard Funeral Home, where Glenn Dennis had worked. Air Force investigators theorized that Dennis drew on this experience to develop his story of alien bodies, supposedly as told to him by the elusive nurse, Naomi Maria Self. According to the Air Force, other details of Dennis' story could be explained by a second accident involving one of the Air Force's first manned high-altitude balloon experiments. (0:28:34)

Project Excelsior, which was carried out in the late 50s and early 60s. As shown in these recently declassified films, Project Excelsior was designed to test the effects of high-altitude parachuting on human subjects. Excelsior test pilots were taken to the very edge of space in open gondolas, where they parachuted to Earth from 100,000 feet up. (0:29:02)

Led by a red-headed pilot, Captain Joe Kittinger, Excelsior was considered a high-risk assignment in which even low-level training flights could be hazardous. As yet another pilot, Captain Dan Fulgham, discovered on May 21, 1959. His flight that day was uneventful, but the landing did not go as planned. The gondola tipped over, trapping Fulgham's head against the ground. The red-headed Captain Kittinger accompanied Fulgham to the hospital at Roswell. By the time they arrived there, Fulgham's head had swelled up to twice its normal size. (0:29:46)

At the hospital, the size of Fulgham's head was exaggerated even more by a thick layer of bandages. His face was black and blue and his eyes swollen shut. Aspects of this event and the accident involving the crash of the KC-97 bear a striking resemblance to the details of Glenn Dennis's story. And the later time period of these events could explain some of the glaring anachronisms in Dennis's story, including his allegations that the red-headed Captain who threatened him was accompanied by a black sergeant. (0:30:28)

In July 1947, the Army Air Forces was not integrated like the rest of American society. It was segregated. There were separate black units. It was incomprehensible that a white officer would have a black sergeant. It becomes reasonable if what we are seeing is a description of an event which occurred later after the then Air Force had become integrated. Even UFO believer Kevin Randall concedes that Dennis's accounts have been largely discredited, citing his own exhaustive search for the mysterious Naomi Maria Self. Glenn Dennis tells us the name of the nurse. (0:31:18)

So we've got to find the nurse. We're going through the records. Well, she's not in the yearbook. She's not in the base telephone directory. I went through the impossible data record for the year of 1947. Couldn't find her mentioned. We went through the morning reports. We looked everywhere. We could find no record of a nurse with her name anywhere. (0:31:34)

And when Glenn Dennis was confronted with this, he said, well, I never told you guys the right name. So immediately his story falls to pieces. Despite the holes in Dennis's story, some UFO researchers still don't buy the government's explanations for his and other eyewitness claims. The crash test hasn't done anything preposterous. For one thing, if you've seen the one that's at the UFO museum, it's six feet tall. (0:32:03)

I don't see anybody could make a mistake like that. You know, people that were at the crash site, you know, said that the bodies were diminutive. I don't see how anybody could make a mistake of that kind. There are many UFO researchers who are not persuaded by these Air Force reports. These researchers remain convinced that we're not getting the whole story. (0:32:22)

And they have a sound basis for that speculation, given that the government has not told the full truth about UFOs for many decades. But now the government's own files have been declassified, and it's possible to conduct a first-hand analysis of the original historical documents from the period. Popular Mechanics science editor and aerospace historian Jim Wilson has carefully examined these primary sources, documents that represent the cold, hard facts of the day-to-day events at Roswell, looking for evidence of the massive recovery effort of an alien spacecraft, or the tell-tale signs of a cover-up. And this is where the records, declassified records are very useful. (0:33:09)

Let me give you an example. If you live in a town where there had once been a great mill fire, for example, and it was a local legend, you could go to the records of, say, the fire company on that particular day, or the police department, and you could see noted in the log books in the police blotters, so many additional police called in, so many police dispatched. When you look at the Officer Day reports for what was happening at the Roswell Army Airfield, you see no disruption in normal activity. (0:33:42)

As pedestrian as they may seem, these detailed and seemingly authentic log books may be the most important piece of evidence in these boxes. They provide the simplest but most eloquent argument in support of the government's case, undermining many of the most fantastic claims about alien crash landings at Roswell. But UFO investigators claim that there is still much to be learned about what really happened at Roswell, as our story of the government's cover-up continues. (0:34:12)

In its 1998 report, the Air Force cited a number of top-secret government projects as possible explanations for UFO sightings at Roswell, hoping to close the book on the case. (0:34:31)

The Air Force report, Roswell case closed, is probably a premature use of that term. It certainly doesn't close the case on all the UFO sightings. And as we found out in doing our own stories, there were many projects that were involved with the UFO phenomenon that the story doesn't even vaguely address. Among these files and other recently declassified materials, our experts have found extensive evidence of other top-secret government projects. (0:35:04)

These projects may help explain some of the strange stories told by eyewitnesses to UFO crash landings. A case in point, in its 1998 report, the Air Force makes only one brief mention of space biology experiments associated with the testing of high-altitude balloons. But a thorough examination of the government's files reveals that experiments with live animals were an integral part of many flight test programs. (0:35:45)

These experiments on space biology began with animals. Mice, monkeys, other creatures were jettisoned up into the sky. These experiments were documented by films that showed the effects on animal subjects. Effects of cosmic radiation, changes in gravity forces, and the unthinkable trauma caused by a high-speed return to Earth. This was very risky business because what goes up must come down. (0:36:11)

Many of these animals met their deaths in the desert as a result of their participation in these experiments. Details of the space biology program raise new questions. Could the alien survivors spotted by eyewitnesses actually have been primates used in space biology experiments? Just imagine being a civilian traveling through the desert and coming upon a crashed ship of some kind with dead animals inside it, or monkeys in spacesuits. (0:36:45)

What would you think? Aerospace historian Jim Wilson has found evidence of several other top secret projects also never revealed in the Air Force reports. These include a covert project in which the Air Force designed a 40-foot flying saucer, a craft with the potential to rain nuclear destruction on the Soviet Union. Manned by a crew of four and nuclear powered, the lenticular reentry vehicle was designed to be carried aloft via rocket and maintain an orbit 300 miles above the Earth's surface. (0:37:28)

We believe that a large number of the UFO sightings that happened in the 50s and through the 60s may have been involved with this type of technology. And this type of technology may also, for example, explain those cases where people show up with radiation burns after seeing unusual things in the sky. Jim Wilson and other prominent members of the scientific community now believe that projects like Project Mogul, Operation High Dive, Project Excelsior, and the lenticular reentry vehicle are just the tip of the iceberg. (0:38:03)

They predict the government still has much more to reveal about other top secret projects carried out in the skies above the New Mexico desert beginning in the 1940s. So while the government may still be involved in a cover-up, it's a cover-up that has nothing to do with aliens and much to do with military secrecy. Despite the continuing controversy about the government's role in the Roswell case, more and more experts do agree on one thing. (0:38:39)

That the evidence to prove an alien presence at Roswell probably does not exist. If a saucer crashed at Roswell, you would have seen evidence in national security policy of an effort to do something about it. You would have seen the development of countermeasures, you would have seen the development of detection devices, and there would have been a whole focus on the problem of the possibility of alien invasion from another planet. (0:39:06)

Didn't see it. You saw all kinds of reactions in terms of billions of dollars and all sorts of people to earthly threats and not a thing to do with anything possibly from another planet. After years of research, two massive government reports, and the testimony of hundreds of witnesses, all documented in these 11 boxes, there is still no tangible evidence of an alien crash landing at Roswell. But that lack of concrete evidence may never convince the UFO true believers. (0:39:41)

The fundamental problem that the government has always had with the Roswell incident is that it has to prove a negative. It has to prove it doesn't have a flying saucer. And how do you prove you don't have something? You cannot disprove something, particularly when belief in the existence of the Roswell crash is so attractive. (0:40:09)

Hundreds of thousands of people visit Roswell each year. Glen Dennis and Walter Haught, two of the principals in the Roswell story, are now co-owners of the UFO International Research Center, one of the town's biggest tourist attractions. And Roswell itself has been transformed by public interest in UFOs. What was once a sleepy farming community is now a thriving city of 50,000. Roswell is like a circus. (0:40:46)

If you go to the circus or if you go to a sideshow, it's fun. But if you believe it, then you've made a big mistake. So it's kind of like wink-wink, this is fun, wouldn't it be great if it was real? But unfortunately there are a lot of people who are saying not wink-wink, but they're saying this is real and we really did have alien beings from another planet crash here back in 1947. Regardless of what experts and investigators now say about Roswell, more than 50 years after Mack Brazell found that pile of debris in the desert, public interest in the case continues to grow. I can't imagine that Roswell will be a case closed for the UFO community. (0:41:29)

Not after this Air Force report, not after any government report. More than 50 years after the first sightings, one quarter of all inquiries received by the Air Force Public Information Office still relate to what happened in the desert skies. It's a dream come true to discover the answer to the ultimate question, are we alone? And are we the only intelligent being in all this vast universe? (0:42:02)

If aliens have crashed at Roswell, it is one of the most important events in human history. Suddenly we know we're not alone in the universe. Roswell is a case that will never die, I think. I think that the mythology of Roswell, the legend of Roswell has taken on a life of its own, and it's bigger and stronger than the reality. It started with a big bang. It could end with a bigger one. (0:42:35)

I don't want to be around for that day. I'm worried about the next asteroid. The world's top scientists present the greatest inevitable threats to humanity. These are the things that can render us extinct. How do we face the last days on Earth? Tonight on the History Channel. (0:42:50)

(2025-06-12)