SUBJECT: INVESTIGATION OF ALLEGED UFO CRASH                  FILE: UFO1142
         

By: David A. Maurer
of The Ptogress Staff

    At the height of "flying saucer" mania during the early summer of 1947, an event took place near the town of Corona, N.M., that's still being investigated by UFO groups.
     It's alleged that during a thunderstorm on the evening of July 2, 1947, a UFO crashed on William Brazel's sheep ranch near Corona.  Dan Wilmot and his wife, living in Roswell, N.M., claimed they saw a large glowing disc headed northwest.
     Brazel later told investigators that he heard an explosion that sounded different than the numerous claps of thunder.  When he went out the following morning to check for storm damage, he discovered strange pieces of wreckage strewn over a wide area.
     "This is the best case of a possible UFO crash that I know of," said Mark Blashak, Mutual UFO Network, Inc. Virginia state director.  "Currently there have been about 90 people who have been interviewed in connection with this incident."
     Brazel showed the wreckage to a friend, and upon his advise, notified officials atRoswell Army Air Field. Major Jesse Marcel and Counterintelligence Corpsman Sheridan Cavitt drove out and investigated the site.
     They found that the material at the site was different from anything that might have come from an airplane, balloon or missile.
     Initially, the U.S. Army admitted it had recovered the remains of a crashed flying saucer, but within hours recanted this story and said it was merely pieces of a weather balloon, Blashak said.  It might have ended there but in 1981, Marcel, then a lieutenantcolonel, testified that the official story had been falsified.
     Other UFO crash cases are cited by UFO enthusiasts:
     Oliver "Pappy" Henderson, dropped a verbal bombshell two years before his death at a reunion of his World War II bomber crew.  Henderson told them and his wife that he had flown the bulk of the wreckage and the bodies of four alien beings out of the Roswell Army Air Field in a C-54 cargo plane in July of 1947.
     The controversy passed but in December of 1984, UFO investigator Jamie Shandera received a letter which brought the Roswell incident back to life.  Inside the blue envelope were two rolls of undeveloped 35mm film.
     "When the film was developed, lo and behold, it was a preliminary briefing report for president-elect Eisenhower," Blashak said.  "It said the report had been compiled by 12 people who were part of a top secret group called Operation Majestic-12."
     The six-page report described the recovery and analysis of the Roswell crash and the subsequent cover-up.  At one point in the document, it stated, "On 07, July, 1947, a secret operation was begun to assure recovery of the wreckage of this object for scientific study.  During the course of this operation, aerial reconnaissance discovered that four small humanlike beings had apparently ejected from the craft at some point before it exploded."
     Like many things connected with UFOs, the briefing has not been proven one way or another.
     However, it does make interesting reading.
     The report said the beings were found about two miles east of the wreckage site and contains other details.
     "All four were dead and badly decomposed due to action by predators and exposure to the elements during the approximately one week time period which had elapsed before their discovery.
     "Although these creatures are human-like in appearance, the biological and evolutionary processes responsible for their development has apparently been quite different from those observed or postulated in homo-sapiens."
     The group suggested that "the term "Extra-terrestrial Biological Entities", or "EBE's", be adopted as the standard term of reference for these creatures until such time as a more definitive designation can be agreed upon."
     Are the Majestic 12 documents a hoax or the smoking gun that UFO proponents have been looking for?  Research into the truth or falsity of the "MJ-12"  documents is continuing under the sponsorship of the Fund for UFO Research.
     "When looking at the actual document, it does give the impression that they are authentic,"  Blashak said.  "My own gut feeling is that they are authentic, but if they turn out to be a hoax, it's a very good one.
     "If they are fake, someone went through an awful lot of time and effort,"  Blashak said.  "What was really striking to me about the documents was the list of players in MJ-12.  They were all individuals who most people would never have heard of but are the best group of people the government could have assembled at the time."
     Another curious point was the fact that the documents were leaked just a few weeks after the last alleged member of MJ-12 died.
     "If you like a mystery you have to love this because it keeps going deeper and deeper the longer it's investigated,"  Blashak said.  "Another curious thing about it is where's the payback if it's a fake?  Why would someone go through all this trouble for no gain?"
        
         
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