It was a late Wednesday night when Mr. and Mrs. Dan Wilmot sat quietly on their porch just outside the town of Roswell, New Mexico. They were taking in a cool summer night's breeze when they both suddenly spotted a strange object hurtling across the sky. "It was in slight less then a minute, perhaps 40 or 50 seconds," stated Mr. Wilmot. And in that short amount of time Mr. Wilmot was able to sketch out the details of this strange object.
At speeds of up to 500 miles per hour, Mr. Wilmot was able to point out its distinct oval shape. "Like two inverted saucers," eh mentioned . It glowed a bright white light, but not from the outside. Rather, it showed through from the inside. And it was five feet in size and 15 to 20 feet in diameter. Oddly enough, however, Mr. Wilmot heard no sound coming from this saucer, but Mrs. Wilmot distinctly heard a momentary swishing.
Now, Mr. Wilmot was one of the most respected and reliable citizens in his town. He could very much be trusted by just about everyone. But, is it not peculiar that he was able to giev an almost complete description of this saucer-like object as it moved through the sky at 500 miles per hour for only 50 seconds? How could he even depict its shape, for that matter, through its bright glowing light in the night sky? His account of this event just does not add up. Could the Roswell incident of 1947 really have just been a hoax?
On Tuesday, July 8, 1947 the daily issue of the "Roswell Daily Record" published an article describing this mystery. In that same issue, another article, titled "Air Force General Says Army Not Doing Experiments," seemed to prove without a doubt that the U.S. government was not hiding anything from its people. Major General Nathan F. Twining, chief of the AAF material command near Roswell, commented that the "flying saucers" were not results of experiments by the armed services. He further mentioned that, "Neither the AAF nor any other component of the Armed Services had any plane, guided missile, or other aerial device under development which could possibly be mistaken for a saucer or formation of flying discs." So what could this mysterious object have been? The government described it as simply being a weather or research balloon, but would not comment any further on the incident. From then on it was left as an unsolved mystery plaquing the minds of anyone and everyone who doubted our government.
Now, almost 50 years later, the remains of evidence, some of which were "lost" in time, haev been dug up by Karl Pflock, a former senior Pentagon official-turned-writer and UFO investigator. Karl Pflock is and avid believer of UFOs and alien existence, but with the evidence stacked up against the Roswell incident, he just can't manage to believe that it was truly a flying saucer or alien spacecraft that crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico. After nine years of thorough investigation his conclusion was simply this: It really was just an oddly equipped research balloon, not a spacecraft, and the reason the government covered it up was because it was an experimental Cold War secret. That sounds reasonable, and it fits with the time period. But, althoguh Pflock stands by his conclusion, he still can't help but share the information he dug up on the etchy accounts of senior military officials in his published book "Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe." These senior officials, writing in highly official classified documents, bemoaned their lack of progress in solving the UFO mystery. Now, others could argue that the documents are simply part of a government cover up, but Pflock notes it was at a time when there was no Freedom of Information Act, before any of their authors would ever expect their words to be publicly revealed.
So, what is the real story behind the Roswell incident? Some may argue that it has already been solved, but has it really? We may never truly know what happened, if in fact something did happen. But, as the saying goes, "The truth is out there." We must only search long and hard for it.
Teacher Grade: 89% B+
Teacher Comments: Work on parallel structure.
Sources
http://www.project1947.com/roswell/roslinks.htm
http://www.geocities.com/jagironi2/area51/roswell.htm
http://www.geocities.com/jagironi2/images/area51/roswell.gif
http://www.abqjournal.com/roswell/roswell07-31-01.htm
