Los Angeles Herald-Express, July 8, 1947

Front Page, Headline Story

SUNSET EDITION

Comments

Blazing banner headline.

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Note prominent display of Gen. Ramey's early radar target identification.  Alse see INS items lower down.

This is the AP's earlier story announcing the Roswell base press release.  The later add with Ramey describing the object and shipping it to Wright Field is below in a separate AP story.

First two paragraphs were in boldface, enlarged print much like this to emphasize importance attached to story.  Spelling of "disc" is different from same AP story in Seattle Times, that spells it "disk".  Seattle Times also "blended" the early and later AP stories into one story.  Sequence of reporting is clearer here.

These items came from UP wire stories, which aren't credited here.  The "strange blue light" from "several days ago" shows up again.

This is the complete initial base press release according to the AP.

**This is unique in the Herald-Express story.  All other AP quotes of the press release stated that the "disk" was "loaned", not "flown" by Marcel.  "Flown" is more accurate and makes much more sense.  A lower officer like Marcel couldn't "loan" anything to higher headquarters.

Why was the AAF saying that the object had a diameter of 20-25 feet?  The Washington Post credited a 25 foot size description to Ramey.

These descriptions were also credited to Ramey in some cases.  Otherwise they were nonspecified AAF sources.

Same wording here also in Miami Herald and NY Herald Tribune (Paris) stories next morning.

In the AP chonology, this announcement was at 6:53 EDT.

** These INS items appear to be last-minute inserts before the Herald-Express evening edition went to press.  Along with early UP accounts, they are very important in establishing the early origins of Gen. Ramey's weather balloon/radar target description.  INS was the wire service of the Hearst newspapers, and the first item may have been sent by the S.F. Examiner, who spoke to Ramey on the phone earlier.

** Even a U.S. Senator was trumpeting the weather balloon/radar target story very soon after Roswell base press release.  Where did he get it and so quickly too?

Again, this appears to be a last-minute AP add inserted just before going to press.   In the equivalent evening Seattle Times story, this was mixed in with the earlier main story.  Same wording here also in Miami Herald story next morning.  In the AP chronology, Ramey's announcement of the shipment was at 6:53 EDT, and several more adds, probably of Ramey's debris descriptions, appeared within the next 7 minutes.  The first complete story went out at 7:02 (or around 4:00 on the west coast).

UP reported this as Ramey saying "part of a weather balloon" was found nearby.  The Fort Worth Star Telegram quoted Maj. Marcel saying they found "a few more patches of tinfoil and rubber."

**A unique item mentioning that the FBI might be allowed to view the debris.  Historically, the Dallas FBI only discussed the matter on the phone with one of Ramey's intelligence agents, who told them it resembled a weather balloon and radar target (see FBI telegram).

Not important, but interesting in that the newspaper was noting a possible connection between UFO sightings being in the vicinity of important defense installations.  Military investigations in succeeding years, particularly in New Mexico, demonstrated the same trend.  See 1947 New Mexico UFO reports section for a number of sightings in the White Sands area starting about 10 days before the Roswell incident broke.  A sighting by 3 White Sands Naval rocket scientists on June 29 was also nationally reported on July 8.

Army Finds 'Flying Saucer'

General Believes It Is

Radar Weather Gadget

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Airforce Says Platter

Picked Up on Ranch

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By Associated Press

    ROSWELL, N. M., July 8--The Army Air Force here today announced a flying disc had been found on a ranch near Roswell and is in Army possession.

    Lieut. Warren Haught [sic], public-information officer of the Roswell Army Air Field, announced the find had been made "sometime last week" and had been turned over to the air field through co-operation of the sheriff's office.

   "It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently flown" by Major Jesse A. Marcel, of the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence Office at Roswell "to higher headquarters."

    The Army gave no other details.

    (Officers at the base say that the "disc" was flown in a Superfortress to "higher headquarters" undisclosed.  The air base refused to give details of construction of the disc or its appearance, but residents near the ranch on which the disc was found reported seeing a strange blue light several days ago about 3 a.m.)  

   Haught's statement:

    "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 the co-operation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff's office of Chaves County.

    "The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell some time last week.  Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the sheriff's office, who in turn notified Major Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th bomb group intelligence office.

    "Action was immediately taken and the disc was picked up at the rancher's home.  It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field andsubsequently flown by Major Marcel to higher headquarters."

    Later the A.A.F. said that further information indicated that the object would have had a diameter of about 20 to 25 feet if reconstructed.

    Nothing in the apparent construction "indicated any capacity for speed, and there was no evidence of a power plant, the A.A.F. said.

    Construction of the disc seemed too flimsy to have enabled it to carry a man, it was added.

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General Orders Flying Disc

To Wright Field for Tests

By International News Service

    FORT WORTH, Texas, July 8--Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey, commanding general of the Eighth Army airforces field, asserted tonight the purported "flying disc" found in eastern New Mexico is "evidently nothing other than a weather or radar instrument of some sort."

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By International News Service

    DENVER, July 8--Senator Ed C. Johnson, of Colorado, told the Denver Post by long distance from Washington today that the object found in New Mexico may have been "either a radar target or a meteorological balloon."

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By Associated Press

    Washington, July 8--Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey said today that a battered object which previously had been been described as a flying disc, found near Roswell, N.M., is being shipped by air to the A.A.F. research center at Wright Field, Ohio.

    Ramey, commander of the Eighth Air Force with headquarters at Fort Worth, received the object from the Roswell army air base.

    In talking by telephone to A.A.F. headquarters at Washington, Ramey described the object as of "flimsy construction, almost like a box kite."  It was so badly battered that Ramey was unable to say whether it had a disc form.  He did not indicate the size of the object.

    There were "some fragments of junk" found near the object near the New Mexico ranch where a rancher sighted it last week.

    Ramey reported that so far as the A.A.F. investigation could determine, no one had seen the object in the air.  Asked what the material seemed to be, A.A.F. officials here said Ramey described it as "apparently some sort of tin foil."

     The object, after being found by the rancher, was turned over to the 509th armored group at Roswell airfield.

    When asked if other agencies, including the F.B.I., would examine the exhibit, A.A.F. officials said they understood that if the airplane carrying the material had not left Fort Worth up to now the F.B.I. representatives in that area might make an examination.

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Site Where Disc Found Near

Atom Bomb Proving Ground

   Announcement by the Army Air Force of the finding of a "flying saucer" on a ranch near Roswell, N. M., excited speculation here today about a possible connection with the famous proving ground at White Sands.

    White Sands, where the first atomic bomb was tested in an explosion that marked a new era in world science, and where numerous captured German V-2 rockets have been fired, is only a short distance from Roswell.

    The state of Washington, where the first saucers were reported, also is the site of one of the great atomic processing plants at Hanford.