Morning World-Herald, Omaha, Nebraska, July 9, 1947, Front page, top

'Object Found in N.M. Is Not a Flying Disc'

General Thinks Device Covered With Metal for Weather Work

Compiled from Press Dispatches

     Brig. Gen. Roger M. Ramey Tuesday said that an object found near Roswell, N. M., described as a "flying disc," appeared to be a weather sound device.

    Maj. Edwin Kirton, duty officer at the Eighth Air Force headquarters, Fort Worth, Tex., quoted General Ramey as saying

    "I do not know what the object is.  My best discription is that it looks like a hexagonal object covered with tinfoil or some other shining material suspended from a balloon of about 20 feet in diameter.

    "It possibly is a weather balloon flown at very high altitude, but none of the weather men at this base recognize it as an Army-type balloon."

'Couldn't Carry Man'

    WO Irving Newton, a forecaster at the base weather station, said the object was a ray wind target used to determine the direction and velocity of winds at high altitudes."

    Mr. Newton said there were some 80 weather stations in the United States using this type of balloon and that it could have come from any one of them according to the Associated Press.

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

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

    Reports that "discs" were sighted continued to pour in.

'Burning Hats in Sky'

    A York (Neb.) farmer claimed that he had seen burning straw hats in the sky.  He told the United Press that "they went across the sky for more than an hour and there must have been two dozen of them."

    A Roanoke (Va.) toy manufacturer said it is possible the discs are new "spin sailer" toys which his firm distributed to outlets across the nation two weeks ago.  He said dealers may have filled some of the toys with helium and turned them loose.

    A disc of aluminum about 16 inches in diameter, was found in Shreveport, La.  It was equipped with two tubular radio condensers, and a fluorescent light starter mevchanism, connected with a coiled copper wire.  The FBI will examine it.

'Propaganda for War'

    At Dayton, O., Orville Wright, co-inventor of the airplane, said he believes the flying sauvcer craze is "propaganda stated by the Government to support the current State Department campaign to get us into another way."

    Charles Wiggins, 18, Fort Creek, Tuesday night said he saw two "saucers' going east to west about [rest of article clipped in copying]

Omaha Morning World-Herald

Comments

An unusual composite account of the Roswell story, based primarily on Reuters, Associated Press, and United Press stories.

This quote from Ramey is similar in other Reuter's articles, such as the Madras, India newspaper, but has minor differences.  Here Ramey claims he doesn't know what it is, but elsewhere Ramey was already saying it was a weather balloon and radar reflector.  (See early UP stories, L.A Herald-Express story, and San Francisco Examiner story).  Here the quote is "weather men" not recognizing it as an Army balloon, instead of "Army men."  Actually there was only one weather man at the base, Irving Newton, whom Ramey later brought in for official ID, and who had no trouble at all identifying it as an Army-type balloon, as the rest of the story indicates.  As was often the case, the story that came out was inconsistent, suggesting confabulation on Ramey's part.

Major Kirton was actually one of Ramey's intelligence officers.   Kirton also spoke to the Dallas Morning News  and FBI.  According to an  FBI telegram Kirton told them, "The disc is hexagonal in shape and was suspended from a balloon by cable, which balloon was approximately twenty feet in diameter...  the object found resembles a high altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector..."  This is almost identical to the Reuter's quote and was probably scripted by or for Kirton.  The only real difference is the Kirton telling the FBI it resembles a radar reflector, whereas Reuters says that nobody recognized it as army balloon. 

Note weather officer Newton having no trouble identifying the radar target, as he himself testified many years later..  This part is typical AP reporting of the story.

According to other stories, these statements came out of the Pentagon after they said they had been on the phone with Ramey.