Comments
These 3 newspapers have the same core story, but slightly different introductions and end differently. Words not common to all stories are in italics.
The Star-Telegram ran this AP story in their earliest morning edition of 7/9. A later morning edition ran a different story with some unique material. It was very similar to AP stories as well.
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Two of the stories specify the Fort Worth, July 8 dateline for the origin and date of the story. The Sentinel-News printed the exact same introductory paragraph reported in the AP chronology for the 7:30 EST bulletin announcing the official ID. Thus this may be the earliest of the post-ID AP stories.
Announcement of Ramey's radio broadcast appears to have been squeezed into this story at the last minute before going to press Tuesday night. It was probably in a later bulletin than the "stripped of glamor" story. A quote from Ramey's broadcast is also in the Oklahoman story towards the end.
Story immediately starts with the official identification by Newton. Newton's reported comments are identical to those in later, longer AP stories.
This again appears to be the new official story out of Fort Worth, but it is contradicted by a statement further below of an afternoon flight.
The new story: "three weeks previously" instead of "sometime last week" in the base press release.
** Somehow the "scattered over a square mile" slipped out as part of the official story. The tiny amount of debris shown in Ramey's office is grossly incompatible with this.
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After he supposedly "hurried home" and "dug up the remnants," he then waited another day and failed to take the remnants with him to show what he had found. This story makes no sense.
This section got deleted from the later, longer AP main story.
Word broke mid-afternoon (see below), likewise suggesting the flight was at this time. This is the part incompatible with the 10 a.m. flight time cited earlier in the official story. Perhaps the flight was ordered at 10 a.m., but didn't occur until the afternoon around the time of the press release. This would be in line with Marcel's memory of events of being ordered in the morning but not leaving until the afternoon.
Note how the Star-Telegram story reports Ramey instantaneously identifying a weather balloon. The later edition had a similar statement of both Gen. Ramey and his chief of staff, Col. Dubose, both immediately thinking it a weather balloon.
This ending section in the Oklahoman is unique in all the AP stories.
** Unique item. Strange that the unidentified "officers at Roswell" who "saw the object" didn't bother to consult their own weather experts ahead of time before putting out a press release. The story is implausible and sounds like more evolving AAF weather balloon propaganda emanating from the Pentagon.
Clearly the 25 foot description was being applied to the balsa wood and tin foil radar target. But the real targets were only 4 feet across. Why would the consulting AAF weather experts think this was compatible with the alleged meteorological device? This is another example of how the official story never did add up. The Washington Post story attributed the 25 foot description to Gen. Ramey in conversations with the Pentagon.
According to other AP stories, this quote was from Ramey's radio broadcast, which occurred after the official ID. The Oklahoman story appears to be written a little later than the others.
One of many instances of the AP scapegoating Roswell PIO Walter Haut for the alleged mistaken press release. UP consistently claimed, however, that it was base commander Col. Blanchard's release. Note the "mid-afternoon" press release time, which is also about when the flight to Fort Worth took place, acccording to the item above.
Oklahoma City, The Daily Oklahoman, 7/9, morning, page 1
One Flying Saucer Is Caught
But It's Just Weather Kite
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7/9, morning, page 1
'Disk-overy' Near Roswell Identified
As Weather Balloon by FWAAF Officer
Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel-News, 7/9, page 1
'Flying Disc' Found in New Mexico
Is Part of Weather Balloon
Sentinel-News
FORT WORTH, Texas, July 8 (AP)--Roswell's celebrated flying disc was rudely stripped of its glamor by a Fort Worth army airfield weather officer who late today identified this object that excited a storm of interest across the nation as a weather balloon.
Oklahoman
FORT WORTH, Texas, July 8 (AP)--A "flying disc" was reported found Tuesday in New Mexico, but was rudely stripped of its glamor by a Fort Worth army airfield weather officer who identified it as a weather balloon.
(Brig. Gen. Roger M. Ramey, commander of the Eighth air force with headquarters here, confirmed the identification in a radio broadcast Tuesday night as the object excited a quick storm of interest across the nation.)
Star-Telegram
An object found near Roswell, N.M. was stripped of its glamor by a Fort Worth Army Airfield weather officer who late Tuesday identified it as a weather balloon.
Warrant Officer Irving Newton of Medford, Wis., a forecaster at the base weather station, said the object [also "device"] was a ray wind [sic] target used to determine the direction and velocity of winds at high altitudes.
Newton said there were some 80 weather stations in the United States using this type of balloon, and it could have come from any one of them. "We use them because they can go so much higher than the eye can see," Newton explained. A radar set is employed to follow the balloon and through a process of triangulation the winds aloft are charted, he added.
When rigged up, Newton stated, the object looks like a six-pointed star, is silvery in appearance, and rises in the air like a kite, mounted to a 100-gram balloon.
Newton said he had sent up identical balloons to this one during the invasion of Okinawa to determine ballistics information for heavy guns.
The weather device was flown to Fort Worth army airfield by a B-29 from Roswell army airfield at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the command of Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey, 8th Air Force commanding officer here [also just "General Ramey"].
It had been found three weeks previously by a New Mexico rancher, W. W. Brazell [sic], on his property about 85 miles northwest of Roswell. Brazell, whose ranch is 30 miles from the nearest telephone and has no radio, knew nothing about flying discs when he found the broken remains of the weather device scattered over a square mile of his land.
He bundled the tinfoil and broken wooden beams of the kite and the torn synthetic rubber remains on the balloon together and rolled it under some brush, according to Maj. Jesse A. Marcel, Houma, La., 509th Bomb Group intelligence officer at Roswell, who brought the device to Fort Worth [also "FWAAF"].
On a trip to town at Corona, N.M., Saturday night, Brazell heard the first reference to the "silver" flying disks, Maj. Marcel related.
Brazell hurried home, dug up the remnants of the kite(s) and balloon on Sunday, and Monday headed for Roswell to report his find to the sheriff's office.
This resulted in a call to Roswell Army Air Field and to Maj. Marcel's being assigned to the case. Marcel and Brazell journeyed back to the ranch, where Marcel took the object into custody of the Army.
After Col. William H. Blanchard, 509th Commanding Officer, reported the incident to Gen. Ramey, he was ordered to dispatch the object to Fort Worth Army Air Field immediately.
About that time word broke from Roswell that a flying disc finally had been found.
Star-Telegram
After his first look, Ramey declared all it was was a weather balloon. The weather officer verified his view.
Oklahoman
The AAF at Roswell first announced the discovery with a straight face, climaxing weeks of reports over the country of strange circular discs seen skimming at high speed.
But AAF headquarters in Washington, after telephonic consultations with officers at Roswell who have seen the material, quickly cast doubt, declaring:
"There is a strong opinion by officers who saw the object, after consulting with weather experts, that it may be a meteorological device." The definite identification followed:
The material had been described as of flimsy construction about 25 feet in diameter, covered with tinfoil-like substance and built on a framework of light wood. It was badly battered.
"I don't say these devices are what people have called discs," General Ramey said. "There is no such gadget (as the disc) known to the army--at least this far down the line."
The balloons measure 50 inches across but expand greatly as they ascend, airforce officers reported. They sometimes reach 60,000 feet.
The red face in the story belonged to Lieut. Walter Haupt [sic], public information officer at Roswell army air field, who announced flatly at mid-afternoon that the Roswell army airfield had gained possession of a flying disc.
Roswell is in southeast New Mexico.
