Benjamin

Alien body eyewitness Eli Benjamin was in the 2007 Witness to Roswell by Tom Carey and Don Schmitt, though first introduced in November 2006 on (Sci Fi Investigates--Roswell --at YouTube). According to Carey and Schmitt, Benjamin and his wife visited the International UFO Museum in Roswell in 2002. Against her husband's wishes, Mrs. Benjamin spoke to museum director Julie Shuster (also daughter of 1947 base public information officer Walter Haut, who put out press release of a captured flying saucer, and who also said he saw alien bodies), saying that her husband had seen the bodies at the base hospital (a story he first told her in 1949 when they were married). Benjamin, however, refused to tell his story until 2005, and according to Carey and Schmitt, was very emotional about it, several times breaking down in tears. His wife said he still had nightmares about the events.

Benjamin is pictured in the 1947 base yearbook, providing support to his story that he was there at the time, but the name is a pseudonym. His name was kept anonymous at his request, and a number of researchers kept it so, including myself, even though we knew his true name. "Benjamin" indicated he was made to sign a nondisclosure statement in 1947 and was fearful of government reprisal for going public, particularly losing his pension.

Nevertheless, Benjamin briefly appeared in two more documentaries in early 2015, one about Roswell in general ("UFOs Declassified", S01E05, "UFO Crash Sites"--see 10:29 into video), which, among things, shows his yearbook photo enabling easy identification. The other was a short teaser in Feb. 2015 about the so-called "Roswell slides," supposedly depicting an alien body ("Kodachrome" by SlideBoxMedia--see 2:39 into video). Here he states upon viewing a slide, that the being, or whatever, closely resembled what he saw back in 1947.

"I got myself ready, got my gun, and reported to the big hangar, as ordered... While looking at my OIC [officer in charge] to get instructions for duties at the hangar, I came upon a commotion at the main entrance to the hangar. Some MPS were trying to subdue an out-of-control officer, who among other things, appeared to be drunk as a skunk. I found out later that the officer in question was from my squadron and was the very officer--whose name I cannot now recall--was to have overseen the transfer of several 'Top Secret items' from the big hangar to the base hospital, and I was there to help escort the transfer. I was told later that he had been to the crash site and had seen the ship. When this officer reported to the hangar and saw the small bodies, it was apparently too much for him to handle, and he just lost it.

"... a Major or Lt. Colonel came out of the hangar, looked over the situation, and pointed at me. 'You! come over here,' he said. 'You're now in charge of this detail. Get these over to the base hospital!' He then pointed to three or four gurneys inside the hangar, each of which had something on it that was covered by a sheet. On one of the gurneys, whatever was under the sheet appeared to be moving. I...instructed the rest of the men in the detail to load the gurneys with their payload into the back of a truck that had just arrived for the purpose. ...As the men were loading the truck, one of the gurneys slipped during the handoff, and the sheet covering fell away, revealing the grayish face and swollen, hairless head of a species that I realized was not human.

"My orders were to deliver these to the base hospital's emergency room and remain there until relieved. Upon arriving at the emergency room ramp, we proceeded to unload. I went in with the first gurney and stood aside near the doorway as the medical people took control of the gurney. A half-dozen or so medical and nonmedical officers quickly removed the covering sheet. I couldn't see too well from where I was standing because of the number of officers gathered around the gurney, but I could see well enough to make out that a very small person with an egg-shaped head that was oversized for its body was lying on the gurney. The only facial features that stick out in my mind now are that it had slanted eyes, two holes where its nose should have been, and a small slit where its mouth should have been. I think it was alive. The medical people were mostly just staring at it...

"After the rest of the gurneys were brought into the room, I was dismissed and told to return to my squadron, which I did. There, I was debriefed and made to sign a nondisclosure statement regarding what had just taken place. I was told that if I ever spoke out about it, something bad would happen, not only to me, but also to my family. I heard later that the one species that was still alive was apparently taken to Alamogordo, then shipped to Texas or Ohio.

The yearbook identifies Benjamin/Benevidez as a private first class in the 390th Air Service Squadron at Roswell, a security unit. He possessed a Top Secret clearance, guarded the B-29s that carried A-bombs, and was a recovery specialist, being called out during plane crashes. (Another controversy concerned his rank, since the Kodachrome documentary identified him as a lieutenant in 1947 instead of a PFC. This may simply have been a misunderstanding between his discharge rank years later vs. his rank in 1947)

Below is an exerpt of Benevidezs' account from the Carey & Schmitt book. In his Sci-Fi program appearance there were some details not present in the book. He mentioned there being a terrible smell at the base hospital, confirming the account of mortician Glenn Dennis & some others of a horrific stench being associated with the alien bodies. He noted seeing a very slight protrusion for a nose instead of just two holes, and seeing the live alien at the base hospital moving slowly from side to side. He estimated he was about 20 feet away at the time. He was quite certain it wasn't human. At the hangar he saw a lot of crash wreckage, which he noted wasn't like normal airplane crash wreckage in that it wasn't burned. This confirms other accounts of crash wreckage also being taken to the same hangar as the bodies.

In the second documenary ("UFOs Declassified"), he says simply the bodies had a smaller form than ours and they had a very unusual smell, one that made you want to vomit.

Carey & Schmitt relate that Benjamin had been on guard duty all night on the flight line and was just returning to his barracks on the morning of Tuesday, July 8. He noticed unusual activity at base headquarters, where base commander Col. William Blanchard regularly held his weekly staff meetings on Tuesday morning, and thought that something was going on. When he got to his barracks, he was assigned to "special duty," told to grab his gun and report to Hangar P-3 (Hangar 84). Benjamin then gave the following account: