.

AFFIDAVIT OF ARTHUR R. MCQUIDDY

(1)  My name is Arthur R. McQuiddy

(2)  My address is:  XXXXXXXXXX

(3)  I am employed as: __________________________________,( ) retired

(4)  In July 1947, I was editor of the Roswell Morning Dispatch, one of the

two newspapers here at the time.  In 1948, I left the paper to become public relations director of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association and later joined U.S. Stell as director of media relations.  About eleven years ago I returned to Roswell after retiring as senior vice president for corporate relations at International Harvester.

(5)  Just before noon one day early in July 1947, Walter Haut, the public relations officer at Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF), brough a press release to me in the Dispatch office.  The release said a crashed flying saucer had een found, taken to RAAF, and sent on to another base.

(6)  Haut had been to the two local radio stations, KGFL and KSWS, before coming to the Dispatch, so I gave him a bad time about that.   Haut said the base policy was to rotate who got releases first to make sure everyone got a ir shake.  We were a morning apper, so our edition for that day had long since hit the street, but I was disappointed at not being able to break the story on the Associated Press wire.  George Walsh, the program manager at KSWS, had already moved the story on AP.

(7)  Not long after Haut left, a call came from RAAF.  The caller said the release was incorrect, that what had been though to be the wreckage of a flying saucer was actually the remains of a radiosonde balloon.  However, the AP wire story had gotten the world's attention.  I spent the rest of the afternoon taking long distance calls from overseas news editors.  I remember calls from Rome, London, Paris, and Hong Kong.

(8)  Colonel William H. ("Butch") Blanchard, commander of RAAF and its 509th Bomb Group, was a good friend of mine.  We often got together for a drink and off the record discussions of base-town relations and the like.  After the flying saucer incident, I tried several times to get Blanchard to tell me the real story, but he repeatedly refused to talk about it.

(9)  About three or four months after the event, when we were a bit more "relaxed" than usual, I tried again.  Blanchard reluctantly admitted he had authorized the press release.  Then, as best I remember, he said, "I will tell you this and nothing more.  The stuff I saw, I've never seen anyplace else in my life."  That was all he would say, and he never told me anything else about the matter,

(10)  I have not been paid or given anything of value to make this statement, and it is the truth to the best of my recollection.

Signed:  Arthur R. McQuiddy

Oct. 19, 1993

Signature witnessed by:

Charlotte Y. Gipson, 10-19-93

[Source:   Karl Pflock, Roswell in Perspective, 1994]