BoomerZoo Almanac for July 8-14, 2007: Area 54, where are you?

One of the biggest controversies of the Boomer Age started on July 8, 1947. Did a UFO crash land near Roswell, New Mexico, or didn’t it? Only your hairdresser knows for sure. (Do we still call them hairdressers?)

Roswell Daily Record

In the interests of objectivity befitting someone with an Actual Degree in Journalism, here are both sides of the debate:

From the government:                                                                             

Weather balloon

Government Records:
Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico (Letter Report, 07/28/95, GAO/NSIAD-95-187).

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the 1947 weather balloon crash at Roswell Air Field, New Mexico, focusing on: (1) the requirements for reporting air accidents similar to the Roswell crash; and (2) any government records concerning the Roswell crash.

GAO found that:                                                                                

(1) in 1947, Army regulations required that air accident reports be maintained permanently and although none of the military services filed a report on the Roswell incident, there was no requirement in 1947 to prepare a report on the weather balloon crash;

(2) although some of the records concerning Roswell activities had been destroyed, there was no information available regarding when or under what authority the records were destroyed;

(3) only two government records originating in 1947 have been recovered regarding the Roswell incident;

(4) a 1947 Federal Bureau of Investigations record revealed that the military had reported that an object resembling a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector had been recovered near Roswell; and

(5) a 1947 Air Force report noted the recovery of a flying disc that was later determined by military officials to be a radar-tracking balloon.

From the opposition:

On July 8, 1947 at 5:26 EDT, an Associated Press news wire announced that Roswell Army Air Field had reported recovering a "flying disk"  from a nearby rancher's property, first found "sometime last week," and that it was being flown to "higher headquarters." The curious base press release triggered a national press feeding frenzy. 

(See also: http://www.answers.com/topic/majestic-12; http://www.answers.com/topic/stanton-t-friedman; http://ufo.whipnet.org/roswell/; and http://n6rpf.com-us.net/peebles1.html)

YOU MAKE THE CALL!