2 posts tagged “roswell”

Let’s face it. Boomers are big on conspiracy theories, such as the supposed cover-up of the Roswell UFO matter featured in the BoomerZoo Almanac for the week of June 24. We didn’t invent conspiracy theories, of course—the Roswell incident occurred in 1947, when we hadn’t quite boomed as a group—but we’re really good at inventing new ones, while keeping as many old ones as possible alive. I’m sure our forebears would have been our equals in this matter, but they didn’t have our easy communication benefits: Photocopiers, email, the Internet.

Another conspiracy theory built by Boomers down the road from the event has to do with Marilyn Monroe, who

Marilyn Monroe

was found dead in her L.A. apartment apparently of a prescription medication overdose on August 5, 1962. As we grew older and stories about a relationship between President John F. Kennedy and Marilyn began to leak out, the idea of the Kennedys arranging Marilyn’s death in order to keep that relationship secret began to take shape, persisting through the power of those easy communication benefits.

Now, I’m not a big fan of conspiracy theories – after all, I hardly know any one single person who can keep a secret, much less a whole government bureaucracy worth of people. And beside that, I just prefer to maintain my illusion that most people—even most famous people—are generally good.

Goodbye Norma Jean
Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself
While those around you crawled
They crawled out of the woodwork
And they whispered into your brain
They set you on the treadmill
And they made you change your name

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would have liked to have known you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did

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)

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