EACH YEAR FOR A FEW DAYS AROUND JULY 4, ROSWELL CELEBRATES AND EVALUATES THE MOST FAMOUS UFO EVENT IN HISTORY. (IMAGES BY BRUCE CORDELL.)
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But given the recently high profile of the UFO phenomenon -- Citizen Hearing, scientific meetings at the Vatican and the Royal Society -- and key people speaking at Roswell (e.g., Dr. Jesse Marcel, Jr.), I decided to take the plunge.
This time Roswell not only had elevated temperatures but also an unusually early and intense monsoon. Both may have conspired to bring the crowd down a little although everyone seemed to enjoying themselves.
IN ROSWELL UFO-RELATED GIFT SHOPS AND BOOKSTORES ABOUND. MY FAVORITE WAS "ROSWELL LANDING" WHERE I FOUND A "SPECULATIVE", BUT INTERESTING BOOK BY MATHEMATICIAN AND MUFON STAFFER DON BURLESON, ABOUT HOW J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER, FATHER OF THE A-BOMB, MAY HAVE BEEN DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN UFO CRASH ANALYSES.
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My impression of the Roswell demographics was an interesting combination of the younger family-oriented groups you'd encounter at Disneyland plus the more senior folks who frequent WalMart. If you survey the festival's schedule of events (linked above) you'll see there was something for everyone from eight to eighty.
A LOT OF THE ACTION TOOK PLACE IN THE INTERNATIONAL UFO MUSEUM AND RESEARCH CENTER ON MAIN STREET. I REMEMBER STROLLING THOUGH IT SHORTLY AFTER IT WAS FOUNDED IN 1992. THIS TIME IT WAS MUCH MORE ELABORATE INCLUDING AN AUTOGRAPHED POSTER OF WONDROUS ACTRESS ADRIENNE BARBEAU WHO WAS A CELEBRITY GUEST IN 2010.
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Friday afternoon in the IUFOMRC North Library well-known Roswell authors Tom Carey and Don Schmitt reiterated their contention that over the last 60+ years the U.S. government has fibbed often about UFOs and especially Roswell.
In particular, since 1947 the government has offered 4 different, official explanations of the Roswell event -- the most laughable being a weather balloon! Carey and Schmitt continue to be firmly supportive of the idea that alien bodies were also retrieved at Roswell and expressed particular frustration with the New York Times for showing no interest in witness testimony. Big surprise.
Not being a Roswell expert myself, I've always been curious of what became of Roswell base commander Col. Blanchard who sent out the stunning first, but rapidly countermanded press release that indicated the military had retrieved a crashed flying saucer!
Did it hurt his career?
According to Carey/Schmitt, Blanchard shot up the ladder to the Pentagon and became a 4-star general. Shortly thereafter in May, 1966 Gen. Blanchard died "at his desk" of a massive heart attack, while expecting even brighter things in his sadly aborted future. Imagine what the conspiracy theorists of today's politicized world would make out of that
THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE UFO FESTIVAL FOR ME WAS SATURDAY MORNING AT 9:30 AM IN THE ROSWELL CIVIC CENTER EXHIBIT HALL WHEN JESSE MARCEL, JR., M.D. RECOUNTED HIS STORY OF HOW, AS AN ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD IN 1947, HE PERSONALLY EXAMINED THE DEBRIS FROM THE ROSWELL UFO CRASH. DR. MARCEL AND HIS DAUGHTER ARE PICTURED HERE.
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Marcel comes across exactly like I expected him to: smart, authentic, competent, patriotic, and even very personable. It was quite an experience to hear the most celebrated (publicly speaking) living witness to what was apparently the debris of a crashed alien spacecraft. "The fact that Marcel later earned an M.D. and became a successful practicing physician is relevant to his current testimony about events in 1947 because it indicates he has an excellent eye and memory for details."
Marcel likes to talk about the strange "mathematics-like" symbols on the I-beams, but I find the extraordinary properties of the "foil"-like materials more compelling. The symbols could have been faked by someone trying to simulate a crash site, but I doubt, even today, if the properties of the materials (as described by Dr. Marcel and his father, intelligence officer of the base) could be duplicated.
Dr. Marcel has no doubt personally that the Roswell debris was from a crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft. Listening to him I began to feel the same way, although I still have serious doubts that are not related to Dr. Marcel. They're based on new discoveries in astrophysics which suggest that human-level civilizations and Earth-like planets are so complex and unlikely that even in a Galaxy of 300 billion stars we could be the only custodians of high intelligence.
"While smart aliens still might exist elsewhere they would need exotic transportation concepts (e.g., wormholes) to come here from other galaxies or even other universes, and would be way, way too sophisticated for clumsy Roswell-style crashes in thunderstorms."
The question is: Can we reconcile new insights about the low probability of Earth-style civilizations based on current astrophysics with Dr. Marcel's and others' observations of apparent extraterrestrial technologies and capabilities?
Here are two options (others are possible):
OPTION I. DR. MARCEL IS RIGHT!
"Roswell is due to an ET spacecraft." This implies that astrophysical cautions about high intelligence in our Galaxy are overestimated and high-tech civilizations exist elsewhere in the Milky Way. It also indicates that extremely advanced civilizations from other galaxies or universes also probably exist and we can expect visits from them, if they aren't already here.
OPTION II. DR. MARCEL IS WRONG.
"Roswell debris is not extraterrestrial" and thus is probably due to a secret military project. If other suspected UFO crash sites are likewise not ET spacecraft it's likely that, based on astrophysical insights, we are alone in the Galaxy. Other ultra-advanced extragalactic or extra-universal civilizations may exist and already be here, but would have little in common with us because they are tens- or hundreds- (or more) of thousands of years ahead of us.
"Based on non-secret information, my evaluation of the situation is that both options are still potentially viable. And we need more data to resolve them". (Notice that in either case, we expect extremely advanced civilizations to be here, but they would not be expected to contact us directly.)
A dual track of activities like the Citizen Hearing on Disclosure as well as astrophysical studies that illuminate the origin and development of high intelligence (e.g., extrasolar planets) will eventually reveal these cosmic mysteries to everyone.
