In 1947 a UFO was seen near the town of Roswell, New Mexico. It was witnessed by many of the residents and was described as something not 
of this planet. The government denies any evidence of this event occurring and has covered it up for many years. Now that more information has become available to the public, it is clear that something extraordinary happened. The town of Roswell, New Mexico was the location of many UFO sightings in the later 1940’s and was supposedly the location of a secret military base. Most of the local people had a story or two to tell about their experiences with these sightings, but are now coming forward with stories about how the government threatened them not to speak of the incidents that occurred. Some felt as though their life was endangered if they dared to speak of what they saw. One incident in particular which has sparked a craze in the study of UFO’s is when a flying disk allegedly crashed in the deserts of New Mexico near Roswell on the night of July 8, 1947. According to Roswell expert Henry Ritson, many civilians arrived at the crash scene and witnessed the bodies of alien beings (Roswell Reporter pg. 2).
These witnesses report to have seen humanoid beings with large, pear-shaped heads and bulging black eyes being hauled away by government and military agents and to have been debriefed of the entire occurrence by these agents (Roswell Reporter pg. 3). Some witnesses were threatened not to speak of the incident again. The object in question was later classified by the government as a weather balloon and discounted all evidence and eyewitness reports of the UFO scene (pg. 3). The farmer whose field the UFO crashed in was offered a large sum of money by a local radio station to tell his story on the air. He spoke of strange alien materials and a seemingly invincible square of foil which could not be cut or damaged. He also described the alien beings and the craft in which they traveled (Roswell: What are We Talking About? pg. 2). He was later arrested by the military and held at the government base. The first officer to the crash site, Lt. Jesse Marcel, was told to make a public restatement about the crash scene and report that he had mistaken a weather balloon for a flying saucer (Roswell Reporter pg. 2). 
Pictures were taken of Marcel with the weather balloon and the story died down. Written Recordings of the official statement quote Lt. Marcel as saying, “We were so anxious in our investigation that we mistook what is clearly a weather balloon as some sort of alien space travel device.” (Roswell Reporter pg. 2) After many years of humiliation, Marcel decided to come forward with his story.
He explained that he was forced by the military to change his entire story and that it was no weather balloon at all. This statement made national news and started a chain of UFO sightings from excited UFO enthusiasts (Roswell and Other Government Cover-Ups pg. 4). Most of these sightings were most likely the wild imaginations of these enthusiasts. Lt. Marcel had collected many samples from the crashed object on the day of the crash and shown it to his family. His son was particularly interested in an object which seemingly contained alien writing. The objects were confiscated by the government and the life of Marcel’s son was threatened. His mother was told not to speak of these things or suffer the consequences. If there was nothing but a mere weather balloon involved, the government would have no reason to make these threats. After several years of denying the events, the government was demanded by the public to declassify all of the Roswell records. It was to become public soon after when it was reported that the records had been stolen and were illegally destroyed. All requests for information concerning the events which took place near Roswell were returned with a reply stating that no records exist of the alleged incident. Many requests were made for information concerning the events which took place by a group of individuals who went on to write a newsletter called the Roswell Reporter. Project Bluebook, a government project which contained all UFO reports of that period, contained no records of this incident, despite the fact that it is the most talked about UFO occurrence in history (Roswell Reporter pg. 2). This project became declassified and all records were released to the public (pg. 3). The Roswell incident was not listed in any of them. There is obviously some reason the government does not want the public to know the details of the crash. (Roswell: What are We Talking About? pg. 1) UFO skeptics have alternate theories as to what the crash actually was. One theory is that these objects we see are actually balls of gas or plasma caused by tectonic movement within the earth.
This would still not explain the bodies seen by the eyewitnesses. Another theory is that these aliens do not come from another planet at all. These beings could be from the future or even another dimension. All of these theories may sound far-fetched, but we have no way of disproving them. Even the ancient Indians documented flying objects in scrolls (Ancient Indian Flying Devices pg. 1). They claimed to have built objects for planetary flight and operated them with the ego and soul (pg. 2). These stories were never proven or disproven but the fact remains that the history of flying disks dates back long before the age of modern man (Childress pg. 1). Childress states that not only was there documentation found on these ships, but also stories of interplanetary travel (pg. 3). The government has kept the information about the crash at Roswell, New Mexico a secret. If so many people witnessed this crash from so far away, it would be hard to imagine that the object is a weather balloon. It could have been a secret government experiment gone bad or even a craft from another world. In any case, the public has the right to know the truth. The proof of other intelligent life forms existing in the universe would be a great step in human knowledge. The secrecy surrounding the entire incident makes it seem as if the government has already learned from these beings. Some UFO enthusiasts also believe that the government gets information on new technology from the extraterrestrials. The massive increase in technology in the 1950’s and ’60’s supports this concept. New military aircrafts have shown signs of advanced technology and aerodynamics. The stealth bomber is a good example of this new technology. The controversy about aliens and the incident at Roswell, New Mexico will most likely continue until either alien make contact with humans publically or until the government admits to the cover-ups in Roswell and other UFO sightings. This crash was a very important historical event in the eyes of many, and the government has done a good job of keeping the details of the event a secret. No matter what the object was, it certainly opened the eyes of the public. The people involved in the incident and those who witnessed it are the only ones who know for sure what really happened on that memorable evening. They have been silenced by the government, and may never speak of the events that occurred that night. They are the few who have seen exactly what is out there. The rest may never know.
