What do you think?
Rate this book
The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell
A spacecraft crashed near Roswell, NM, on 7/4/47. This book contains never-before printed, 1st-hand accounts from credible witnesses, including members of the local medical, law-enforcement, military & scientific communities. Eyewitnesses describe five extraterrestrial beings, the interior of their ship & loose pieces of debris with inexplicable properties. Five aliens were found amidst the wreckage. The descriptions of the bodies--including a doctor's autopsy report--offer intriguing new insights into alien anatomy & may present clues to their homeworld. The interior of the craft was bordered with indecipherable purple hieroglyphics. Pieces of the wreckage were tested by various witnesses who confirm the debris was unlike anything seen before: metal that acted like elastic, returning to its original shape after being crushed; foil-thin metals that dissipated heat & wouldn't melt or scorch at any temperature. The site was 1st discovered by a young man & his girlfriend on a weekend camping trip. A group of archeologists searching for Native American artifacts arrived a short time later. When the military arrived, the archeologists were held for questioning & sworn to secrecy. The remains of the ship were packed up along with the crew & shipped to an air base. The area was cleared & a coverup began. The 1st reports of the crash made world news. Then the army contradicted the early accounts, officially announcing that the debris was simply a downed weather balloon. This explanation discredited, the crash has, over the years, been variously declared to be a Japanese balloon bomb, a V-2 rocket, an experimental flying-wing & an unmanned American spaceship. The authors, who've devoted years to researching the incident, conclusively demonstrate that none of the mundane explanations sufficiently account for the facts.
265 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1994
About the author
Kevin D. Randle
146 books30 followersUfologist and historic fiction & science fiction writer.
Within the UFO community he is often regarded as one of the preeminent experts on the reported crash of a UFO near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947.
A professional writer with more than 80 books to his credit, Randle is perhaps best known for his books about UFOs and the Roswell story.
Within the UFO community he is often regarded as one of the preeminent experts on the reported crash of a UFO near Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947.
A professional writer with more than 80 books to his credit, Randle is perhaps best known for his books about UFOs and the Roswell story.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 21, 2024
A SIGNIFICANT “UPDATING” OF THEIR 1991 BOOK ON ROSWELL
Kevin Douglas Randle (born 1949) is a prominent ufologist and author of science fiction, and a veteran of both the Vietnam War (Army), and the Iraq War (Iowa National Guard), as well as being a retired Captain of the U.S. Air Force. Donald R. Schmitt is the former co-director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies.
The ’Authors’ Statement’ at the beginning of this 1994 book explains, “The Roswell investigation is ongoing and because of that, things have been added, changed and reviewed. We have had the rare opportunity to correct errors in the original manuscript, add data collected after the publication of the hardback book, and obtain additional corroboration for the main report. This then, is the story of Roswell told as completely as possible at this time. In the future there will be minor changes, deletions, and additional corroboration. But what follows is the complete story of an alien spacecraft recovered outside of Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947.”
They note, “There has been some discussion recently about the veracity of the [B. Gen. Arthur] Exon statements. It has been suggested that Exon was a student at Wright Field during July 1947, or that he was off the base during the critical days early in the month. But both criticisms are irrelevant. Although assigned as a student at the Air Force Institute of Technology in July 1947, he had been assigned to the headquarters staff, Air Materiel Command, Until August 1946, and after graduation he was the Chief of the Maintenance Data Section at Wright Field… Although it is possible Exon was off station during the critical July Fourth weekend, attending, as some claim, a conference, that doesn’t matter. He was assigned to the base and returned after the conference had ended. He was, according to the documentation, in a position to hear of the crash and learn that material was arriving for analysis. It had not been suggested that he met the airplanes, nor was it suggested that he performed any of the analytical work.” (Pg. 75-76)
They assert, “At Roswell the government went after everyone who knew anything with threats of prison or death. Agents threatened entire families, expressing a willingness to murder children. If such a report had come from a single individual, a case could be made that the person had overreacted… But these reports came from several individuals who, though unaware of comparable testimony from others, told strikingly similar stories. What made the events at Roswell so different that the government felt it was necessary to threaten its own citizens?... What made the events so different that officials believed it was necessary to remind the men and women in the military of their oaths and their obligation to keep secrets? If there were no other information about the Roswell case, this would be sufficient to generate questions.” (Pg. 90-91)
They explain, “The point, however, is that we can take the testimonies of the two men and the documentation, and reconstruct, with a fair amount of accuracy, exactly what happened on July 8 and 9, 1947. We can do it because we are dealing with recent history. We have the men who were involved, and just as important, we have a written record from the time frame. Without those two items, we would be left to speculate.” (Pg. 100-101)
They state, “we can now document that there was a secret project that investigated UFOs, that it had nothing to do with Project Blue Book, and that it was designed with retrieval of material in mind. After 1953, Blue Book evolved into a public relations outfit, and by the time Blue Book was closed in 1969, its headquarters was not Intelligence, but the Office of Information.” (Pg. 121)
They acknowledge, “[W. Curry] Holden, when interviewed in 1992, said that he had been there. He could remember no specific detail about the event, other than that he had been there and had seen it all. Each time the question was asked during the short meeting, he confirmed that he had seen it all. Later, both his wife and daughter said that he was easily confused. Memories from his life were jumbles and reordered, and he had never mentioned, to either one, that he had been involved in a flying saucer crash. But Holden had been asked the question three separate times… yet he always responded that he had been on the impact site.” (Pg. 131)
They note, “There are those who have suggested that the wreckage was the result of an experimental aircraft accident. The aircraft, according to the speculation, may have been an early jet that Marcel and the officers of the 509th might not have known about. But at the very least, the debris would have been recognizable as something that had been manufactured on earth.” (Pg. 158)
They explain, “Other types of balloons, experimental aircraft, rockets and missiles, and secret projects of all sorts have been suggested as alternative explanations for the crash at Roswell. Ignoring, for the moment, the fact that no one has been able to produce any documentation that conclusively proves this, an examination of all the testimony will eliminate all these explanations. To make any one of them work, it is necessary to reject the EYEWITNESS testimony from multiple sources. When all the facts are examined, such alternatives slide beneath the waves. Any of the alternatives might be acceptable if there were no witnesses to the crash. Prior to this work, the conventional wisdom had always been that no one saw the crash. The debris had been found already on the ground by Mac Brazel. Searches initiated after the fact located the remainder of the craft and the bodies. But sources at several locations witnessed the crash…” (Pg. 166-167)
Later, they add, “If [Jim] Ragsdale had been the sold witness to the crash site, there might be room for interpretation of it. But others who were at the impact site have corroborated Ragsdale’s eyewitness account.” (Pg. 173)
They state in the Afterword, “This book is going to annoy a large number of people. We are taking the conventional wisdom about the Roswell UFO crash and tossing it out. We are beginning again, using the testimony and the documentation that we have been able to discover during the last four years of intensive investigation. But what has been more distressing … is the reaction of those who claim to be interested in the truth. Rather than wait to see the evidence and have an opportunity to evaluate it, some are already attacking it, labeling various witnesses as liars and suggesting that there is no corroboration for the testimony…” (Pg. 217)
They continue, “Take the date of the event, for example. For years people have been claiming the crash took place on July 2, 1947. No one questioned the date… it is wrong… Better information… suggests that the crash took place on July 4. Of course, this generates the question of why anyone should accept the new date over the old one. First, there is a written record… Second, there is the testimony of a number of eyewitnesses… When the information is examined, it is clear that the July 2 date is in error and that the new date is accurate… it is rejected by those who don’t want to hear the truth.” (Pg. 217-218)
Perhaps surprisingly, they assert about the Majestic 12/MJ-12 documents, “forgeries they are. Without any type of provenance, without some independent corroboration, without good evidence for the questions that have been asked, no other conclusion is possible. The MJ-12 committee never existed as such, and the documents relating to it are fakes… with the internal inconsistencies in the documents, it is up to those claiming them authentic to prove the case. Regardless of what is claimed by the proponents, they have failed to do so.” (Pg. 234-235)
This book will be of great interest to those studying UFOs, Roswell, MJ-12, and related issues.
Kevin Douglas Randle (born 1949) is a prominent ufologist and author of science fiction, and a veteran of both the Vietnam War (Army), and the Iraq War (Iowa National Guard), as well as being a retired Captain of the U.S. Air Force. Donald R. Schmitt is the former co-director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies.
The ’Authors’ Statement’ at the beginning of this 1994 book explains, “The Roswell investigation is ongoing and because of that, things have been added, changed and reviewed. We have had the rare opportunity to correct errors in the original manuscript, add data collected after the publication of the hardback book, and obtain additional corroboration for the main report. This then, is the story of Roswell told as completely as possible at this time. In the future there will be minor changes, deletions, and additional corroboration. But what follows is the complete story of an alien spacecraft recovered outside of Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947.”
They note, “There has been some discussion recently about the veracity of the [B. Gen. Arthur] Exon statements. It has been suggested that Exon was a student at Wright Field during July 1947, or that he was off the base during the critical days early in the month. But both criticisms are irrelevant. Although assigned as a student at the Air Force Institute of Technology in July 1947, he had been assigned to the headquarters staff, Air Materiel Command, Until August 1946, and after graduation he was the Chief of the Maintenance Data Section at Wright Field… Although it is possible Exon was off station during the critical July Fourth weekend, attending, as some claim, a conference, that doesn’t matter. He was assigned to the base and returned after the conference had ended. He was, according to the documentation, in a position to hear of the crash and learn that material was arriving for analysis. It had not been suggested that he met the airplanes, nor was it suggested that he performed any of the analytical work.” (Pg. 75-76)
They assert, “At Roswell the government went after everyone who knew anything with threats of prison or death. Agents threatened entire families, expressing a willingness to murder children. If such a report had come from a single individual, a case could be made that the person had overreacted… But these reports came from several individuals who, though unaware of comparable testimony from others, told strikingly similar stories. What made the events at Roswell so different that the government felt it was necessary to threaten its own citizens?... What made the events so different that officials believed it was necessary to remind the men and women in the military of their oaths and their obligation to keep secrets? If there were no other information about the Roswell case, this would be sufficient to generate questions.” (Pg. 90-91)
They explain, “The point, however, is that we can take the testimonies of the two men and the documentation, and reconstruct, with a fair amount of accuracy, exactly what happened on July 8 and 9, 1947. We can do it because we are dealing with recent history. We have the men who were involved, and just as important, we have a written record from the time frame. Without those two items, we would be left to speculate.” (Pg. 100-101)
They state, “we can now document that there was a secret project that investigated UFOs, that it had nothing to do with Project Blue Book, and that it was designed with retrieval of material in mind. After 1953, Blue Book evolved into a public relations outfit, and by the time Blue Book was closed in 1969, its headquarters was not Intelligence, but the Office of Information.” (Pg. 121)
They acknowledge, “[W. Curry] Holden, when interviewed in 1992, said that he had been there. He could remember no specific detail about the event, other than that he had been there and had seen it all. Each time the question was asked during the short meeting, he confirmed that he had seen it all. Later, both his wife and daughter said that he was easily confused. Memories from his life were jumbles and reordered, and he had never mentioned, to either one, that he had been involved in a flying saucer crash. But Holden had been asked the question three separate times… yet he always responded that he had been on the impact site.” (Pg. 131)
They note, “There are those who have suggested that the wreckage was the result of an experimental aircraft accident. The aircraft, according to the speculation, may have been an early jet that Marcel and the officers of the 509th might not have known about. But at the very least, the debris would have been recognizable as something that had been manufactured on earth.” (Pg. 158)
They explain, “Other types of balloons, experimental aircraft, rockets and missiles, and secret projects of all sorts have been suggested as alternative explanations for the crash at Roswell. Ignoring, for the moment, the fact that no one has been able to produce any documentation that conclusively proves this, an examination of all the testimony will eliminate all these explanations. To make any one of them work, it is necessary to reject the EYEWITNESS testimony from multiple sources. When all the facts are examined, such alternatives slide beneath the waves. Any of the alternatives might be acceptable if there were no witnesses to the crash. Prior to this work, the conventional wisdom had always been that no one saw the crash. The debris had been found already on the ground by Mac Brazel. Searches initiated after the fact located the remainder of the craft and the bodies. But sources at several locations witnessed the crash…” (Pg. 166-167)
Later, they add, “If [Jim] Ragsdale had been the sold witness to the crash site, there might be room for interpretation of it. But others who were at the impact site have corroborated Ragsdale’s eyewitness account.” (Pg. 173)
They state in the Afterword, “This book is going to annoy a large number of people. We are taking the conventional wisdom about the Roswell UFO crash and tossing it out. We are beginning again, using the testimony and the documentation that we have been able to discover during the last four years of intensive investigation. But what has been more distressing … is the reaction of those who claim to be interested in the truth. Rather than wait to see the evidence and have an opportunity to evaluate it, some are already attacking it, labeling various witnesses as liars and suggesting that there is no corroboration for the testimony…” (Pg. 217)
They continue, “Take the date of the event, for example. For years people have been claiming the crash took place on July 2, 1947. No one questioned the date… it is wrong… Better information… suggests that the crash took place on July 4. Of course, this generates the question of why anyone should accept the new date over the old one. First, there is a written record… Second, there is the testimony of a number of eyewitnesses… When the information is examined, it is clear that the July 2 date is in error and that the new date is accurate… it is rejected by those who don’t want to hear the truth.” (Pg. 217-218)
Perhaps surprisingly, they assert about the Majestic 12/MJ-12 documents, “forgeries they are. Without any type of provenance, without some independent corroboration, without good evidence for the questions that have been asked, no other conclusion is possible. The MJ-12 committee never existed as such, and the documents relating to it are fakes… with the internal inconsistencies in the documents, it is up to those claiming them authentic to prove the case. Regardless of what is claimed by the proponents, they have failed to do so.” (Pg. 234-235)
This book will be of great interest to those studying UFOs, Roswell, MJ-12, and related issues.
March 23, 2015
After visiting with his brother Tom in San Francisco, I headed to Michael's place in Sonoma. The three of us had gone to high school together, shared an apartment in Chicago and continued close connections since they moved away to California. Some of this connectedness was predicated upon sharing books.
While Tom, recently immersed in the study of biology, had urged life sciences books upon me during my stay in the city, Michael, once an editor of UFO Magazine, had recommended books from his library about UFO theories. These have always been light, fun reads.
Randle's book likely was, at the time of its publication, the best book about the Roswell incident. Roswell is like an onion. Some of the story is entirely evident. The military did announce to the wire services the capture of an alien craft and then retracted their account with a variety of alternative explanations over the years. Other portions are less certain. A large number of eye-witnesses, including military personnel, have vouched for the alien debris story. A smaller number of eye-witnesses have mentioned the recovery of alien bodies. There is even hear-say evidence for autopsies performed on some of them and of one of them being recovered alive. Randle puts all of these accounts together into a single narrative.
Having read several books now about Roswell, I have myself no firm opinion--certainly not as firm as Randle's. Something happened of enough importance that the government has more-or-less incompetently tried to explain it away in the decades following. That and the history of that I know. Beyond this, I've no firm opinion.
While Tom, recently immersed in the study of biology, had urged life sciences books upon me during my stay in the city, Michael, once an editor of UFO Magazine, had recommended books from his library about UFO theories. These have always been light, fun reads.
Randle's book likely was, at the time of its publication, the best book about the Roswell incident. Roswell is like an onion. Some of the story is entirely evident. The military did announce to the wire services the capture of an alien craft and then retracted their account with a variety of alternative explanations over the years. Other portions are less certain. A large number of eye-witnesses, including military personnel, have vouched for the alien debris story. A smaller number of eye-witnesses have mentioned the recovery of alien bodies. There is even hear-say evidence for autopsies performed on some of them and of one of them being recovered alive. Randle puts all of these accounts together into a single narrative.
Having read several books now about Roswell, I have myself no firm opinion--certainly not as firm as Randle's. Something happened of enough importance that the government has more-or-less incompetently tried to explain it away in the decades following. That and the history of that I know. Beyond this, I've no firm opinion.
November 22, 2013
The third book in what is essentially the Roswell trilogy (Roswell Incident, UFO crash at Roswell, and this one), this one finally straightens out a lot of the loose ends and gets the timeline right. I love what a circus the crash site was at 5:30 am on July 5 1947 with all these people beating the military to get there. The only thing the book doesn't have is information about what happened to the one living occupant of the crash after it was seen walking into the base, assuming that part is true. If anybody ever says they don't believe in aliens or UFOs, this book and its predecessor are the rebuttal. Dozens of eyewitness testimony fill these pages, and the authors frequently mention that if this were a court-room trial, the preponderance of evidence is overwhelming. But what really got me reading this book was not the ironing out of details about the crash and recovery operation, but rather the chapter on the death threats the military made to so many of the witnesses, both in 1947 and during Randle and Schmidt's investigation in the early 90s. And they weren't just threats, as the death of the nurse shows. This isn't government for the people, by the people.
July 16, 2009
A very interesting and convincing collection of evidence that makes your mind work as you read it. It definitely made me think twice that maybe all wasn't as it seemed in Roswell....
Want to Read
January 22, 2010Library
February 6, 2013
Ignoring the fact that this was a weather balloon and all of the major witnesses to the so-called "event" interviewed in this book have since proven to be unreliable, this is a fun read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews