give him the film holder
(each holder held two sheets of four-by-five inch cut
film) and then you went to the next spot.
I guess there was ten to twelve officers, and when I got
ready to go in, they'd all come out. The tent was about
twenty by thirty foot. The bodies looked like they was
lying on a tarp. One guy did all the instructions. He'd
take a flashlight and he'd come down there. "See this
flashlight?" Yes sir. "You're in focus with it?" Yes
sir. "Take a picture of this." He'd take the flashlight
away. We just moved around in a circle, taking pictures.
Seemed to me [the bodies] were all just about identical.
Dark complected. I remember they was thin, and it looked
like they had too big of a head. I took thirty shots. I
think I had about fifteen [film] holders. It smelled
funny in there.
A.K. came back in a truck that was loaded down with
debris. A lot of pieces sticking out that wasn't there
when they took off. We got debriefed on the way back to
the airport [Roswell Army Air Field]. About four the
next morning, they woke us, they took us to the mess
hall, we ate, we got back on the B-25 and headed back.
When we got back to Anacostia we got debriefed some
more, by a lieutenant commander. [It was made clear to
both F.B and A.K. that whatever they thought they saw in
New Mexico, they hadn't seen.]
5.6 Robert Porter
[M/Sgt Robert Porter was a B-29 flight engineer with the
830th Bomb Squadron. He happens to be Loretta Proctor's
brother. He was interviewed by Stanton Friedman.]
We flew these pieces. [Some officers in the crew] told
us it was parts of a flying saucer. The packages were in
wrapping paper, one triangle-shaped about two and a half
feet across the bottom, the rest in smaller, shoe
box-sized packages. [They were in] brown paper with
tape. It was just like I picked up an empty package,
very light. The loaded triangle-shaped package and three
shoe box-sized packages would have fit into the trunk of
a car.
On board were Lieutenant Colonel Payne Jennings [deputy
commander of Roswell] and Major Marcel. Captain Anderson
said it was from a flying saucer. We got to Fort Worth,
they transferred [the packages] to a B-25 and took them
to Wright [Field]. When we landed at [Fort Worth],
Colonel Jennings told us to take care of maintenance,
and after a guard was posted, we could eat lunch. We
came back, they told us they had transferred the
material to a B-25. They told us it was a weather
balloon. It WASN'T a weather balloon.
5.7 Robert Shirkey
[First Lieutenant Robert Shirkey was assistant
operations officer of the 509th Bomb Group. He was
interviewed by Stanton Friedman.]
A call came in to have a B-29 ready to go as soon as
possible. Where to? Forth Worth, on Colonel Blanchard's
directive. [I was] in the Operations Office when Colonel
Blanchard arrived and asked if the airplane was ready.
When told it was, Blanchard waved to somebody, and
approximately five people came in the front door, down
the hallway, and onto the ramp to climb into the
airplane, carrying parts of the crashed flying saucer. I
got a very short glimpse, asked Blanchard to turn
sideways so [I] could see too. Saw them carrying pieces
of metal. They had one piece that was eighteen by
twenty-four inches, brushed stainless steel in color.
5.8 Robert Slusher
[S/Sgt Robert Slusher was assigned to the 393rd Bomb
Squadron. On or about July 9, 1947, he was on board a
B-29 that carried a single crate from Roswell AAF to
Fort Worth AAF. Also on board were were four armed MPs.
He said the crate was twelve feet long, five feet wide,
and four feet high. Upon arrival at Fort Worth, the
crate was loaded onto a flatbed weapons carrier and
hauled off, accompanied by the MPs, who later rejoined
the crew for the return flight. Robert Slusher was
interviewed in 1991.]
[There was an implication that the contents of the crate
was sensitive to air pressure, which suggests that the
crate contained something other than pieces of metal.
The plane flew at the unusually low altitude of four to
five thousand feet. Usually on such a trip a B-29 flies
at twenty-five thousand feet, as its cabin is
pressurized and the B-29 flies better at high alititude.
However, the bomb bay where the crate was stowed cannot
be pressurized.]
The return flight was above twenty thousand feet, and
the cabin was pressurized. The round trip took
approximately three hours, fifteen minutes. The flight
was unusual in that we flew there, dropped the cargo,
and returned immediately. It was a hurried flight;
normally we knew the day before there would be a flight.
There was a rumor that the crate had debris from the
crash. Whether there were any bodies, I don't know. The
crate had been specially made; it had no markings.
5.9 Robert Smith
[Robert Smith was a member of the First Air Transport
Unit, which operated Douglas C-54 Skymaster four-engined
cargo planes out of the Roswell AAF. He was interviewed
in 1991.]
A lot of people began coming in all of a sudden because
of the official investigation. Somebody said it was a
plane crash, but we heard from a man in Roswell that it
was not a plane crash, it was something else, a strange
object. There was another indication that something
serious was going on. One night, when we were coming
back to Roswell, a convoy of trucks covered with canvas
passed us. When they got to the [airfield] gate, they
headed over to this hangar on the east end, which was
rather unusual. The truck convoy had red lights and
sirens.
My involvement in the incident was to help load crates
of debris into the aircraft. We all became aware of the
event when we went to the hangar on the east side of the
ramp. There were a lot of people in plain clothes all
over the place. They were inspectors, but they were
strangers on the base. When challenged, they replied
they were here on Project So-and-So, and flashed a card,
which was different from a military ID card.
We were taken to the hangar to load crates. There was a
lot of farm dirt on the hangar floor. We loaded [the
crates] on flatbeds and dollies. Each crate had to be
checked as to width and height. We had to know which
crates went on which plane. We loaded crates on three
[or] four C-54s. We weren't supposed to know their
destination, but we were told they were headed north.
All I saw was a little piece of material. You could
crumple it up, let it come out. You couldn't crease it.
One of our people put it in his pocket. The piece of
debris I saw was two to three inches square. It was
jagged. When you crumpled it up, it then laid back out.
And when it did, it kind of crackled, making a sound
like cellophane. It crackled when it was let out. There
were no creases.
There were armed guards around during loading of our
planes, which was unusual at Roswell. There was no way
to get to the ramp except through armed guards. There
were MPs on the outskirts, and our personnel were
between them and the planes.
The largest [crate] was roughly twenty feet long, four
to five feet high, and four to five feet wide. It took
up an entire plane. It wasn't that heavy, but it was a
large volume. The rest of the crates were two or three
feet long and two feet square or smaller. The sergeant
who had the piece of material said [it was like] the
material in the crates. The entire loading took at least
six, perhaps eight hours. Lunch was brought to us, which
was unusual. The crates were brought to us on flatbed
dollies, which was also unusual.
Officially, we were told it was a crashed plane, but
crashed planes usually were taken to the salvage yard,
not flown out. I don't think it was an experimental
plane, because not too many people in that area were
experimenting with planes. I'm convinced that what we
loaded was a UFO that got into mechanical problems. Even
with the most intelligent people, things go wrong.
[The C-54 into which I helped load the single
twenty-foot crate] would have been Pappy Henderson's. I
remember seeing T/Sgt Harbell Elzey, T/Sgt. Edward
Bretherton, and S/Sgt. William Fortner.
5.10 Melvin Brown's Daughter
[Sergeant Melvin Brown was a cook at Roswell AAF in
1947. One day, he was called out to help guard material
retrieved from the Foster Ranch. His daughter Beverly
was interviewed by Stanton Friedman in 1989.]
When we were young, he used to tell us stories about
things that had happened to him when he was young. We
got to know those stories by heart and would all say
together, "Here we go again."
Sometimes, but not too often, he used to say that he saw
a man from outer space. That used to make us all giggle
like mad. He said he had to stand guard duty outside a
hangar where a crashed flying saucer was stored, and
that his commanding officer said, "Come on, Brownie,
let's have a look inside." But they didn't see anything
because it had all been packed up and [was] ready to be
flown out to Texas.
He also said that one day all available men were grabbed
and that they had to stand guard where a crashed disc
had come down. Everything was being loaded onto trucks,
and he couldn't understand why some of the trucks had
ice or something in them. He did not understand what
they wanted to keep cold. Him and another guy had to
ride in the back of one of the trucks, and although they
were told that they could get into a lot of trouble if
they took in too much of what was happening, they had a
quick look under the covering and saw two dead bodies,
alien bodies.
We really had to giggle at that bit. He said they were
smaller than a normal man, about four feet, and had much
larger heads than us, with slanted eyes, and that the
bodies looked yellowish, a bit Asian-looking. We did not
believe him when we were kids, but as I got older, I did
kind of believe it. Once I asked him if he was scared by
them, and he said, "Hell no, they looked nice, almost as
though they would be friendly if they were alive."
5.11 Pappy Henderson
[Captain Oliver Wendell "Pappy" Henderson was stationed
at Roswell AAF in 1947. He had flown thirty missions in
B-24 Liberator bombers in Europe. He had participated in
the postwar A-bomb tests in the Pacific and earned major
commendations for his flying. Unfortunately, he died
before any UFO investigator could interview him, but
near the end of his life he old some of the people
closest to him about what he had seen in July 1947.]
5.12 Pappy Henderson's Wife
[Sappho Henderson was Pappy Henderson's wife. She was
interviewed by Stanton Friedman.]
We met during World War II when he flew with the 446th
Bomb Squadron. He flew B-24s [on] thirty missions over
Germany. After the war, he returned home and was then
sent to Roswell. While stationed there, he ran the
"Green Hornet Airline", which involved flying C-54s and
C-47s carrying VIPs, scientists, and materials from
Roswell to the Pacific during the atom bomb tests. He
had to have a Top Secret clearance for this
responsibility.
In 1980 or 1981, he picked up a newspaper at a grocery
store where we were living in San Diego. One article
described the crash of a UFO outside Roswell, with the
bodies of aliens discovered beside the craft. He pointed
out the article to me and said, "I want you to read this
article, because it's a true story. I'm the pilot who
flew the wreckage of the UFO to Dayton, Ohio [where
Wright Field is]. I guess now that they're putting it in
the paper, I can tell you about this. I wanted to tell
you for years." Pappy never discussed his work because
of his security clearance.
He described the beings as small with large heads for
their size. He said the material that their suits were
made of was different than anything he had ever seen. He
said they looked strange. I believe he mentioned that
the bodies had been packed in dry ice to preserve them.
[Here is what Sappho Henderson said on the American
television program "Unsolved Mysteries".]
My husband Oliver Henderson, otherwise known as "Pappy"
in the Air Force, he was entrusted with many of this
country's top secrets. And they were safe with him. He
never told anything that he wasn't supposed to. And
therefore it was 34 years after this incident happened
that I heard about it....
My husband told me the bodies were smaller than human
bodies. The heads were larger and the eyes were rather
sunken and a little slanted. Clothing was of material
unlike anything he had seen before. They were strange,
they were not of this earth.
When my husband, who was a man of truth, who was trusted
with 29 different Army aircraft planes, first pilot
aircraft commander, tells me this story, I believed him.
5.13 Pappy Henderson's Daughter
[Mary Kathryn Groode is Pappy Henderson's daughter.]
When I was growing up, he and I would often spend
evenings looking at the stars. On one occasion, I asked
him what he was looking for. He said, "I'm looking for
flying saucers. They're real, you know."
In 1981, during a visit to my parents' home, my father
showed me a newspaper article which described the crash
of a UFO and the recovery of alien bodies outside
Roswell, New Mexico. He told me that he saw the crashed
craft and the alien bodies described in the article, and
that he had flown the wreckage to Ohio. He described the
alien beings as small and pale, with slanted eyes and
large heads. He said they were humanoid-looking, but
different from us. I think he said there were three
bodies.
He said the matter had been Top Secret and that he was
not supposed to discuss it with anyone, but th |