Guest Column: Flying discs in the sky

Something weird fell from the sky near Roswell in 1947. However, it did not come from the depths of outer space. It was the remains of a mysterious craft launched from … Alamogordo. Years ago, I was surprised to learn that the man who caused the “Roswell Incident’ was my physics professor at New Mexico Tech, Charlie Moore.

In 1947, as the Cold War began, the United States was rightfully concerned about the Soviet Union’s atomic bomb program. Some scientists came up with the clever idea of putting microphones high up in the sky, to listen for the rumbles of enemy A-bombs, pinpointing their source.

Their top-secret program, called MOGUL, was located in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Moore, then a grad student, launched several elaborate, huge balloon trains from there. The 600-foot-tall contraptions included several metallic-paper radar reflectors, used for tracking. The toy company producing these targets used a curious tape, oddly decorated with fanciful patterns and designs, to reinforce them.

The first balloon launch of the series, on June 4th, 1947, was a failure. That balloon train dropped off radar, and was lost. After several more failed attempts, the ill-fated MOGUL project was abandoned. Other methods, especially seismology, came to be used to monitor atomic tests worldwide.

What does this have to do with an alleged alien spaceship near Roswell? Reports in June of 1947 of strange lights “skipping like saucers” led to the country’s first UFO “flap.” Large financial rewards were offered for recovery of a “flying disk.” Articles about the strange sightings appeared daily.

When rancher Mac Brazel came across the remains of Moore’s June flight -- thousands of shiny metallic bits strewn on his ranch -- he took some samples to the army office in Roswell. An army major, Jesse Marcel, accompanied Brazel to the debris field, and became confident that they had indeed found a “flying disk.” Marcel was convinced by the curious markings found in the wreckage – fanciful patterns and designs.

After Marcel told the media that the army had recovered a Flying Disk, the news went viral, and became a huge story worldwide. General Ramey in Fort Worth demanded that Marcel and the debris be flown there, and a weather officer promptly identified the remains as torn-up radar reflectors and balloon fragments. And that was the end of “Roswell,” until it was revived decades later.

UFO believers have developed a “Cosmic Watergate” mythology, complete with claims of military secrecy, threats against witnesses, and alien autopsies. Saucer proponents say that the “real debris” was whisked off to Wright Field in Ohio, and that the army brought in a flimsy radar reflector as a cover-up. The story goes that Marcel was supposedly humiliated when he was forced to pose with the cover-up “debris.” There’s a problem, however. The story is false.

We know this because of the weather officer who identified the remains as radar target fragments, Irving Newton. He testified under oath that Marcel tried to convince him that the weather-faded markings on the debris on Ramey’s floor were actually “alien writings.” If Marcel knew the “real debris” had been whisked away, why on earth would he try to convince Newton that the cover-up on Ramey’s floor had alien symbols? It just doesn’t add up. The fragments were not an alien spaceship, but simply the remains of a MOGUL flight.

Charlie Moore went on to become a celebrated atmospheric physicist, and taught at New Mexico Tech for decades. His achievements included improving Benjamin Franklin’s design for lightning rods. I am lucky to have been one of his students.

Dave Thomas teaches a class on Science and Pseudoscience at NMT, is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and is president of New Mexicans for Science and Reason.