Fort Worth Star-Telegram
9 July, 1947
Front page

IDENTIFIED AT ARMY AIR FIELD HERE
New Mexico Rancher's ‘Flying Disk’
Proves To Be Weather Balloon-Kite

A New Mexico rancher's discovery which for several hours Tuesday rocked the disk-conscious nation was identified at Fort Worth Army Air Field Tuesday night as a weather balloon-kite, exploding a rumor that a flying disk finally had been captured.

The contraption, of tinfoil, narrow wooden beams and synthetic rubber that once had been an Army Air Forces Rawin machine used to determine direction and velocity of winds at high altitudes, was flown to FWAAF from Roswell, N. M., Army Air Field by B-29 Tuesday morning.

Here, Brig. Gen. Roger M. Ramey, commanding officer of the 8th Air Force and Col. Thomas J. Dubose, his chief of staff, both identified the discovery as a “weather device” used by the AAF. Warrant Officer Irving Newton of Medford, Mis. [sic], a forecaster at the FWAAF weather station here, positively listed the object as a ray wind [sic] target.

Looks Like Star

When rigged up, Newton stated, the device is six-pointed and looks very much like a star. He said it was silvery in appearance as a result of the tinfoil, and rose in the air like a kite, mounted to a 100-gram balloon.

The balloon expands as it rises into the rarefied atmosphere, Newton said, and usually will reach an altitude of 60,000 feet before bursting and falling to the ground with the kite.

“We use them because they can go so much higher than the eye can see,” Newton explained. A radar set is employed to follow the device, which gives off radar impressions through the tinfoil, he added. Through a process of triangulation the winds aloft are then charted.

Newton said there were some 80 weather stations in the United States using this type of gadget, and it could have come from any of them.

The weather officer said he had sent up kite-balloons identical to this one during the invasion of Okinawa to determine ballistics information for heavy guns.

Colonel Dubose declared that tinfoil objects of the type used on the kite were employed in Europe during bombing missions to throw off German radar. The tinfoil causes huge “blips” on a radar screen, he added.

The same device also was used on life rafts in the Pacific to facilitate air-sea rescue work.

The remains of the weather device were flown here at the command of General Ramey, after their discovery by W. W. Brazell on his ranch, about 85 miles northwest of Roswell, and the subsequent reporting of the incident to authorities at Roswell Army Air Field.

Brazell, whose ranch is 30 miles from the nearest telephone and has no radio, knew nothing about flying discs when he found the remains of the weather device scattered over a square mile of his property three weeks ago.

He bundled together the large pile of tinfoil and broken wooden beams about one-fourth of an inch thick and half-inch wide and the torn mass of synthetic rubber that had been the balloon and rolled it under some brush, according to Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of Houma, La., 509th Bomb Group Intelligence Officer at Roswell, who brought the device to FWAAF.

On a trip to town Saturday night to Corona, N.M., Brazell heard the first reference to the “silver flying disks,” Major Marcel related at General Ramey's headquarters here.

“Brazell then hurried home, and bright and early Sunday, dug up the remnants of the kite balloon,” Marcel continued, “and on Monday headed for Roswell to report his find to the sheriff.”

This resulted in a call to Roswell Army Air Field by the sheriff and to Marcel's being assigned to the case. Marcel and Brazell then journeyed back to the ranch, where the major took the object into custody of the Army.

“The ranch is out in the middle of nowhere,” Marcel declared, “and we spent a couple of hours Monday afternoon looking for any more parts of the weather device. We found a few more patches of tinfoil and rubber.”

Marcel brought back the discovery to Roswell Army Air field early Tuesday morning, and at 8 a.m. reported to his commanding officer, Col. William H. Blanchard, 509th Bomb Group chief. Blanchard, in turn, reported to General Ramey, who ordered the find flown to Fort Worth immediately.

About that time, word broke from Roswell that flying disk finally had been found. In a matter of minutes, wire services across the nation were screaming for news of the discovery and the airwaves were full of the story.

As soon as the “disk” was brought into General Ramey's office, he and Colonel Dubose tabbed it as a weather device. The weather officer on duty at the time, Warrant Officer Newton, merely made identification positive.

Previously, General Ramey in a phone conversation with the Air Material Command at Wright Field, Ohio, had been ordered to fly the “disk” there immediately for observation.When it was positively identified as a Rawin machine, the flight to Wright Field was canceled.

This article contained the photographs below by James Bond Johnson, 1926-2006