Roswell Daily Record, July 9, 1947 (Afternoon)
Harassed Rancher Who Located 'Saucer' Sorry He Told About It

By Jason Kellahin

ROSWELL, July 9 (AP) -- W. W. Brazel, the New Mexico who was originally thought to have found the nation's first “flying disc” is sorry he said anything about it.

The 48-year-old New Mexican said he was amazed at the fuss made over his discovery.

“If I find anything else short of a bomb it's going to be hard to get me to talk,” he told the Associated Press yesterday.

Brazel's discovery was reported Tuesday by Lt. Warren Haught [sic], Roswell Army Air Field public information officer, as definitely being one of the “flying discs” that have puzzled and worried citizens of 43 states during the past several weeks.

The statement was later discounted by Brig. General Roger Ramey, commanding general of the Eighth Air Force of which the RAAF is a component. Gen. Ramey said Brazel's discovery was a weather radar target.

But Brazel wasn't making any claims. He said he didn't know what it was.

He described his find as consisting of large numbers of pieces of paper covered with a foil-like substance, and pieced together with small sticks much like a kite. Scattered with the materials over an area about 200 yards across were pieces of gray rubber. All the pieces were small.

“At first I thought it was a kite, but we couldn't put it together like any kite I ever saw, ” he said. “It wasn't a kite.”

Brazel related this story:

While riding the range on his ranch 30 miles southeast of Corona, on June 14 he sighted some shiny objects. He picked up a piece of the stuff and took it to the ranch house seven miles away. On July 4, he returned to the site with his wife and two of his children, Vernon, 8, and Bessie, 14. They gathered all the pieces they could find. The largest was about three feet across.

Brazel said he hadn't heard of the “flying discs” at the time, but several days later his brother-in-law, Hollis Wilson, told him of the disc reports, and suggested it might be one.

“When I went to Roswell I told Sheriff George Wilcox about it” he continued. “I was a little bit ashamed to mention it, because I didn't know what it was.”

“Asked the sheriff to keep it kinda quiet,” he added with a chuckle. “I thought folks would kid me about it.”

Sheriff Wilcox referred the discovery to intelligence officers at the Roswell Army Air field, and Major Jesse A. Marcel and a man in civilian clothes whom Brazel was unable to identify went to the ranch and brought the pieces of material to the air field.

“I didn't hear any more about it until things started popping,” said Brazel. “Lord, how that story has traveled!”

Brazel said he did not see the thing before it fell, and it was badly torn up when he found it.

This photo of Mack Brazel was taken by A.P. photographer Robin Adair during Brazel's interview with Kellahin and the Roswell Daily Record. It was wired out by Adair the following morning at 6 a.m., according to one of the stories in the Daily Record, the first ever wirephoto from Roswell.

[Photograph taken by AP photographer Robin Adair.]