Walter Haut died in 2005 at the age of 83.
The loss was as great to the UFO Community as it was to the Town of
Roswell, New Mexico where Haut lived. It can easily be argued that his
actions over almost sixty years helped put Roswell on the map. Those
actions began while he was the Public Information Officer at Walker
Air Force Base in July of 1947.
The base formerly known as Roswell Army
Air Base transferred from the Army to the newly created Air Force in
June of 1947, but was still in a transitional stage in July of 1947
when the UFO Crash occurred. Most people still referred to Walker as
the Roswell Army Air Base at that time. Despite the identity crisis,
there was no doubt about who was in charge. That would be Colonel
William Blanchard, the Base Commander.
Walter Haut says he received a call
from Colonel Blanchard on the morning of July 8, 1947. According to
others that live in Roswell, the two had been lifelong friends. If
that’s correct, it wasn’t surprising that Blanchard took the time
to tell Haut the tale of the Roswell Crashed Saucer. In a 1993
affidavit, Haut says of his conversation with the Colonel:
“I received a call from Col. William
Blanchard, the base commander, who said he had in his possession a
flying saucer or parts thereof. He said it came from a ranch northwest
of Roswell, and that the base Intelligence Officer, Major Jesse
Marcel, was going to fly the material to Fort Worth.”
“Col. Blanchard told me to write a
news release about the operation and to deliver it to both newspapers
and the two radio stations in Roswell. He felt that he wanted the
local media to have the first opportunity at the story. I went first
to KGFL, then to KSWS, then to the Daily Record and finally to the
Morning Dispatch.”
“The next day, I read in the
newspaper that General Roger Ramey in Fort Worth had said the object
was a weather balloon. I believe Col. Blanchard saw the material,
because he sounded positive about what the material was. There is no
chance that he would have mistaken it for a weather balloon. Neither
is their any chance that Major Marcel would have been mistaken. In
1980, Jesse Marcel told me that the material photographed in Gen.
Ramey's office was not the material he had recovered. I am convinced
that the material recovered was some type of craft from outer
space.”
I met Walter Haut on several occasions
in Roswell. While I respected his willingness to come forward as he
has and contribute so much to the town in terms of helping to
establish and promote the UFO Museum, I was always concerned about his
statements. Due to my father’s military service with the Air Force
and my own time spent in the USMC, I always wondered about the events
that allegedly occurred at the Roswell Base when the crash occurred
and the credibility of the witnesses that came forward.
My concerns were wrapped around the
sequence of events that occurred and the way everything was handled by
the top brass at the Roswell Base. I can’t imagine a Base Commander
with the rank of Colonel putting out a press release like the one
Walter Haut was ordered to draft without one or more consults with the
general in overall charge of the Base or someone else at the Pentagon.
The new information from Haut quells
some of my trepidations by placing General Ramey at the Base and in
the mix of original decision making, but also adds another mystery.
Most people like to cast Ramey in the part of the Puppet Master that
ordered the cover-up. If he was present at the meeting held on July 8,
1947 in Roswell, that theory seems unlikely. It would be completely
ridiculous to believe that Blanchard would order a press release with
Ramey’s knowledge saying that they had recovered parts of a crashed
Flying Saucer one moment, than retract everything and completely
change the story a couple of days later. It would be ridiculous unless
Ramey was even smarter than we all thought possible.
General Ramey was deeply involved with
the post World War II Atomic Bomb Project as a member of Army Air Task
Group 1.5 which was responsible for the testing of the A-bomb on
Bikini Atoll. After an air crew chosen by Ramey missed their target
and ruined most of the A-Bomb test results, he managed to spin that
completely around and become the darling of the mass media. Knowing
that the press was unlikely to take on a General or do anything to
make the A-bomb look like anything but a successful weapon that might
challenge the territorial objectives of a very Stalinist Soviet Union,
he simply told Reporters what they wanted to hear. He left any errors
or problems created by his mistakes to be cleaned up by the scientists
involved. None of them would take him on knowing that the government
was where their bread was buttered.
Ramey used a similar tactic to take on
the task of debunking Flying Saucer sightings even before the Roswell
Crash, but he also added a new twist that would serve him well when
that situation fell into his lap. As Commander of the 8th Army Air
Force, he was headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. General Ramey and
Colonel Alfred Kalberer, his Intelligence Chief, went to work on the
famous June 24, 1947, sighting of nine unidentified objects by Kenneth
Arnold. Instead of appearing before the press and offering some
official explanation regarding the sighting, Ramey used Kalberer to
call the Arnold Sighting “Buck Rogers stuff” (Fort Worth Star
Telegram, 7/1/47) and inferred that anyone seeing these things were
probably mistaking distant jet planes for something else.
General Ramey knew jets were new to
most people, including pilots that were no longer with the military,
and probably felt the explanation would do the job without attacking
Arnold’s credibility. Because Arnold was a former military pilot,
distinguished private aviator, respected businessman, a member of the
local Sheriff's "aerial posse" search and rescue team of Ada
County and a relief Federal Marshall, Ramey had to tread carefully.
Instead of attacking Arnold, he
attacked the idea of UFOs as intelligently controlled Alien
Spacecraft. By using Kalberer to casually respond to the saucer
sightings, Ramey intimated that the matter was of no great
consequence. His spin worked very well. The press could speculate all
they wanted as long as they added the tag line that the military felt
there was nothing to it.
After a few more sightings occurred
just before the Roswell Crash, General Ramey and Colonel Alfred
Kalberer continued their onslaught against the idea that UFOs were
anything but misidentified conventional aircraft. They also added a
new twist. As civilians with little or no expertise began to report
saucer sightings, Ramey had Kalberer issue statements which indicated
that the objects were probably figments of people’s imaginations.
One such statement read "we're not being invaded by planes from
Mars" and likened the saucer reports to those of sea serpents (Ft
Worth Star-Telegram, 7/2/47).
In an even more brilliant move, Ramey
had Kalberer stop talking about figments of people’s imagination and
start issuing statements to the press which expressed concern about
the ‘public hysteria’ being created by the saucer sightings. That
introduced the idea that more sightings by more people didn’t
establish the credibility of UFOs as a real phenomenon worthy of
study. Instead, it merely cemented the government claim that reports
by untrained civilians and former military pilots that were no longer
in the briefing loop were causing something unreal to become something
real in the minds of people. This was creating a hysteria that might
deflect from real reports of possible incoming attack aircraft from
hostile nations and end up as a possible danger to commercial and
civilian aviation as well.
Now that we look back at all this,
Ramey had everything in place that he needed to completely and
successfully cover-up the Roswell UFO Crash. By indicating that even
the best pilots and former military officers can sometimes make
mistakes about what they see when not fully or properly briefed and
setting in place the idea that all the saucer reports were creating an
hysteria that Aliens were everywhere, he had the perfect Roswell UFO
Crash cover-up scenario right at his fingertips.
Ramey understood that a cover-up of the
Roswell UFO Crash would require more than just a few catch phrases
about Martians and comparisons to Sea Serpent reports. There were too
many witnesses and too much evidence. He knew that the press was going
to find out about it and quickly descend on Roswell. So the very sharp
General had others under his command tell the world about the crash,
and then stepped up to admit that they had made a mistake shortly
afterward. Major Marcel was picked as the fall guy by default since he
was in charge of the initial investigation.
Ramey’s actions were brilliant from
the standpoint of creating the perfect explanation for the Roswell
Crash. He preserved the integrity of the military, enhanced his own
reputation by coming clean about the alleged error and created
subsequent problems for all past and future UFO reports with his
‘public hysteria‘ and ‘misidentification‘ stories. Given the
manufactured candor that came from the embarrassing admission of
Marcel’s alleged misidentification of the crash material, people
would tend to believe that an honest mistake had been made and soon
forget about the entire event.
The public might also start to
reconsider reports about Flying Saucers that came from even the most
credible people given the simple mistake that a man like Marcel could
make when confronted with something new or different that the
government had developed and failed to fully brief him about. The
alleged radar-reflecting materials shown at the infamous Ramey
‘Oops, we were wrong’ Press Conference provided tangible evidence
that we’re all human (well, maybe not) and make mistakes.
The mere fact that Ramey took on the
job of appearing before Reporters instead of sending an associate and
excused Marcel for his mistake in front of the press sealed his
reputation as a master cover-up artist and media manipulator. Because
he was able to make these decisions so quickly without a misstep and
move the focus away from Roswell to his own command headquarters in Ft
Worth, the press had no time to do their own investigation. Few in the
mass media at that time were likely to challenge military officers
that had already admitted they made a mistake and provided what seemed
like a reasonable explanation.
Ramey’s work also established the
mentality of a cover-up within a cover-up which allows any and all
detractors of the idea that an Alien Spacecraft crashed at Roswell to
simply call it all one big conspiracy theory. He did that by twisting
facts and getting almost everyone involved to go on record as agreeing
with the bogus explanation. If they changed their stories later, it
would make them appear to be part of another cover-up designed to
preserve the reputations of officers that officially screwed up. That
would easily reflect from the government cover-up. Again, brilliant.
In 2002, Walter Haut left us his final
statements about the events that occurred around the time of the crash
through an updated affidavit: “In July, 1947, I was stationed at the
Roswell Army Air Base in Roswell, New Mexico, serving as the base
Public Information Officer. I had spent the 4th of July weekend
(Saturday, the 5th, and Sunday, the 6th) at my private residence about
10 miles north of the base, which was located south of town.”
“I was aware that someone had
reported the remains of a downed vehicle by midmorning after my return
to duty at the base on Monday, July 7. I was aware that Major Jesse A.
Marcel, head of intelligence, was sent by the base commander, Col.
William Blanchard, to investigate.”
“By late in the afternoon that same
day, I would learn that additional civilian reports came in regarding
a second site just north of Roswell. I would spend the better part of
the day attending to my regular duties hearing little if anything
more.”
“On Tuesday morning, July 8, I would
attend the regularly scheduled staff meeting at 7:30 a.m. Besides
Blanchard, Marcel; CIC [Counterintelligence Corp] Capt. Sheridan
Cavitt; Col. James I. Hopkins, the operations officer; Lt. Col.
Ulysses S. Nero, the supply officer; and from Carswell AAF in Fort
Worth, Texas, Blanchard's boss, Brig. Gen. Roger Ramey and his chief
of staff, Col. Thomas J. Dubose were also in attendance. The main
topic of discussion was reported by Marcel and Cavitt regarding an
extensive debris field in Lincoln County approx. 75 miles NW of
Roswell.”
“A preliminary briefing was provided
by Blanchard about the second site approx. 40 miles north of town.
Samples of wreckage were passed around the table. It was unlike any
material I had or have ever seen in my life. Pieces which resembled
metal foil, paper thin yet extremely strong, and pieces with unusual
markings along their length were handled from man to man, each voicing
their opinion. No one was able to identify the crash debris.”
“At approximately 9:30 a.m. Col.
Blanchard phoned my office and dictated the press release of having in
our possession a flying disc, coming from a ranch northwest of
Roswell, and Marcel flying the material to higher headquarters. I was
to deliver the news release to radio stations KGFL and KSWS, and
newspapers the Daily Record and the Morning Dispatch.”
“By the time the news release hit the
wire services, my office was inundated with phone calls from around
the world. Messages stacked up on my desk, and rather than deal with
the media concern, Col Blanchard suggested that I go home and
"hide out."
“Before leaving the base, Col.
Blanchard took me personally to Building 84 [AKA Hangar P-3], a B-29
hangar located on the east side of the tarmac. Upon first approaching
the building, I observed that it was under heavy guard both outside
and inside. Once inside, I was permitted from a safe distance to first
observe the object just recovered north of town. It was approx. 12 to
15 feet in length, not quite as wide, about 6 feet high, and more of
an egg shape. Lighting was poor, but its surface did appear metallic.
No windows, portholes, wings, tail section, or landing gear were
visible.”
“Also from a distance, I was able to
see a couple of bodies under a canvas tarpaulin. Only the heads
extended beyond the covering, and I was not able to make out any
features. The heads did appear larger than normal and the contour of
the canvas suggested the size of a 10 year old child. At a later date
in Blanchard's office, he would extend his arm about 4 feet above the
floor to indicate the height.”
“I was informed of a temporary morgue
set up to accommodate the recovered bodies. I was informed that the
wreckage was not "hot" (radioactive). Upon his return from
Fort Worth, Major Marcel described to me taking pieces of the wreckage
to Gen. Ramey's office and after returning from a map room, finding
the remains of a weather balloon and radar kite substituted while he
was out of the room. Marcel was very upset over this situation. We
would not discuss it again.”
“I would be allowed to make at least
one visit to one of the recovery sites during the military cleanup. I
would return to the base with some of the wreckage which I would
display in my office. I was aware two separate teams would return to
each site months later for periodic searches for any remaining
evidence. I am convinced that what I personally observed was some type
of craft and its crew from outer space.”
How do we reconcile the differences
between the two statements? It’s now obvious that Haut saw he was
probably in a no win situation regardless of what he said. Exactly the
place that Ramey intended him and any others that decided to become
whistle blowers to be. Like Jesse Marcel Sr. and others that have come
forward, Haut had a lot to lose by talking too much and that might
have included his life. More than a few government whistleblowers have
been shot or killed after they crossed whatever imaginary line the
Government has created for people that talk too much.
Although we no longer have Walter Haut
with us, he has had the last laugh when it comes to challenging
excessive government secrecy by reaching out from the grave with these
stunning revelations.