Enigma Issue 5: Roswell Timeline
Note: Bracketed [] entries are those for which we have only indirect evidence or for which a time slot could not be definately established. This chart is a revised version of the one that appeared in UFO Crash at Roswell.
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TIMELINE OF THE ROSWELL EVENT
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Date/Time | Events at Roswell, N.M. | Events elsewhere
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Tuesday 1st July 1947 |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
| |Sherman Campbell discovers
| | weather balloon debris
| | near Circleville, OH.
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Wednesday 2nd July |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Night | 9:50pm. Mr. & Mrs. Dan Wilmot report |
| oval-shaped UFO moving NW, toward the|
| crash site. William Woody and his |
| father also observe a bright, arching|
| light with a red contrail as they are|
| driving NW of Roswell. |
| Mac Brazel and others hear loud |
| explosion. |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Thursday 3rd July |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Mid- | Mac Brazel, accompanied by 7-year-old|
morning | D. Proctor, discovers a large amount |
| of light-weight, metallic debris on a|
| remote pasture (the debris field). |
| |
Late | Brazel visits his neighbors, the | Aborted V-2 rocket launch
morning | Proctors, and shows them some of the | at White Sands Proving
| material. | Grounds, NM.
| |
Evening | Brazel removes a large, circular |
| piece of debris from the debris field|
| and stores it in a shed. |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Friday 2nd July |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
| Holiday. |1:00-2:00pm. Flying disks
| | observed at Portland, OR.
| | 9:12pm. United Air Lines
| | flight crew watches 9
| | disks over Emmett, ID.
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Saturday 5th July |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
| Brazel goes to Corona, NM, and tells |
| some acquaintances about the find. |
| On the way back he stops again at the|
| Proctors. |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Sunday 6th July |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Morning | Brazel drives to Roswell to visit | [Army Air Force captain
| Sheriff Wilcox. | sees flying disk near
| | Fairfield, CA.
| |
Early | Brazel and Wilcox call Roswell base |1:45pm B-25 crew observes
afternoon | and report the find. | silvery disk over Clay
| | Center, KS.
| |
| Col. Blanchard, Maj. Marcel, and CIC |
| Captain Cavitt arrive at Wilcox's |
| office to interview Brazel. |
| |
Mid- | [Blanchard returns to the base with | [General Ramey alerts the
afternoon | a portion of Brazel's debris and | Pentagon about the find.
| alerts General Ramey in Fort Worth |The Pentagon orders debris
| about the find.] | sent to Fort Worth.]
| |
Late | Marcel and Cavitt accompany Brazel |
afternoon | back to his ranch to go to the debris|
| field. |
| The two deputies return to Sheriff |
| Wilcox, having found an area of |
| blackened ground. |
| |
Evening | 1st flight out. Debris flown to |
| Fort Worth. |
| |
Night | Marcel and Cavitt stay at Brazel's | Col. Alan D. Clark flies
| ranch and examine the large piece | debris in a B-26 from Ft.
| stored in the shed. | Worth to Washington, DC
| | for Gen. McMullen.
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Monday 7th July |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Early | Brazel takes Marcel and Cavitt to |
morning | debris field. |
| |
Daytime | | 11:45am. Koshkonong, WI,
| | flying disk sighting.
| [General Twining makes an unannounced|2:30pm.East Troy,WI. case.
| visit to Kirtland Air Field, near |9:00pm.WilliamRhodes takes
| Albuquerque.] |photograph of flying disk
| | over Phoenix, AZ.
| |
Late | Marcel and Cavitt leave for the | [Debris from Washington
evening | Roswell base after loading their | is sent to Wright Field,
| vehicles with debris. | near Dayton, OH.]
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Tuesday 8th July |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Very early| Marcel stops at his home (2:00am) and|
morning | shows some of the debris to his wife |
| and son before proceeding on to the |
| base. |
| |
Early | Blanchard orders Maj. Easley to post |
morning | guards on the access roads to the |
| debris field. |
| [7:30am] Staff meeting held by |
| Roswell base officers to discuss |
| debris. |
| |
Mid- | 9:00am Cavitt and his assistant M/Sgt|
afternoon | Rickett obtain a staff car and drive |9:30-11:50amSeries of disk
| to Brazel's ranch to pick him up and | sightings by pilots and
| return to the debris field. |officers at Muroc Air Base
| Troops arrive at debris field to | CA.
| begin recovery. |
| [11:00am] Blanchard dictates a press |
| release on the recovery of a flying |
| disk to PIO Walter Haut. |
| |
Mid-day | Haut goes into town to deliver his |
| press release to the radio stations |
| and newspapers. His first stop is at|
| station KGFL, where he gives the |
| release to Frank Joyce. |
| Noon. The information is put on the |
| AP wire. |
| 1st flight in arrives from Washington|
| DC, carrying a special team of photo-|
| graphers and W/O Robert Thomas. |
| William Woody and his father, still |
| curious about their sighting, drive |
| toward Corona. They are turned away |
| by MPs posted on outlying roads. |
| |
Early | News of the recovery spreads as the |
afternoon | story hits the wire services. Phone |
| lines at the base, at the sheriff's |
| office, and at newspaper and radio |
| news offices are tied up. |
| Sheriff Wilcox sends two more |
| deputies to the debris field; they |
| are turned back by MPs. |
| Cavitt and Rickett return to the |
| Roswell base with Brazel. |
| |
Mid- | Brazel is flown back to the debris |
afternoon | field from the base; other planes |
| from Roswell are similarly recon- |
| noitering the area. |
| The impact site is discovered from |
| the air; ground troops are directed |
| toward it. |
| [Barney Barnett and a group of |
| students and archeologists or rock- |
| hunters are already at the impact |
| site and see debris and bodies; they |
| are escorted off by the Army.] |
| Col. Blanchard "goes on leave" from |
| the base, but he actually leaves to |
| visit the debris field. |
| Material has been brought from the |
| debris field and loaded onto a C-54; |
| this 2nd flight out is flown by Capt.|
| Pappy Henderson to Wright Field. | J. Bond Johnson, of the
| 3rd flight out, a B-29, carries | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
| Marcel to Fort Worth Army Air Field. | is told to go to Fort
| A few wrapped packages [of debris] | Worth Army Air Field to
| are also on the plane. |cover a flying disk story.
| |
Late | Clean-up continues at the crash | Marcel arrives in Fort
afternoon | sites. |Worth and confers with Gen
| Brazel is flown back to the base, | Ramey; at some point
| then leaves and is located by Walt | remnants of a balloon are
| Whitmore, Sr., of radio station KGFL,| substituted for the real
| who interviews him about the find. | debris.
| Blanchard visits the debris field |A press conference is held
| and impact site with his staff. |in Ramey's office; Johnson
| A 2nd flight from Washington, DC, | photographs Marcel and
| arrives at the base; Rickett gives | Ramey with the balloon
| the crew a sealed box filled with | remnants; W/O Irving
| debris; the plane returns shortly to | Newton identifies the
| Washington (4th flight out). |material as a balloon with
| The Roswell Daily Record carries | a radar target device
| "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer" story. | attached.
| | Ramey issues a statement
| | claiming that the Roswell
| | officers were fooled and
| |that the material was from
| | a weather balloon.
| |
Early | Sgt. Melvin Brown looks under a tarp |6:17pmMemo from FBI Dallas
evening | on the back of a truck at the impact | office to SAC regarding
| site and sees several alien-looking | weather balloon cover
| bodies. | story.
| Glenn Dennis, a local mortician, is | Ramey gives an interview
| intrigued by several inquiries from |on FortWorth radio station
| the base about tissue preservation | WBAP about the weather
| and the smallest caskets he has | balloon cover story.
| available. |
| Truck carrying the bodies arrives at |
| the base. |
| A preliminary autopsy is attempted at|
| the base hospital by pathologist Dr. |
| Jesse Johnson, Jr. |
| Dennis tries to visit the base |
| hospital but is turned away forcibly;|
| a nurse friend warns him to leave |
| before he gets in trouble. |
| [8:30pm] Barnett returns home to |
| Socorro. |
| |
Night | Capt. John Martin, Sgt. Brown, and |
| other MPs guard a crate containing |
| the bodies that has been placed |
| inside an empty hangar. |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Wednesday 9th July |
----------|--------------------------------------|-------------------
Early | Troops continue clean-up at the crash|
morning | sites. |
| At the base, three C-54's begin to be|
| loaded with crates filled with debris|
| (8:00am). |
| [Senator Dennis Chavez calls Walt |
| Whitmore Sr. to warn him against |
| broadcasting an interview with |
| Brazel; a representative of the FCC |
| threatens to pull his broadcast |
| license.] |
| |
Mid- | Officers from the base locate Brazel |
morning | (who had stayed with Whitmore) and |
| return him to the base for |
| questioning. |
| |
Late | Brazel is taken by the military to |
morning | the office of the Roswell Daily |
| Record, where he gives a revised, |
| sanitized version of the story. |
| [A special secret service envoy |
| representing President Truman arrives|
| from Washington (3rd flight in.)] |
| |
Noon | The crate with bodies is moved from |
| the hangar to Bomb Pit Number One. |
| [Floyd Proctor, Lyman Strickland, |
| and others observe Brazel in town |
| escorted by soldiers.] |
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