On June 14, 1947, W.W. Brazel and his son Vemon found the crashed balloon, and didn't think anything of it. Later he heard about "flying discs" which were all over the media at that time. Brazel went to Roswell on July 7 to buy supplies, and while there, he stopped off at the Sheriff and told him about the balloon. The Sheriff then told Major Jesse Marcel who went to the Brazel ranch and picked up the pieces of the crashed balloon. It was so trivial, it was not even worthy of mention. The newspaper attempted to turn it into a story but the following day, they retracted it. The headline of the July 8 edition of the Roswell Daily Record said, "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region". The next day Brigadier General Roger Ramey announced that it was a weather balloon. The July 8 edition of the newspaper said, "Ramey Empties Roswell Saucer" and "Harassed Rancher Who Located 'Saucer' Sorry He Told About It". Then it was forgotten completely. Considering the enormous popularity of "flyings discs" in the late 1940's, this was not even worthy of mention. There were 16 sightings of flyings discs between May 17 and July 12, 1947. People at the time would not have listed Roswell among them since it was so quickly explained. The only mystery is why this nonevent became to UFO belief what the Crucifixion is to Christianity. I think the main reasons is because the balloon wreckage did look different than normal balloon wreckage since it was part of Project Mogul. Also, the authorities would be less than candid since it was part of a top secret military project. In making it, they used tape from a toy company which had flowers on it which were later mistaken for hieroglyphics. It remained unknown until William Moore and Charles Berlitz, who also popularized the Bermuda Triangle, wrote "The Roswell Incident" in 1980. The supposed witnesses who are interviewed regarding this case have a very obvious motivation to lie. They get to be famous. They get to be part of this huge thing. There's a lot of people who would love to be part of a huge famous thing. I think a lot of people who lined the freeways during O.J. Simpson's freeway chase, just wanted to be part of a huge famous thing.

The Roswell story goes to a major aspect of UFO stories that I haven't mentioned yet, that of government conspiracy and government agents. Stories of UFO abductions often don't end when the aliens tuck the person back in their bed. Shortly thereafter, a long black limosine with tinted windows pulls up in front of their house. Then four burly stonefaced men in black suits and sunglasses exit simultaneously. They silently walk up to the person. One of them says never to breathe one word of their experience to anyone. The men silently leave. UFO stories include the belief that the government knows all about it, and there's a big government conspiracy to hush it up. To a large extent, this is because of the story of Roswell. However, it has a logic beyond that. During the depths of the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union were bristling with nuclear weapons pointed at each other. If hypothetically, a Soviet jet flew over Alaska, we would unleash nuclear holocaust. Could you imagine the American government being unaware if a Soviet jet flew over American airspace? People assumed that the government would have to know about any vehicle entering our airspace. Therefore the government would have to know about all of the UFO's. A science-fiction writer would explain this away by saying that the aliens possess technology that enables them to avoid detection while the Soviets do not. However, UFO fanatics lack such skill at inventing stories, and assumed the government would have to know about it. This leads to another contradiction which is if we have made contact with aliens, why hasn't a big deal been made of it? Why isn't it on news? UFO fanatics explain this by saying that there's a huge government conspiracy to keep it a secret. This then raises the question as to why would they want to keep it as a secret? Maybe they don't want to set off a panic. Maybe the aliens are the enemy, and you don't want the enemy to know how much you know. Maybe they want to get technology from the aliens to use against the Soviets. The most sinister explanation is that our government is in league with evil aliens or is somehow controlled by them.

There are people who enter ufology from the direction of conspiracy theories. These are the people into JFK conspiracy theories, and claim that the United Nations secretly rules the world through black helicopters and jack booted thugs. These people are psychologically similar to right wing militia groups. Some of them claim that there exists a secret government agency called Majestic 12, that is either fighting the aliens or helping them. They also say that our government flies around captured UFO's in Area 51. They tend to believe that the aliens are evil, but the real bad guys are the American government. There are other people who enter ufology from the direction of New Age belief. These are people into the Mother Earth Goddess, quasi-eastern mysticism like karma, and cosmic one-ness. These people are psychologically similar to hippies. Some of them concede that crop circles are made by people but go on to say, "but of course it's inspired by the Goddess". They tend to believe that the aliens are good, and they come to help us, and urge us to stop killing each other, destroying the environment, etc. Since the first group is ultra-right wing, and the second group is ultra-left wing, you might expect for them to be at odds, but I'm not aware of any conflict. Of course, they exist outside normal political discourse, to say the least. There are other people who enter ufology from the direction of science-fiction. There has always been a thin line between science-fiction and UFO's. The two subjects have obviously influenced each other greatly. UFO fanatics don't really think UFO's are actually real, they just pretend to. Some sci-fi fans get so totally into it, that they do the same thing. There are Star Trek fans who pretend to be characters on the show, so it's not a big leap to go from that to UFO's. With fans of "X-Files", it's difficult to determine to what extent they admit it's a fictional show. There are a small number of people who enter ufology from the direction of Christianity. UFO belief and Christianity seem like very different belief systems. Both say that powerful otherworldly guys have visited us and influenced us. There are two ways of combining UFO's and Christianity. The more common way is to say that what had been misinterpreted as angels, demons, or even God, were really aliens. The story of Ezekiel's Wheel is a favorite example often cited. The second less common way is to say that what is currently being mistaken for aliens and UFO's are actually angels, demons, or God. This view is called "Christian Ufology". This leads into the last and smallest group of UFO nuts, which are the UFO cults. The most famous examples are Heaven's Gate, which became famous through their demise, and the Aetherius Society, which has a New Age slant. There are dozens of other tiny UFO cults that no one has ever heard of. They usually have very strange beliefs, often apocalyptic. Only a very small number of people are members of such cults. I want to emphesize that no one actually thinks that aliens have visited the Earth. At most the vacuuskull may be open to the possibility which is different than thinking it's true. Alot of people pretend to think it's true because they wish it was true. They wish it was true so badly, they content themselves with imagining that it's true, but deep down they know it's not true. These people are the consummers of UFO junk, such as paraphernalia, conventions, television shows, books, magazines, etc. The producers of this are the con men trying to promote belief in UFO's for money, fame, or as an ego trip for themselves.