The REAL Socorro Insignia?

Frank Stalter elaborates on the Socorro hoax

The Socorro UFO Hoaxers

Rest in Peace Officer Lonnie Zamora

THE SOCORRO UFO: PHYSICAL EVIDENCE POINTS TO A PRANK (Part 3) by Anthony Bragalia

A review of decades-old documents points to the involvement of pranksters in the famous 1964 Socorro, NM UFO sighting. Overlooked details about the sighting witnessed by police officer Lonnie Zamora suggest a prosaic explanation that involved student trickery. Recently discovered material clues hint at a hidden hoax. Physical evidence (reports of which have been previously missed or ignored) offer damning indications of deception. This evidence has remained unconsidered, until now:

- "Charred cardboard" and particulate was discovered by military officials in the very area of the landed craft.

- "Footprints from teenagers" were found at the site by government investigators immediately after Zamora's encounter.

- Burned brush that was seen at the site was caused by "pyrotechnic ignition" according to experts.

- The "whining frequencies" heard by Zamora may have come from novel, sound-producing pyrotechnics.

Previous articles on the Socorro sighting provided clues to a college caper:

- An archived document revealed that in the 1960s, renowned scientist and NM Tech President Dr. Stirling Colgate wrote to Nobel laureate Dr. Linus Pauling that the Socorro UFO was a prank. He told his friend Pauling (whom I had earlier discovered had conducted secret UFO studies) that the "student who engineered the hoax" had "already left the College."

- In 2009, Dr. Colgate (now at Los Alamos as Scientist Emeritus) emailed this author confirming that the event was a hoax; that in fact one of the involved students is his personal friend. He said of the hoaxer "he and the other students did not want their covers blown." He added that it was all "a no-brainer" and that he would see if the pranksters would now come forward.

- Two eminent NM Tech Professors support Colgate. They attest that they had heard from trusted sources at the College that the incident was a hoax that involved students. One added that the students did not like Lonnie Zamora at all. Another explained that the school had a world-class explosives facility and that other labs may have provided advanced balloons, inflatable materials and "white coverall" lab suits that were strikingly similar to what Zamora had observed.

- Two former NM Tech students revealed the existence of a deeply secret "techno-geek" hoax society and culture operating at the school since its inception. Highly organized, its sole purpose involved pranking people. In the 1960s this fraternity of pranksters created hoaxes so advanced that they even fooled military. Many of these pranksters had no regard for safety or legality. Some of these staged events involved creating faked flying saucers.

These articles are available here and here.

Prior investigation by this author has offered up credible testimony, authenticated documentation and strong circumstantial evidence of a planned prank. As this investigation of the Socorro sighting continues, additional evidence has emerged that supports a hoax scenario. This time the evidence is physical:

THE "CHARRED CARDBOARD" CLUE



A former NICAP investigator provided to this author the original, official Air Force report on Socorro, titled: "USAF Investigation Report Socorro, NM" It lists as authors "Investigators Hynek, A.; Quintanilla MJR." These authors are of course famed investigators Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Hector Quintanilla. An attentive reading of this document reveals something that is very telling. In the 17th paragraph (lines 44 and 45) the investigators wrote:

"A closer USAF investigation of the site revealed a fair amount of charred particles mixed with dirt, and some charred cardboard was also found."

This single buried sentence speaks volumes. The "charred cardboard" found at the site by AF investigators is an extremely important detail that does not seem to have ever been brought up by "civilian" UFO investigators who support Soccoro as an ET or secret aerocraft event. And of course the reason for this is obvious: such mundane material should not be there if it were ET or if it was an experimental vehicle. Instead, this "find" is indicative of something very terrestrial. This is because "charred cardboard" makes complete sense when considering the event as a student-created hoax:

Pyrotechnics could very well account for the found material. Such cardboard tubes or "casings" are used in shell inserts, bottle rockets and fireworks. When ignited, such spent explosives leave a a distinct charred cardboard appearance upon cooling. Burned cardboard and cardboard powder char are left in their wake.

Not coincidentally, NM Tech had the most advanced Explosives Lab of any college in the country at the time. One 1960s NM student said that the ease of obtaining "cool pyrotechnics" from the school "was like getting candy from a baby."



Or perhaps the charred cardboard came from the "craft" itself. One NM Tech Professor speculated that the "craft" seen by Lonnie was a large white balloon. In fact, Lonnie's immediate reaction was to characterize it as a balloon. He even radioed to his partner: "It looks like a balloon." The Professor believes that this balloon may have been "over-fitted" with white coated craftboard (or light cardboard) to create the "landing struts" and other features. Such cardboard or craftboard material may well have ignited and charred at the bottom- potentially leaving such cardboard residue as was observed by AF investigators. The College's Atmospheric Sciences department had every manner of inflatable and balloon known- and they had an abundance of lightweight craft materials to create kites, balloon cargo holders, framing- or even landing gear for a "spaceship."

THE SOUNDS AT SOCORRO: A WHINE FROM WHAT?



Investigators concentrate on the sights that Zamora saw- but they do not say much about the sounds that Lonnie said that he heard as the craft was in flight. And what he heard sounds suspiciously like the whines and whistles of advanced pyrotechnics!

Lonnie speaks of 1) high and low frequencies that changed or oscillated 2) thumps 3) whines 4) changes in loudness of the sound; 5) a kind of roar and 6) sudden silence. This "aural accounting" is the sum total of what is known about the sounds that Zamora had reported hearing at the site.

Lonnie is interviewed by AF invetigator Dr. Hynek after Zamora's sighting: "He hardly turned around from his police car when he heard a roar- it was not exactly a blast but a very loud roar. It was not like a jet - he knew what a jet sounds like. It started out quickly at low frequency then rose in frequency from loud to very loud. Simultaneously, he saw flame under the object...a kind of orange color at the bottom." From a NICAP recounting of the event we learn that what he heard was in the span of a matter of seconds and that: "The low frequency roar changed to a high frequency whine then to silence." Lonnie says more about what he heard: "I heard two or three loud thumps, like someone possibly opening or shutting a door hard." Zamora says that the thumps were a few seconds apart from one another.

Now look and listen to the videos of pyrotechnic whistles and whistle rockets appearing below. Each of the videos is only a few seconds in length. I purposely provide examples of amateur, homemade pyrotechnics. Professionals can create far more advanced noise features. And NM Tech had one of the most advanced Explosives Labs in the nation. Note the thumps and roars; the changes in high and low frequencies and the "whines." Related videos on Youtube show that pops, thumps and booms can result from both the ignition and explosion of pyrotechnics. Some pyrotechnics (called "fart bombs") use "stops" to produce "staged" ignition, producing two or three muffled booms or pops seconds apart. Were these the sounds heard at Socorro?:





Did you hear low frequency roars, changed frequencies, whines and then silence? That's what Lonnie heard. Did you hear a couple of pops or thumps at any point? Thats what Lonnie heard. Try listening with your eyes closed with the volume up loud. Explore related videos of other kinds of pyrotechnic whistles on Youtube to hear more examples.

A post by a member of the APC (Amateur Pyrotechnics and Chemistry) Forum is highly instructive: "The roars and whines of pyrotechnic whistles have a sound all their own. We can even change them up and make them sound like they are from another world."

Without mentioning a UFO connection, this author contacted Bill Bahr, President of the Pyrotechnics Guild International industry group. I related Zamora's testimony of what he heard, simply saying that these sounds were associated with the observation of a "lift off" of something and brief "flames" seen in an "area of wide expanse." I asked Bahr what he thinks that these sounds might describe. Without missing a beat, Bahr replied that the description sounds "a lot like a pyrotechnic whistle."

The "charred cardboard" evidence found at the site -combined with Lonnie's description of what he said he had heard- supports the idea that some type of pyrotechnics were likely involved in the execution of a hoax. But to cap it off, we also learn (as detailed later in this article) that burned brush and shrub were found at the site, leaving a distinct tell-tale pattern that is known to be caused by pyrotechnic ignition!

But first, lets look at the found footprints:

FOOTPRINTS THAT PROVIDE A TIP-OFF

I have earlier suggested that the "figures" reported by Lonnie near the craft were likely of students in white lab suits that were obtained from the college. Lonnie reported that the figures (which were seen only for seconds, and possibly without glasses) were of a "normal shape." He said that were about the size of "boys or small adults." Lonnie indicated that the figures were wearing "white coveralls." The figure in the middle looks especially like what Lonnie described:



Supporting this idea are overlooked statements made at the time of the event by investigator and White Sands Army Captain Richard T. Holder. Holder was called to inspect and study the UFO landing site by FBI Agent Arthur Byrnes. Immediately after Zamora's sighting, Holder and Byrnes went out to the landing area and closely examined it by flashlight, where Holder stated that he had found footprints. Holder related: "The footprints were similar to the size of the footprints that a bigfooted teenager would make."

Captain Holder described the footprints that he discovered in very down-to-earth terms. He said that they were like what a young person wearing big shoes would make. Taken together, what Lonnie and Holder described sounds very much like short college kids wearing white labwear and big lab safety boots. Nothing about these figures and footprints seemed "alien." Even Lonnie used the phrases "of normal shape" and "the size of small adults" when describing the figures. Holder said it reminded him of "teenagers."



A Lab Safety Boot would nicely account for the description of the "bigfooted teenager" footprints left at the site that were found and reported by Captain Holder. In fact nothing about the reported figures reported by Zamora -or the footprints that they had left that were discovered by Holder- seemed at all alien. There was nothing about them that suggested anything other than humans. Young humans wearing hefty boots.

THE BURNING BUSH TELLS A TALE



Interestingly, Captain Holder also noted that he had found burned brush at the site that was only affected on one side. He said that it was entirely dissimilar to what one would expect from "an object that blasts off by rocket or jet propulsion." Something else had lit the bushes. Holder described the brush as "flaky" - and mentioned that only one side had scorched. According to experts, explosions from pyrotechnics leave very similar patterns as described by Holder.

Bill Bahr is both the President of the famous Red Dragon brand of fireworks as well as the Executive Director of the Pyrotechnics Guild International, a worldwide industry trade group. He states that the effect on plants as described by Zamora "is classic to pyrotechnics." He agreed, "When certain pyrotechnics are set off in a clearing that is surrounded by brush- the damage to vegetation is flaky. It often just grazes and powders the tips of surrounding plants, or it can carve out larger sections." The resulting damage can range in color from dark black to very light grey or whitish. He says, "This kind of flash damage is typically very localized to the point of just searing one side of a shrub or bush- on the side where the ignition of the pyrotechnic material occured."

By contrast, he explained (just as Captain Holder had noted) that an outright explosion, or an applied flame or a jet or rocket blast would have thoroughly incinerated any plant material. It would not have left such a flaky, half-sided scorch effect like the brush that was observed at the Socorro site. But pyrotechnics certainly would.

A UNIVERSITY LEFT UNINVESTIGATED


NEW MEXICO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

The Air Force and other investigators at the time of the Socorro sighting apparently did not even consider or explore the possibility of a hoax perpetuated by engineering students at NM Tech. It does not appear that there is any record of any type anywhere that shows official interviews by these investigators of College administration or students at the Institute. A re-examination of the extant literature on the Socorro UFO -as well as recent inquiries to NM Tech itself- show no indication that any official had ever discussed the matter with the school.

Clearly these investigators were entirely unaware of the College's even-then longstanding history of complex hoaxes and pranks. They did not think about the role that the combination of brilliant but bored college students, an Explosives Lab and a Balloon Atmospherics Lab at the University may have played in devising such a hoax.

High-schoolers were considered...but not college students. Documents show that Harvard Astronomer Donald Menzel at one time suggested that Zamora was the victim of a prank "by high school students who planned the whole thing to get Zamora." Other reports confirm that Hynek talked to townsfolk about the possibility- including a teenager employed at a local gas station who said that no teens were involved to his knowledge.

But no one appears to have gone a step further to investigate the possible involvement of older and wiser students- like NM Tech students. NM Tech was, at the time, "separated" from the town. There was friction between the townies and the Techies. This may account for why investigators ignored the Institute. And perhaps investigators had assumed that such fresh-faced, smart and upstanding, tie-wearing, scientists-in-training would never perpetuate such a hoax...but that high-schoolers might. The fact that the "not-from-town" government officials did not examine the NM Tech connection was a serious omission of investigation. But nearly a half-century later, the investigation continues...



ET has visited Earth. But the Socorro UFO had nothing to do with people from the stars above. It had everything to do with the free-spirited young amongst us. Many things tell us this. The circumstances, means and motive are very telling. Prominent NM Tech administration, professors and students have revealed much. And we now have physical evidence that speaks to us through old documents and reports. The time approaches to put out the flames that light our beloved campfire story. The Sighting at Socorro was not a display of ET nor of man's secret science. Instead it appeared as a flashy fraud that continues to bedazzle us all.

UFOs and The Divine Milieu

The great Teilhard de Chardin proposed in his treatise, The Divine Milieu, that human beings – actually the souls of human beings – make up the “mystical” body of Christ; that is, we humans comprise the actual corporeal structure of Christ, who is manifested by the living Universe.

Christ (God) is the Universe, and a corporeal body – a real physical presence, biologic in nature or essence.



And human beings make up the cellular structure of that Universe or, rather, the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Universe -- the total reality.

If this is so, and we accept it as a firm (beyond theology) possibility, then we might conjecture that UFOs are viral or bacterial intrusions – infections as it were – within the Body of Christ.

This would account for the various configurations of UFOs; they are various kinds of viruses or bacteria, and appear in many forms (even mimicking solid structures).



We don’t mean to imply that UFOs, in our hypothesis, are metaphorical. We, like Teilhard, assume UFOs to be tangible artifacts – biologic entities, some benign and some not.

The intrusions of UFOs in the Earth’s biosphere are infections of a kind then. Will they ultimately bring about illnesses for Earth and the Body of Christ, or will they be counteracted by a kind of immunity as yet to be discovered or experienced?

At present, the pursuit of UFOs cannot be fruitful. They may likened to such viral infections as HIV or the AIDs virus, not amenable to cure or understanding.



UFOs cannot be inoculated against apparently, and the lack of explanation of UFOs over the years, confirms this.

But a profound medical-like approach to ridding the world of UFOs or, at least, understanding the phenomenon, might be undertaken by those who truly wish to resolve the riddle they have provided.

Mac Tonnies gone?

Greg Bishop notifies readers of UFO Mystic that the brilliant and young Mac Tonnies has died (of natural causes).

This is a loss to science, science fiction, and ufology that is immeasurable.

We only knew Mac indirectly, but considered him one of the bright stars of ufology and all things avant garde.

This is a great loss.

Rest in peace, buddy…..

Nick Redfern's tribute

Roswell, White Sands and the V-2 Saga: The Controversy Continues by Nick Redfern

On Saturday, October 17, 2009, Kevin Randle posted to his blog - A Different Perspective - a new article titled The Roswell UFO and Jesse Marcel.

The article has generated a tremendous number of comments, including one from Bob Koford, who cited a link to a British website that referenced the crash of a V-2 rocket near Roswell, New Mexico on July 4, 1947 - a rocket containing a "biological payload."

The relevant data can be found at:

http://www.rocketservices.co.uk/spacelists/sounding_rockets/decades/1944-1949.htm

The "biological payload" should not be construed as having any connections with alien bodies, human bodies or monkeys, however (at the time at issue, rats, insects and other small creatures were very much the order of the day with respect to the payloads aboard the V-2 flights out of White Sands). And, indeed, it must be stressed that Bob K did not imply that the payload was anything out of the ordinary.

What is worthy of further comment, however, is that this is not the first time the V-2 crash at issue has been linked with the events that have become known as "The Roswell Incident."

Up until now, however, the story I am about to relate has remained curiously absent from the ufological research field. Why, I do not know; since those who had an awareness of it all those years ago could have easily spilled the beans back then.

Many readers of this post will be very surprised to learn that, around a decade ago, select portions of a draft-document of questionable origins were made available to a number of UFO researchers across the United States - a document supposedly having been written by (and "leaked" by) a CIA source known as the "Blue Boy." I was not one of those researchers; however, a copy of the draft was made available to me six or seven years ago.

Highly dubious of its validity, however, I have not highlighted it until now.

Eight-pages of the document - which is titled UFO Reports and Classified Projects: The CIA Perspective - have been made available thus far; one section of which references the events at Roswell, and the aforementioned V-2 crash.

The relevant section states:

"...Another rule of secrecy was: You always camouflage your operations from prying eyes. It was not widely known to many that the Air Force and Navy were conducting classified rocket-launched reconnaissance payloads from White Sands, New Mexico, which failed to reach orbiting altitudes and subsequently crashed off range and generated considerable public interest in the United States and abroad.

"As part of a top secret Air Force atomic weapons detection project called MOGUL involving radiation dispersal in the atmosphere, selected monitoring sites across the United States were not acknowledged to by the Air Force and Central Intelligence Group (CIG) and as a result, wreckage from one of the payloads was accidentally discovered by a sheep rancher not far from the Air Force’s Roswell Army Air Field.

"Also, another fact not widely known among military intelligence was that CIG had planned to utilize artificial meteor strikes as decoy devices ejected from V-2 warheads at 60 miles above the earth to record dispersal trajectories and possible psychological warfare weapons against the Soviets in the advent of a war in Europe.

"One of the projects underway at that time incorporated re-entry vehicles containing radium and other radioactive materials combined with biological warfare agents developed by I.G. Farben for use against allied assault forces in Normandy in 1944.

"When a V-2 warhead impacted near the town of Corona, New Mexico, on July 4, 1947, the warhead did not explode and it and the deadly cargo lay exposed to the elements which forced the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project to close off the crash site and a cover story was immediately put out that what was discovered was the remains of a radar tracking target suspended by balloons.

"In 1994 and again in 1995, the Air Force published what it considered the true account of what lay behind the Roswell story but omitted the radiological warhead data for obvious reasons.

"It may also be pointed out here that this kind of experiment was very similar to those conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission and the military in the late 1940’s. It was known in the CIA that the Soviets were conducting the same kind of radiological and biological warfare experiments in the early 1950’s after their successful detonation of a [sic] atomic bomb based on stolen documents and materials from Los Alamos forwarded to Moscow by communist espionage agents in the United States."

And there ends the relevant section of the "Blue Boy's" initial draft. Of course, leaked documents, unauthenticated documents, and those of questionable and unidentified origins, are the absolute bane of Ufology..

Do I think that the above-document answers all of the hard-to-resolve questions pertaining to what really happened at Roswell on that fateful day way back in July 1947? No, I do not - at all. Rather, I think it's just yet another carefully-crafted paper designed to provoke utter confusion.

Of course, it's interesting that the "Blue Boy" suggested - as do most Roswell authors and researchers - that the Roswell events involved more than one crash-site: in this case, however, one involving a V-2 rocket and one involving a Mogul balloon; but both in the same time-frame, and relatively close proximity.

Whether the work of (A) disinformation specialists from the shadowy world of officialdom, (B) private purveyors of fakery with unknown agendas, or (C) pathetic Walter Mitty-type fantasists with low self-esteem, I know not. I merely present the above because the story of the V-2 crash of July 4, 1947 - as it relates to Roswell - is once again being discussed in a ufological forum.

It's perhaps apt to close with the words of Sir Walter Scott: "I cannot tell how the truth may be; I say the tale as 'twas said to me."

FOTOCAT Project

Dear UFO colleague:

The FOTOCAT Project's has just been updated and it is available at:

http://fotocat.blogspot.com/

With a current database comprising 9,650 cases, the blog contains the following topics, among others:

* Links to 3 new pdf publications by the author
* Footage (3 videos) displayed for 2 cases finally solved, and a number of -not previously known- military documents
* News: FOTOCAT archives receive a copy of the Michel Monnerie files
* Statistics of 2,000 photographic reports for the 1990 decade
* Data acquisition status for ball lightning project
* Information on new books and publications that we recommend

Good reading!

Sincerely,

Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos

THE REVEREND AT ROSWELL: A CHAPLAIN AT THE CRASH? by Anthony Bragalia

The enormity of suddenly being confronted with sky-fallen craft and beings from another world near Roswell, NM in July of 1947 was no doubt spiritually shattering. The psychological impact of such an event had to have been deep and lasting. Everything must have come into question relative to man's place in the universe. Newly-acquired information indicates that the Roswell Base Chaplain at the time -Reverend Elijah H. Hankerson- may have provided needed support to those that were not prepared to deal with such a momentous event. There are three telling elements to the Hankerson saga:

- Just days after the crash Reverend Hankerson was shipped out of Roswell Army Air Field and was replaced by a Catholic priest of higher rank
- Hankerson and his wife Annie kept from their children the fact that he was ever even stationed at Roswell. The family is stunned.
- Hankerson may have made a "silent confession" to them at the end of his life, possibly hinting at his involvement

THE CHAPLAIN AND THE TRAUMA

We can only guess at the "coping mechanisms" that had to be instantly developed by those who viewed the crash. The Chaplain would have likely been there to help cope with this sudden trauma. Chaplains in the U.S. armed services have a special role in our nation's military. Two very important functions of the Chaplain are to provide spiritual counseling and assistance in emergency situations. Required to be available whenever called upon, they help individuals in times of continuing crisis as well as in ministering to those distraught by a sudden and recent event causing physical or mental challenge. In the 1940s. there were no "trauma psychologists." This role was assumed by men of the cloth. As part of the team of "first responders" to an air accident, they provide needed support, hope and encouragement. They pray over the dead- and they calm and assure the living who are suffering from a traumatic incident.

What could have been more traumatic than seeing dead non-human pilots who commanded a craft of entirely unknown construction, spread out in pieces on the desert floor?

The trauma was measurable.

- Dee Proctor, the child-witness to the crash with rancher Mac Brazel died a morbidly obese, divorced, raging alcoholic who rarely spoke and hid behind his mother Loretta for decades like he was still a child. Dee died young of coronary attack, holding in his heart a secret to great to bear.
- CIC Agent Sheridan Cavitt (at the scene with Marcel) was affected. His lawyer-son Joseph Cavitt said his father would get angry whenever the Roswell incident was brought up. He said his father had "issues" and that "it was like having half of a father."
- Other psychological casualties included RAAF Intelligence Agent Jesse Marcel Sr. himself. In his recent book "The Roswell Legacy" Marcel's son Dr. Jesse Marcel Jr. revealed for the first time that Roswell had impacted his father adversely- Marcel Sr. became an alcoholic after the crash!
- Rancher Mac Brazel left the area after the crash moving to Tularoosa. Many (including interviewed ranch hands) said that Mac was never the same afterwards. He "steamed" when the crash was brought up -even years later- refusing to utter a word about it.
- Roswell Sheriff George Wilcox appears like a "deer in the headlights" in a photo of him appearing in the Roswell Daily Record after the crash. He never ran for office again, never sought another term. Deputies B.A. Clark and Tommy Thompson said that he was never the same. Inez Wilcox ran for the office instead- loosing the election and her husband's attentions after the crash. Neighbor Rogene Cordes told me that George was "a changed man with a changed marriage because I understand he was made to do things he did not want to do."

But what of the military men at the scene? In the newly revised "Witness to Roswell" book, author Tom Carey relates the story of PFC Elias Benjamin. Benjamin replaced an MP for guard duty that has seen the bodies. Benjamin said the MP "had gone crazy." Scars were left and emotions were tattered. Memories were forever emblazoned with the sight of the unearthly- and lives were forever changed in an instant.

REVEREND ELIJIAH H. HANKERSON



The role of a Chaplain at Roswell was an aspect that was not considered or examined by early Roswell researchers. Though military officers, ranchers and others were contacted about their possible knowledge of event surrounding the 1947 crash, no one ever considered the Chaplain, and what he knew. Given the significant role that a Chaplain would have played, I decided to track down any information that might lead to the identity of the Roswell Army Air Field Base Chaplain at the time.

Recently, through working with the US Army Chaplain Corps -and with assistance from the Executive Director of the US Army Chaplain Museum at Ft. Jackson, SC- I have conclusively identified the Base Chaplain at RAAF in July of 1947 as Reverend Elijiah H. Hankerson. Rev. Elijah Hankerson was a Black man and a National Baptist. Hankerson began his military career in 1944 and passed in 1990. However, I have located and contacted his daughter- Esther.

Elijah and his wife Annie lived off-base at 601 E. Summit in Roswell. Though Hankerson is mentioned in the RAAF Yearbook, he is not pictured.

Hankerson was replaced as Base Chaplain of RAAF on July 10, 1947 (just days after the event.) Hankerson was shipped out to a location in the South Pacific after the crash. He was replaced by a Catholic Priest, Captain/Father William B. Benson. Benson spoke five languages. His appointment to the base to replace Hankerson was sudden and not planned. The timing of this is interesting, to say the least. Less than a week after the crash, Hankerson was told he had to leave- and base officials brought in someone new.

THE HANKERSONS-
AND WHY THEIR FATHER WAS REPLACED AT ROSWELL



The late Mrs. Annie Hankerson, wife of Rev. Elijah Hankerson of RAAF

I began an extended dialog with Esther Hankerson (daughter of Annie and Elijah) to see if she or other Hankerson family members could shed light on Elijah's time at Roswell.

This was a problem. She and her brother Tommy were entirely unaware that Annie and Elijah had ever even lived in New Mexico! Her father and mother had never even told her or her brother (both born after the crash) that they were stationed at RAAF in 1947! Esther was astounded to learn of the fact when she was contacted by me. She was uncertain how it was at all possible that this could be! She indicated that "the later '40s was a time my parents never spoke about- it was as if someone had taken an eraser to that time period. I have no photos of them during that time- and I've always wondered why. I know about the rest of their lives, but not about this!" She asked me if I had photos of him during this period. Family records and photos somehow simply "skip" this entire time frame. Esther was hugely overwhelmed by all of this when confronted by me with the evidence that her own father was there at RAAF during the time of the crash. Esther (who says that she and her family had been aware of the Roswell incident since the 1980s) stated: "If I ever had known what I know now, I would have asked him about it!" She adds though, that it may not have mattered. Her father was both a military officer and a Reverend.

She indicated that her father (and mother Annie) were the types that could be entrusted to keep secrets. He took his military oath and his Chaplain oath very seriously and her mother Annie also honored this.

Father Benson (who replaced Hankerson directly after the crash) was confirmed by Chaplain Corps records to have been in NJ at Camp Kilmer through July 3, 1947. Records indicate that his first day at RAAF was on July 10, 1947 when he was named the new Base Chaplain. When Father Benson left military service he became pastor of the Sacred Heart Church in Baldwin, LA. His last residence is listes as the Sacred Heart Rectory. The current pastor of the church, Father Gregory Cormier, was also not aware that Father Benson had ever been stationed at RAAF. Like the Hankerson's, Benson seemed to want to keep his assocation with the base during that time period to himself. Father Cormier states, "I do not think that your phone call about this is unusual. I believe that life exists throughout the universe, reflecting God's glory. I am familiar with Roswell and I think I can add to why Father Benson was brought in to replace a Baptist Chaplain. Catholic priests take confessions."

Incredibly, Father Cormier indicates that he had a parishioner many years ago who has since passed who told him that he was stationed at Roswell during 1947. He said that the parishioner (who was close to Father Benson) would always ask of Cormier, "Do you believe in life on other planets? How does the Church feel about this?"

THE SILENT CONFESSION?



Esther Hankerson recounts how, when she was a child, she remembers her father having been "called out at all hours" to act as a "first responder" to air accidents. He did tell her about these events and it left an impression on young Esther. Esther herself became a "first responder" and became certified in administering pre-hospital care for medical emergencies! She laments though that he, and mother Annie, never mentioned Roswell. She says that "he would have to have been involved. Given what he did on other bases when I was growing up, it would have been his job -his duty- to respond to the Roswell crash. Why didn't he tell us he was at Roswell?"

Asked if there is anything that he ever said during his life that would possibly indicate his knowledge of the Roswell incident, Esther thought about it and replied, "Yes, there is. Towards the end of his life in 1990, before he became entirely unable to speak, he said some things over and over that made no sense at the time. But they do now."

Asked what it was that her father said that she found unusual, Esther replied: "There were a few things that he kept repeating as he drifted in an out. My father kept saying over and over "I'm just a Man. But in my Father's house there are many mansions." When she asked him "what do you mean?" he replied to her, "Dear, knowing too much is not always a good thing." This was something she did not understand at all. Her father had a PhD and was also a Doctor of Divinity. She said that her father kept on referring to "the Universe and man's place in it. He kept on repeating to us, "I'm just a Man, but the Universe, oh the Universe..."

She never knew what to make of these statements, they made no sense- until now. Clearly upset by the implications, Esther said, "Oh dear God, I'm realizing that he was trying to say something to us without saying. My father kept his oath till the end!"

In defense of the Socorro hoax hypothesis by Zarkon II

Anthony Bragalia’s recent postings about the Socorro/Zamora sighting of 1964 have raised hackles among the UFO mainstream.

Mr. Bragalia presented a scenario that strikes at the heart of ufology’s belief-system: that UFOs and flying saucers are extraterrestrial craft, piloted by alien life-forms or robotic creations.

When that belief system is questioned, no matter how obliquely, UFO’s “believers” move aggressively to squelch the heterodoxy.

This is what happened when Mr. Bragalia had the temerity to suggest that the 1964 Socorro sighting was a prank promulgated by students at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

Ufologist Ray Stanford became particularly exercised by Mr. Bragalia’s assertion(s). Why?

Mr. Stanford’s “fame” in the UFO community – he has none in the real world – rests on his intrepid “investigation” of the Socorro episode, almost immediately after it occurred.

His book about the sighting has become a UFO Bible of sorts for the Socorro event and its aftermath.

If someone were to rebuke Mr. Stanford’s “research,” he would be left without the legacy he has accumulated for the past forty-five years. So one can understand his pique and desperate attempts to protect his turf.

David Rudiak, another ET die-hard, also came out of the woodwork to take on Mr. Bragalia’s thesis. Mr. Rudiak is nothing if not thorough in his attention to minutiae of various UFO accounts – Roswell and Socorro among them.

Where Mr. Rudiak goes wrong, and he is off base in his ET bias when it comes to Socorro, is that he overlooks the mundane aspects of the Socorro details as related by Lonnie Zamora: the blue-flame of the propulsion that landed and lifted Zamora’s craft; the “beings” seen outside the egg-shaped craft, wearing white overalls; the flight pattern of the craft as it lifted and flew off; the indentations left behind, in the sand; the “roar” that accompanied the thing, et cetera.

The Zamora craft wasn’t exotic enough to be an alien craft.

Ufologist Frank Warren posted a kind of rebuttal to Mr. Bragalia’s exposé. One of the points made by Mr. Warren was that other egg-shaped UFOs were spotted before and after Zamora’s sighting.

What Mr. Warren didn’t note was that egg-shaped craft have been listed among UFO reports often, but none with an insignia, unique to Zamora’s UFO, nor any that had beings outside them, wearing human-like clothing. And none had produced the “roar” that Officer Zamora heard.

Mr. Warren is offended by Mr. Bragalia’s direct assertion that the Socorro event was hoax, ostensibly and admittedly a premature assertion since Mr. Bragalia hasn’t produced (yet) the person behind the prank or the methodology of their prank.

But Mr. Bragalia has only posed the possibility – one that has been raised before – that the Socorro episode was hoax-oriented, and Mr. Bragalia has mustered some interesting circumstantial evidence to support his hypothesis.

However, the Socorro sighting is so entrenched in the ufological psyche as an extraterrestrial landing (for repairs it seems) that any hypothesis outside the ET one will be attacked viciously and illogically, as is the case when any belief system is challenged.

I suggest Eric Hoffer’s insightful book “The True Believer” [Mentor Books, NY, 1951] to make my point.

And to see how hoaxes work, the Curtis D. MacDougall book “Hoaxes” [Dover Publications, NY, 1940/1958] for details about the mind-set of those perpetrating hoaxes and those who fall for them.

Ronald Millar’s “The Piltdown Men” [Ballantine Books, NY, 1972] also tells how grat men can be duped by hoaxes and hoaxers who are less skilled then they should be when it comes to discovering how a hoax operates.

In the world of ufology and UFOs the gullible are legion. And when it comes to the sacred cows of the UFO literature – the Arnold sighting, the Trent photos, Roswell, Socorro, and even Rendlesham, the UFO believers will do anything to make sure that anyone or anything that undercuts the “extraterrestrial” premise of those sightings should be stomped out and eliminated from any dialogue about UFOs.

The Bragalia hoax hypothesis has legs, of a kind, it is shaky perhaps, but not moribund and not unsound, if what he has uncovered has any merit whatsoever.

And when it comes to UFOs, nothing should be so sacrosanct that it can’t be thrown on the table for review and civil discussion. Otherwise, we shall find ourselves with a fascistic approach to truth-seeking; that is, only the orthodox shall prevail and anything that goes against that orthodoxy should be quelled at all costs – even if it means a diminishment of the truth.