In early July 1947, rancher William 'Mac' Brazel discovered a large field of strange debris scattered across his property at the J. B. Foster Ranch, about seventy miles northwest of Roswell, New Mexico. The wreckage consisted of unusually thin metallic foil that could not be permanently crumpled, lightweight beam-like members inscribed with symbol-like markings, and a foil-backed rubbery substance. Brazel collected some of the debris and brought it to Chaves County Sheriff George Wilcox, who contacted the nearby Roswell Army Air Field.
Major Jesse A. Marcel, the intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group — at the time the only atomic-bomb wing in the world — drove to the ranch and recovered the material. On July 8, 1947, the base public-information officer Walter Haut released a formal press statement announcing that the Army had recovered a 'flying disc.' Newspapers across the country ran the story within hours. Later that same day, General Roger Ramey of the Eighth Air Force held a press conference in Fort Worth retracting the statement and displaying what he said was a common weather balloon and radar target, attributing the debris to Project Mogul's high-altitude balloon trains.
The retraction quieted public interest for more than thirty years, but the case was revived in 1978 when Marcel gave interviews insisting that the debris he recovered was unlike any terrestrial material and that the weather-balloon display had been a cover. Witnesses, military officials, and nurses began coming forward with accounts of unusual bodies, sealed facilities, and threats to remain silent. Under congressional pressure, the Air Force issued two detailed reports in the 1990s attributing the debris to Project Mogul and the 'bodies' to later anthropomorphic test dummies dropped from high-altitude balloons.
Roswell remains the most famous UFO case in history. Whether one accepts the Mogul explanation or not, it stands as the moment the United States government publicly acknowledged — and then just as publicly denied — the recovery of something that had fallen from the sky.