The Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence! 2005 Horror Movie Review

The Roswell Crash : Startling New Evidence

Directed by Melissa Jo Peltier

Hosted by Bryant Gumbel (Best known for hosting NBC’s ‘The Today Show’ 1982-1997)

Duration: Approximately 1 hour 25 minutes (main program)


This documentary, produced in 2002, provides the background story to the events that took place in Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947. It also focuses heavily on two new sources of information:


1. An archeological dig of an area where witnesses claim something crashed on the Foster Ranch in 1947

2. An analysis using computer imaging of an original photograph showing General Roger Ramey holding a memo which is believed to contradict the governments official story about what happened


This is a well crafted production and is suitable viewing for those interested in the Roswell event, and for those with an interest in UFO’s in general. If you don’t believe the Roswell event was the crash of an extra-terrestrial craft, but rather a classified US Air Force Project or something similar, you may find this program of some interest as well.


An area of the Foster Ranch 75 miles outside of Roswell, New Mexico, is selected for excavation. The excavation site was chosen based on research by Tom Carey and Don Schmitt, who state they have walked the site with witnesses and logged hundreds of hours of testimony. An electromagnetic conductivity study of the site reveals two notable anomalies - areas that show strikingly unusual soil characteristics. The anomalies were located right where witness testimony placed the gouge created by whatever crashed there in 1947. The excavation was conducted by archeologists from the University of New Mexico led by Bill Doleman Ph.D who states “We are digging holes in the ground to look for physical evidence of an extra-terrestrial vessel impact”.


The excavation itself and the stories that go with it make for interesting viewing. Unfortunately, by the end of the program, nothing of particular importance had been found. Bryant Gumbel informs us that:


“The Foster Ranch did produce unexplained disturbances in the soil and 66 bags of unidentified artifacts all of which cry out for further investigation”.


“These samples and artifacts will remain locked in the safe of the Roswell Wells-Fargo Bank until they can undergo extensive testing at a materials lab”.


The second area of investigation in this program seems to provide more definite results. A research scientist David Rudiak examines what he believes to be “the smoking gun” of the Roswell incident - a photograph that in 2002 had been in the public domain for 55 years:


“First there was the Roswell Base press release. About an hour after the press release [General] Ramey was already speaking on the phone to reporters and the Pentagon Press Room and saying it looked like a weather balloon to him and a radar target and that is in fact what is pictured here. So they brought in the photographer from the Fort Worth Star Telegram. He took six photos. Four of the photos have General Ramey’s holding this message in his hand. In three of these photos the message is turned away from the camera. In this particular photograph for some reason it’s facing the camera and fortunately for us the image is of sufficient quality that we can read quite a bit of the message, and it tells a very remarkable story”.


Rudiak goes on: “The two-words here are weather balloon. These words are very important because it tells us this is about Roswell because Ramey is trying to sell a weather balloon story to the press. It’s not his lunch order, it’s not his laundry list, it’s not Mrs. Ramey telling him to bring groceries home”.


Rudiak says an analysis of the memo using computer imaging suggests that the weather balloon story was indeed a smokescreen. Rudiak believes the Ramey memo contains the words “victims” and “disc” and is convinced that these words on the memo, together with the rest of the message, prove that what happened at Roswell involved more than just some type of balloon.


During the course of the program many other people present their views or give their personal recollections including:


- Kevin Randle Ph.D (Investigator)

- Don Schmitt (Investigator/Author)

- Moe Cox (Technical Sergeant, Biggs Air Base Texas, retired)

- Charles B. Moore (NYU Project Mogul Engineer 1947)

- Frank Joyce (KGFL Roswell Radio Personality, retired)

- Tom Carey (Roswell Investigator)

- Karl T. Pflock (Ufologist/Author)

- Robert J. Durant (Retired Pilot/Roswell Investigator)

- Richard Dolan (Author/Ufologist)

- Robert J. Shirkey (Operations Officer 509th Bomb Group, retired)

- Major General Samford (US Airforce 1952 Press Release)

- Robert Dean (Command Sgt Major US Army, retired)

- Bruce Maccabee Ph.D (Physicist/Investigator/Navy Optical Analyst)

- Jesse Marcel Jr. MD (Son of Major Jesse Marcel)

- Jesse Marcel Snr (Army Intelligence, 509th Bomb Group, now deceased)

- Nancy Easley Johnson (Daughter of Major Edwin Easley)

- Walter Haut (Public Information Officer 509th Bomb Group, retired)

- Stanton Friedman (Investigator/Author)

- Glenn Dennis (Mortician, Roswell, retired)

- Robert Slusher (Staff Sergeant, Roswell Army Air Field, retired)

- Pete Anaya (Former Chairman, GI Forum Roswell)



Here are a few of their memorable quotes from the program:


”[The press] never saw the real material. The real material went on to Washington at that time… so Marcell is ordered to pose with the substituted radar reflector balloon. So the first press release that it was a flying saucer and six hours later “we’re sorry ladies and gentlemen it’s just a weather balloon”. The question is which press release is the real story.”


Don Schmitt (Investigator/Author)



“Let us hypothesize that the year is 1947 and that your name is Harry Truman. Now let us further hypothesize that your military somehow obtained crash wreckage of some kind of technology that wasn’t your own and that wasn’t Soviet. The quetion is what would you do about it. Well we know in 1947 for instance that the US had a monopoly of nuclear technology of working atomic bombs and we know that the entire world was hammering at the door of the United Nations to get the United States to make atomic energy public, that is… to put it under the control of the United Nations. The US response to that was absolutely no way are we going to share nuclear technology with anyone. If they’re not going to share nuclear technology in 1947 what on earth are they gonna do about something as exotic as alien technology. Well I think the answer would be clear. You would make it so secret you would in a sense almost keep it secret from yourself.”


Richard Dolan (Author/Ufologist)



“I was councelled just before I retired that I would keep my mouth shut to what I knew or forget it I was Fort Leavenworth bound. I didn’t want to go to Fort Leavenworth so I kept my mouth shut about all this until oh I guess about a year a little better ago. I finally figured it’s time somebody knew that it really-did-happen.”


Moe Cox (Technical Sergeant, Biggs Air Base Texas, retired)



“I have a difficult time believing that Jesse Marcel as the intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group - the only atomic strike force in the world at that time - was so incompetent that he couldn’t identify weather balloon remains when he saw them.”


Kevin Randle Ph.D (Investigator)



“Their second “final” report was to deal with the bodies and they came up with anthripomorphic dummies that they were using to test ejection systems and parachutes from high altitudes. Which is fine but the tests didn’t begin till 1953 six years after this event so it makes no sense.”


Kevin Randle Ph.D (Investigator)



“People always remember the hoaxes. They’ll remember that certain witnesses were discredited - they won’t remember that every member of Colonel Blanchards staff we were able to interview with a single exception said this was an extra-terrestrial event.”


Kevin Randle Ph.D (Investigator)



“I feel that they’ve been waiting until several of us old white-hairs die off who were there. Then they can say anything they want because there’s no one to refute them.”


Robert J. Shirkey (Operations Officer 509th Bomb Group, retired)



“I think it’s very important people know about what happened here in Roswell. It happened, and it was shielded and hidden.”


Moe Cox (Technical Sergeant, Biggs Air Base Texas, retired)



In conclusion at just over 85 minutes long, this presentation is thorough and presents many views. The host, Bryant Gumbel (best known for his hosting of Today on NBC 1982-1997) is professional and articulate.


I recommend this DVD to anyone seeking to learn more about the Roswell story and particularly for the new insights provided during the course of the excavation at the Foster Ranch and the from the analysis of the Ramey memo using computer imaging.