Thomas Bullard

Folklorist who analyzed the common narrative structure of abduction accounts.

Debris found by a rancher in 1947 near Roswell, New Mexico, has become the basis for UFO conspiracy theories alleging that the United States military recovered a crashed extraterrestrial spacecraft. After metallic and rubber debris was recovered by Roswell Army Air Field personnel, the United States Army Air Forces announced possession of a "flying disc". This announcement made international headlines, but was retracted within a day. The debris was from a complex and uncrewed military balloon train consisting of linked balloons and assorted equipment, operated from the nearby Alamogordo Army Air Field as part of the top-secret Project Mogul, a program intended to detect Soviet nuclear tests. To obscure the purpose and source of the debris, the army reported that it was merely a conventional weather balloon. In 1978, retired United States Air Force officer Jesse Marcel revealed that the Army's weather balloon claim had been a cover story, and speculated that the debris was of extraterrestrial origin.