Roswell Incident -- Lt. Walter Haut and the Flying Disc Press Release
Roswell Incident -- Lt. Walter Haut and the Flying Disc Press Release
[edit | edit source]Walter Haut
[edit | edit source]| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Walter G. Haut |
| Rank at Roswell | First Lieutenant |
| Role | Public Information Officer (PIO), Roswell Army Air Field |
| Later life | Settled in Roswell permanently; co-founded the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell; became a leading advocate for Roswell investigation |
| Died | December 15, 2005 |
| Key document | A sworn, sealed affidavit deposited before his death; released after his death |
The July 8, 1947 Press Release
[edit | edit source]Walter Haut issued the July 8, 1947 press release that stunned the world and then disappeared almost immediately. Haut's account of how the press release came to be:
- He received a telephone call from his commanding officer, Colonel William Blanchard, ordering him to prepare and distribute a press release about a recovered "flying disc"
- Haut did not personally see the debris or any recovered object -- he was issuing a press release based on Blanchard's direction
- The press release was distributed to local news outlets and picked up by the Associated Press, where it went national within hours
- Before the end of the same day, the story had shifted, and the next morning General Ramey issued the "weather balloon" retraction
For decades, Haut maintained a relatively neutral public position -- he had issued the press release, yes, but he had been following orders and had no direct personal knowledge of what was recovered. He became a well-known Roswell figure through his work at the UFO Museum without making strong personal claims about what he believed had happened.
The Posthumous Affidavit
[edit | edit source]The most significant development in the Haut story came after his death. Haut had prepared a sworn affidavit -- a legal statement made under oath -- that he had sealed with instructions that it not be released until after his death. The affidavit was released in 2007, two years after Haut died.
In the affidavit, Haut went substantially further than his public statements during his lifetime:
- He stated that he had actually seen the recovered craft and its occupants at the base
- He described attending a meeting on July 8, 1947, at which Col. Blanchard showed those present "a metallic, egg-shaped craft about 12 to 15 feet in length"
- He stated he had seen "alien bodies" associated with the craft
- He described the cover-up as deliberate and directed from the highest levels of the military command
The affidavit is significant not only for its content but for its legal character: it was sworn, sealed, and deliberately held for posthumous release -- the action of someone who wanted to make a record but feared consequences during his lifetime.
The Press Release's Lasting Significance
[edit | edit source]Regardless of the affidavit's claims, the July 8 press release itself remains extraordinary in the history of government UFO information:
- It is the only official government statement in United States history explicitly acknowledging recovery of a "flying disc"
- It was issued by an active-duty officer at an operational military base under orders from the base commanding officer
- It was never officially acknowledged as an error by the officer who ordered it (Blanchard died in 1966 before the modern Roswell investigation began)
- The retraction was issued by a different officer (Ramey) at a different base (Fort Worth)
Stanton Friedman consistently cited the press release as one of the strongest pieces of evidence for the Roswell cover-up: the United States Army Air Forces issued a statement claiming a flying disc, then within 24 hours retracted it with a weather balloon explanation that multiple witnesses said did not match what they had seen.
