Roswell Incident -- The 509th Bomb Group: Why Roswell Mattered
Roswell Incident -- The 509th Bomb Group: Why Roswell Mattered
[edit | edit source]The 509th Composite Group
[edit | edit source]| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Designation | 509th Bomb Group (by July 1947); originally 509th Composite Group |
| Home base | Roswell Army Air Field, Roswell, New Mexico |
| Status in 1947 | The only nuclear-capable air strike unit in the world; the unit that had delivered both atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945 |
| Aircraft | B-29 Superfortresses; specially modified for nuclear weapons delivery |
| Commanding officer (1947) | Colonel William H. Blanchard |
| Intelligence officer (1947) | Major Jesse A. Marcel |
| Public information officer (1947) | 1st Lt. Walter G. Haut |
Why This Matters to the Roswell Story
[edit | edit source]Stanton Friedman consistently argued that the location of the Roswell incident -- in the immediate vicinity of the 509th Bomb Group -- was not coincidental. His argument:
In the summer of 1947, the 509th was the most strategically significant military unit in the world. It possessed both the aircraft capable of delivering nuclear weapons and the trained crews who had actually done so. The United States had a monopoly on nuclear weapons at that point -- the Soviet Union would not test its first bomb until 1949.
If, as Friedman argued, extraterrestrial visitors were monitoring Earth's technological development, the three most significant developments at the end of World War II were: 1. Atomic bombs (demonstrated August 1945) 2. Rockets capable of reaching beyond the atmosphere (demonstrated by V-2s during WWII) 3. Advanced radar systems (perfected during WWII)
All three of these technologies converged in southeastern New Mexico in the summer of 1947: White Sands Proving Ground (rocket testing); Roswell AAF (nuclear-capable bombers); and the radar installations monitoring the test range. Friedman's memorable formulation: "That's what Roswell was. The only place in the world where you could check on all three of those technologies was southeastern New Mexico."
The Competence Argument
[edit | edit source]A secondary but important element of the 509th argument: this was not a unit staffed by inexperienced observers. The officers at Roswell AAF in 1947 were veterans of the most technically demanding and strategically significant air operations in history. They were familiar with virtually every type of aircraft, balloon, and aerial device operated by any nation on Earth.
When Major Marcel -- the unit's intelligence officer -- said the debris was "not any kind of aircraft that I know of," he was not speaking from ignorance. He was speaking from the experience of an officer whose entire professional career had been spent identifying, evaluating, and reporting on aerial objects of every description.
When Colonel Blanchard -- the commanding officer of the world's only nuclear strike force -- ordered both the recovery operation and the press release, he was not acting on a casual or uninformed assessment. He believed his unit had recovered something extraordinary enough to report publicly to the world.
