Free Republic

Sixty years ago, a light aircraft was flying over the Cascade Mountains in Washington state, at a height of around 10,000 feet. Suddenly, a brilliant flash of light illuminated the aircraft. Visibility was good, and as pilot Kenneth Arnold scanned the sky to find the source of the light, he saw a group of nine shiny metallic objects flying information. He estimated their speed as being around 1,600 mph — nearly three times faster than the top speed of any jet aircraft at the time. Soon, similar reports began to come in from all over America. This wasn't just the...

But last week came an astonishing new twist to the Roswell mystery - which casts new light on the incident and raises the possibility that we have, indeed, been visited by aliens. Lieutenant Walter Haut was the public relations officer at the base in 1947, and was the man who issued the original and subsequent press releases after the crash on the orders of the base commander, Colonel William Blanchard. Haut died last year, but left a sworn affidavit to be opened only after his death. Last week, the text was released and asserts that the weather balloon claim was...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Army Lt. Walter Haut, the man made famous for issuing a news release that said a flying saucer landed in Roswell, died there Thursday, his daughter, Julie Shuster, said. He was 83. Haut, a former spokesman for the Roswell Army Air Field, listened closely on July 8, 1947, as base commander Col. William Blanchard dictated a news release about a recovered flying saucer and ordered Haut to issue it. The Roswell Daily Record newspaper ran a bold headline on July 9, 1947: "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region." The same day, a statement...