In view of recent worldwide media attention and apparent public misconception concerning the 1947 Roswell Incident, we have chosen to issue a joint statement in an effort to help set the record straight on this most controversial matter. We are taking this step strictly out of a sense of responsibility to the truth, and are doing so of our own volition, without any pressure ou encouragement from the U.S. military or government.
Over the past years, innumerable documentaries, books, television shows, and movies have conveyed the impression that the 1947 Roswell event is a matter of historical fact. Incredible-sounding but unsubstantiated claims by alleged witnesses and participants have further exacerbated the situation. Consequently, according to recent opinion polls, the majority of Americans now believe in the reality of an event that never occurred — the crash of an alien spaceship northwest of Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947, and its subsequent recovery and transportation by the U.S. military to Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.
Wright Patterson is indeed where the Air Force's technical and intelligence experts were, and still are, concentrated. It is where the recovered wreckage from a foreign craft of any kind with the potential for invading our skys, including an alien spaceship, would be taken and kept for technical analysis. Contrary to the Roswell legend, however, no such craft was taken to and stored at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. If such an event had occurred, as ranking officials of the Foreign Technology Division (FTD) at Wright Patterson, we would have known about it. During our collective tenure there, which spanned a period of 17 years — 1957 through 1974 — there was no alien spaceship, and no secret hangar housing it — of that we give our word.
Going on record with such an unequivocal statement is not something we take lightly. As retired military officers, we would not dishonor ourselves, our military careers, our families, or our country by lying to the American people, especially about an issue of such great potential significance.
Any doubters should note that if an alien spaceship were actually being kept at Wright Patterson Air Force Base by the U.S. government, the administration in power could choose to declassify the matter at any time. With that uncertainty, publicly lying about such an issue, on top of all else, would be pure folly.
As is surely the opinion of the vast majority of Americans, both civilians and military, we are in total agreement that anything as important and profound as knowledge of other intelligent life in the universe would be information that should not be suppressed or censored by any government. It would be information to which all humanity should be entitled.
/s/
Walter Klinikowsku, FTD 1960-74, Deputy Director of Intelligence
Collections, Director of Foreign Activities
/s/
Walter Vitunac, ATIC (Air Technical Intelligence Center) and FTD 1957-1962, AFSC (Air Force Systems
Command) 1965-68, Director of Intelligence Collections, Director of Foreign Technology Programs, Director of
Foreign Activities
/s/
George Weinbrenner, FTD 1968-74, Commander of the Foreign
Technology Division
