ROSWELL.

The material was unlike anything he had seen — lightweight metal that returned to its original shape when crumpled, thin I-beam struts with strange hieroglyphic symbols, and a foil-like substance that couldn't be cut or burned. He reported it to the local sheriff, who contacted Roswell Army Air Field.

On July 8th, 1947, RAAF Public Information Officer Walter Haut issued a press release confirming the Army had recovered a "flying disc." The story circled the globe in hours. Within 24 hours, the Army reversed course — claiming it was merely a weather balloon from Project Mogul. But witnesses told a different story.

Major Jesse Marcel, the base intelligence officer sent to examine the debris, maintained until his death that the materials were not from any known aircraft. Mortician Glenn Dennis received calls from Roswell base asking about child-sized caskets. Base nurse Naomi Self told him she had assisted in autopsies of "small beings." Dozens of civilians and military personnel described seeing bodies at the crash site or in the base hospital.

The 1994 USAF report acknowledged the balloon cover story but attributed the bodies to crash test dummies — a program that didn't begin until 1953. Former CIA Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter became one of the early members of NICAP and stated publicly that the government was concealing evidence. The Roswell incident remains the defining UFO case of the modern era — not because of what we know, but because of what the government demonstrably lied about.