Wednesday, June 25, 1997
Abilenians believe the truth is out there
By BRIAN BETHEL / Abilene Reporter-News
Picture it: Government conspiracies. Elaborate cover-ups. The
clash of skeptics and believers. Alien life forms. And a truth
perhaps forever unknown.
Ad copy for an episode of the popular UFO-show "The X-Files?"
Try the street corner near the U.S. post office in Abilene
about 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Regardless of whether the U.S. government's latest attempt
to dispell rumors of what happened in Roswell, N.M., in 1947 is
true, a good number of Abilenians believe the Red, White and Blue
may be hiding the truth.
Take resident Jerry Solis, who said he didn't buy the government
story released Tuesday.
"I don't think the government is telling the truth at
all," Jerry Solis said. "I think it actually was a UFO,
but we'll never know. The government is going to lie about this
no matter what."
Solis said the U.S. Air Force's explanation - that witnesses
confused dates and mis-remembered crash test dummies used in parachute
tests as alien bodies - was false.
"Personally, I think if people did get dates mixed up,
it certainly wasn't events that happened five years apart,"
he said. "I can see a week, maybe. But not five years."
Skeptics of the report believe that the dummies allegedly seen
by witnesses were not put into use until five years after the
1947 "saucer crash."
Other locals, though, said that the government was right.
"I don't think there's anything more to it than that,"
said Charles Barr. "I've logged 7,000 flight hours myself,
and I haven't seen anything like that. I'm sure the government
is telling the truth."
Not once had a "Foo Fighter" - an old name pilots
adopted for UFOs - buzzed one of his craft, he said.
"I think the truth is the government's covering up the
truth," said 19-year-old Michael Conley. "I'm not sure
what landed out there, but at the time they originally said it
was an unidentified flying object. Later, they said it wasn't
and claimed responsibility. It just doesn't add up."
Conley was referring to a famous press release issued in early
July 1947 claiming a flying disc had been recovered near Corona,
N.M., which is actually closer to the crash site than Roswell.
Not long after, the story was allegedly quashed by government
officials.
Newlyweds Kevin and Barbara Lathan had differing opinions on
the crash's cause.
"Something did crash," Kevin Lathan said. "I
don't doubt the people - not everyone in Roswell, N.M., is crazy,
obviously. It was probably something other than a UFO. But the
government didn't say 'No it's not' very forcefully, so everyone
automatically assumed it could have been."
More than likely, the Air Force didn't want people to know
its latest multi-billion-dollar project had just crashed in rural
New Mexico, he said.
"What would you say?" he asked. " 'Oops, sorry
taxpayers?' "
Barbara Lathan believes something crashed in Roswell - and
that something could have been a UFO.
"I believe, in any case, that the government had something
to do with it," she said. "I believe in UFOs - he doesn't.
In my opinion, it could have been one."
Carl Parker, 34, waxed Saganesque about the possibility of
life on other worlds.
"I think it could have been an actual UFO," he said.
"I think alien life is very probable" given the scope
and size of the universe.
T.A. Smith disagreed.
"I don't believe in any of that UFO stuff," the 73-year-old
Abilenian said. "I've been around a long time and I haven't
seen one yet."
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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