W. W. Brazel, 48, Lincoln county rancher living 30 miles south of Corona, today told his story of finding what the army at first described as a flying disk, but the publicity which attended his find caused him to add that if he ever found anything else short of a bomb, he sure wasn’t going to say anything about it.
“I am sure that what I found was not any weather observation balloon,” he said. “But if I find anything else besides a bomb they are going to have a hard time getting me to say anything about it.”
Brazel lived on the ranch alone. None of his family lived on the ranch at all — which had no phone, running water, or electricity — but actually lived over one hundred miles away in the little town of Tularosa, near Alamogordo. (more)
Before EITHER of the July 8th or July 9th “news” articles were published in the Daily Record it was known Brazel, who basically lived in a ramshackle ranch house eight miles from his nearest neighbor and had no telephone, electricity or running water, was picked up from his ranch and taken to the house of the owner of the local Roswell radio station, KGFL, to be interviewed. A wire recording of the interview was made, but because KGFL had signed off for the day the station planned to broadcast it the next morning. Before it could be used Brazel was taken into custody by members of the military police and his exclusive interview confiscated. The Federal Communications Commission (reported to have been through the office of T.J. Slowie, secretary of the Commission, but never admitted to by himself or confirmed by the Commission) warned station personnel that the matter involved national security and should KGFL air any portion of his interview, or issue any information regarding it, they would lose their broadcasting license. Sometime later Brazel showed up at KGFL escorted by military officers, where he then told the “truth” about the debris found on his ranch. Brazel refuted his initial story, claiming now, after being taken into custody and while STILL under custody, that he first found the debris MID-JUNE, 1947 and NOT on the morning of Saturday, July 5, 1947, and that it was simply a weather balloon.
NOTE: The problem with the earlier mid-June date for being the first time finding the debris rather than the later July 5th date is that Tommy Tyree, a ranch-hand that worked on and off for Brazel AFTER the crash, is on record as saying that Brazel complained to him regularly over and over — and to others as well it has been reported — how the day he found the material scattered all over the ranch he had been forced to circle his sheep a mile or more around the area to water because they refused to cross the debris field. It doesn’t make sense, nor is it likely given the average temperature in Corona is 87 degrees and rising in June, that Brazel would leave material scattered all over his ranch from mid-June to early July that frightened his fully wool-covered sheep so much they wouldn’t even go to water on their own, but had to be physically driven just to get a drink. Not only would he be highly remiss in his duties, he would also be putting his livelihood as well as the sheep’s lives in danger.
Continuing, in the second paragraph of the newspaper article above, dated Wednesday, July 9, 1947 the following is presented:
Brazel was brought here late yesterday by W. E. Whitmore, of radio station KGFL, had his picture taken and gave an interview to the Record and Jason Kellahin, sent here from the Albuquerque bureau of the Associated Press to cover the story.
In that the article was published in the Wednesday paper, Brazel being brought “here late yesterday” (i.e., the KGFL radio station) translates into him being brought to the station late afternoon or early evening on Tuesday, July 8th. However, unlike how it is written in the paper, he was actually picked up from his ranch not on Tuesday but late afternoon or early evening of Monday, July 7th and taken to the house of the owner of KGFL for the interview. What the article does is simply ignore the Monday afternoon interview (when the wire recording was made, then confiscated) as being non-existant and jumps to the interview of the next day where Brazel showed up at at the station escorted by military officers and then told the “truth” about what he had either found or saw on his ranch.
He also claimed that it was on Friday morning, July 4, 1947 — by all accounts BEFORE the object came down except for, of course, his surrogate response that was being reported NOW at the time in the above article — that he, his wife Maggie (Margaret), age 45, son Vernon, age 8, and daughter Betty (Bessie Brazel Schreiber), age 14 — none of whom lived on the ranch at all, but who actually lived over one hundred miles away in the little town of Tularosa, near Alamogordo — accompanied him to the debris field and gathered up as much of the scattered material as they could carry. The article goes on to say Brazel heard about flying disks for the first time on the next day, Saturday, then only on MONDAY after letting all day Sunday slip by, did he go into Roswell to sell some wool or possibly sell, trade or buy a new truck, taking a few pieces of debris with him to show to the sheriff.
Regardless of the above published July 9th accounting, or re-accounting as the case may be, it was NOT on Friday, July 4th, but ON the morning of the NEXT day, Saturday, July 5th, and WITHOUT his family — but accompanied instead by the son of neighbors, William D. (sometimes Timothy) “Dee” Proctor, age seven — that Brazel came across the debris for the first time.
It is known Brazel went into the town of Corona sometime Saturday afternoon to do some shopping and, not unusual for him, stopped by the only watering hole in town, Wade’s Bar and pool hall — possibly for a cold beer, BS with his uncle (sometimes brother-in-law) Hollis Wilson and fellow ranchers to get caught up on local gossip. There he overheard or was told the topic de jur about the recent flying saucer sightings in the Pacific Northwest and more recently in Arizona. A few days before a man and his son (actually nephew, (see)) on the way through town stopped to get some water for an overheated truck and tighten or replace a broken or loose fanbelt. While waiting for the truck to cool down, with some time to spare, the two sat in the shade drinking a couple of iced cold sodas. In the process a local merchant or rancher stopped by to see if he could help. He took-up conversation with the man and in a general, small talk sort of way, asked where they were headed and how the trip was going. The man said he and the boy had visited Elden Pueblo where a rare meteorite had been buried by prehistoric Native Americans in a ritual style then to Meteor Crater and were now on their way to Fort Sumner to see Billy the Kid’s gravesite. Somehow the topic veered away from meteors and meteorites to the flying saucers that had been sighted the week before in Washington state. The man, who had basically been in the backcountry for the past few weeks, said it was the first he had heard of such things. Then taking a stick, he began drawing a nearly circular figure in the dirt. Pointing to the finished rendition he related that he and the boy had been run off the road “by two of the damn things” near Williams, Arizona just a couple of days before.