For decades, there have been recurring claims about indestructible material found at Roswell, material that reportedly wouldn’t burn, couldn’t be bent, and instantly returned to its original shape when deformed. However, it couldn’t have been entirely indestructible if fragments were scattered everywhere. So, what is the story behind these claims? Where do these statements originate from?
Illustration
Similar to the article analyzing the pink-colored tape, we want to revisit the eyewitness accounts, this time focusing on Jesse Marcel’s statements. He mentioned that the material did not burn and could not be bent.
RANCHER MAC BRAZEL
On June 14, 1947, rancher William Mac Brazel discovered debris on the Foster Ranch.
US Airforce Photo
According to official reports, the debris came from a weather balloon, which was later identified as part of the remnants of Project Mogul. Specifically, it was said to involve a radar reflector. From the ground, the balloon’s position was tracked using radar.
Project Mogul was a highly classified initiative by the US Army Air Forces that utilized high-altitude balloons equipped with microphones. Its main objective was to detect long-distance sound waves produced by Soviet atomic bomb tests.
This photo shows a radar reflector attached beneath a balloon:
*AI colorized and adapted for analysis purposes. Attribution for original photos from 1947 to: “Courtesy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Photograph Collection, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library, Arlington, Texas.”
Let’s take a closer look at the witnesses’ statements:
The following statements were made by Sheridan Cavitt: (Witness directly on-site)
It was amall amount as I recall, bamboo sticks, reflective sort of material that would, well at first glance, you would probably think it was aluminum foil, something of that type. I thought it was a weather balloon. – It looked to me, somebody lost a weather balloon.
The rancher Mac Brazel himself stated the following: (Witness directly on-site)
The rubber was smoky gray in color and scattered over an area about 200 yards in diameter. – When the debris was gathered up the tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks made a bundle about three feet long and 7 or 8 inches thick, while the rubber made a bundle about 18 or 20 inches long and about 8 inches thick. There was no sign of any metal in the area which might have been used for an engine and no sign of any propellers of any kind, although at least one paper fin had been glued onto some of the tinfoil. There were no words to be found anywhere on the instrument, although there were letters on some of the parts. Considerable scotch tape and some tape with flowers printed upon it had been used in the construction.
Major Jesse Marcel
Statement regarding the debris by Jesse Marcel: (Witness directly on-site)
I saw – well we found some metal, little bits of metal, but basically we found some materials that were hard to describe. I’d never seen anything like it, and I still don’t know what it was. We picked it up, anyway. One thing, one thing… –
One thing I remember, I remember this very distinctly. I wanted to burn a piece of this thing, but all I could – what I had was a lighter, since I’m a big smoker anyway. I lit the lighter under a piece of this stuff, and it didn’t burn.
There were inscriptions. Something indecipherable. I personally had never seen anything like it. Um, I call them hieroglyphics. I don’t know if they were ever deciphered or not.
Small rods, thin rods, strong rods that you couldn’t bend or break, but it didn’t look like metal. It looked more like wood.
They were of varying sizes. They were, as I can recall, perhaps three-eighths of an inch to a quarter of an inch wide and of about all sorts of lengths. None of them were very long. – The largest ones: I would say about three feet – Weight: You couldn’t even tell you had anything in your hands – just like you were holding balsa wood. – It was a solid rod, rectangular rods, just like you would have a lath. Various lengths, and along some of them there were little inscriptions, two-color inscriptions if I remember correctly – like Chinese writing. Nothing that you could make out what it would say. – Was it all in this shape, long and thin? All the solid rods were like that.
There was the other material there that looked very much like parchment that also didn’t burn.
Obviously, I – I’m not speculating – I was familiar with really all the methods of weather observation devices that were used by the military, and I couldn’t identify any of this stuff as weather observation devices.
Statement regarding the debris by Jesse Marcel Jr. (Son of Major Jesse Marcel):
One night, I was awakened by my father in the middle of the night. He was very excited about some debris he had picked up in the desert. The material filled up his 1942 Buick. He brought some of the material into the house, and we spread it out on the kitchen floor. There were three categories of debris: a thick, foil-like metallic gray substance; a brittle, brownish-black plastic-like material, like Bakelite; and there were fragments of what appeared to be I-beams. On the inner surface of the I-beam, there appeared to be a type of writing. The writing was a purple-violet hue, and it had an embossed appearance. The figures were composed of curved, geometric shapes. It had no resemblance to Russian, Japanese or any other foreign language. It resembled hieroglyphics, but it had no animal-like characters.
The Official Reports
If you refer to the official explanations from that time, they mention a radar reflector. This was further confirmed by research conducted in the 1990s. The difference, however, is that it was admitted that the debris was not from a weather balloon but rather part of Project Mogul. Radar reflectors were also used in this project to help determine positions. Key witnesses involved provided clear evidence, and notably, the Roswell Report cites several interviews supporting these claims.
Project Mogul was primarily tested in the 1940s near the Alamogordo Army Air Field (now Holloman Air Force Base) in New Mexico. This location was chosen because it was remote and provided optimal conditions for conducting secret experiments.
One of the key figures involved in the development of Project Mogul was Charles B. Moore.
He was instrumental in developing and testing the high-altitude balloon systems used in the project. Moore’s expertise in atmospheric physics and his work on radar targets were crucial for the success of the experiments.
He helped design the balloon configurations that could carry sensitive equipment, such as microphones and radar reflectors, to the required altitudes for long-range sound wave detection.
Moore contributed to integrating radar reflectors into the system to help track the balloons during their flights. These reflectors were necessary for monitoring the position and movement of the payloads.
He was involved in launching and recovering the balloon systems, collecting data, and analyzing the results to improve their performance.
If it was indeed a radar reflector whose debris was observed, Charles B. Moore would be the exact person who should recognize it and be knowledgeable about its construction.
The Roswell Report research team asked Charles B. Moore the following questions:
>>> Which radar reflector model was used at that time?
In 1947 and 1948, we used the B-model of radar reflectors. … this, in the B models was more like an aluminum foil with a heavy laminated paper. So the material they talk about, I think, was derived from some version of this.
>>> They talk in terms of the material, being able to crumple it and releasing it, and it would unfold by itself and not leave any creases.This material looks like it would almost be like aluminum foil, would crease and remain creased.
It does have this paper laminate, and the paper, I think, was maybe a bit tougher on the earlier thing.
>>> Burned?
I think some of the balsa wood was dipped in something like Elmer’s glue, and as a result had some sort of a glue coating on it which would make it somewhat resistant to burning.
>>> in Colonel Weaver’s discussions with Sheridan
Cavitt, they talked about the aspect of burning.
recall burning anything, but then his wife indicated that there had been one night they’d been out and had a barbecue and had a few beers and that Jesse Marcel just took a piece and stuck it in the barbecue and then pulled it back out. So if that’s what they’re using to say it wouldn’t burn, that’s what we consider typically testing a material for burning or not.
I have a memory that there was something like Elmer’s glue … behind. There was a problem in attaching this to the paper.
>>> You indicated that the balsa wood was coated with some sort of glue such as Elmer’s glue.
That’s my memory. It wasn’t completely coated. Some
of it was and some of it wasn’t.
>>> Some of the balsa wood is fairly dense, as far as being durable, and one of the descriptions concerning this wood-like material was that you couldn’t dent it with your fingernail. So if you have a fairly dense balsa wood coated with a glue, it may be quite possible that a person would not be able to put their fingernail in it.
That’s correct. It’s my memory that the reflective material was more aluminum foil …
Roger Ramey: (Wednesday, Jul 9, 1947).
“One Disk Tale Exploded by Army as Others Fly.”
”Fort Worth Star-Telegram”. Evening edition. Page 1.
Public domain
In summary, this means that some of the material was heavily laminated. When laminated material is bent or folded, it often springs back to its original shape. The fact that some of the material found did not burn, as Charles B. Moore mentioned, could be due to the glue used in large quantities, which made the material more fire-resistant.