The quotation, in his own handwriting, on the first page of that book is, "Here's the truth and I still haven't told anybody anything!"
In the months before he died, he confided in a number of close and life long friends that suddenly, the officers of the 509th Bomb Group were confronted with a technology greater than that of Earth. They, meaning the creatures in the flying saucers, had control of the sky. The Air Force was powerless against them. And they, the members of the Army Air Forces, had just seen the power of control of the sky. It was one of the factors that defeated the enemies in the Second World War.
Saunders went on, telling people that military officials had no idea about what their, the pilots of the craft, intentions might be. Their technology was more advanced than that of the United States. Top military leaders didn't know if the alien beings were a threat so the government was reluctant to release anything about them.
What's important here is that Saunders did not share this information with UFO researchers or outsiders. He kept it to himself, telling close friends and family only after the story had been told by so many others in so many other arenas. It can't be said that he was seeking fame or fortune by creating a tale to put himself in the limelight. He told only his closest friends and family.
Saunders mentioned to those same friends and family that he planned on making a video-taped statement to be released upon his death. Unfortunately he didn’t have the time to complete that tape. All that is left is the single statement he placed in the book and a few comments made to his friends and family.
Not All Are Positive, Others Are
The other senior member of Blanchard’s staff who expressed any opinion on this was Lieutenant Colonel Robert Barrowclough, who, in 1947 was the executive officer. Like the other members of Colonel Blanchard’s staff, he had served in the Second World War, eventually commanding a B-29 squadron on Tinian in the Mariannas Islands in the Pacific Theater. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal and the Asiatic and Pacific Campaign Medals.
During interviews with other members of the 509th Bomb Group, including Robert Porter, Barrowclough was identified as one of the pilots who had flown a special mission out of Roswell carrying the strange metallic debris. Porter had suggested that he had flown with Major Marcel, on the July 8 trip to Fort Worth. Porter was of the opinion that Barrowclough had been the aircraft commander on that flight. The problem here is that the records show Barrowclough was not in Roswell when the excitement began. In fact, according to the Morning Reports, documents required of every military unit that shows who is where and who is ready for duty each day, Barrowclough returned from leave on July 9. In other words, Barrowclough was not there to take the July 8 flight.
Of all the top officers at Roswell in 1947 interviewed by researchers, Barrowclough is the only one to suggest that nothing extraordinary happened. In a June 15, 1997 handwritten note to Kent Jeffrey, Barrowclough noted, “Thank you for the copy of the UFO Journal on the Roswell myth. Maybe some of those crack pots will quit calling me up and say I’m covering up a deep gov’t secret. You pretty well covered the subject.” It was signed only with his initials.
But, if we expand our investigation to the secondary staff, we can develop more information. Edwin Easley, in July 1947, was the provost marshal at the Roswell Army Air Field which meant he was responsible for security and police functions. Asked during a first conversation if he was the right man, meaning he had been the provost marshal in July 1947 at Roswell, he told me that he was. When I asked specifically about the UFO crash, he said, without hesitation, "I can't talk about it."
There are those in the UFO community today and there are skeptics who insist that Easley suggested the topic was classified because he didn't want to talk about it to me or to any others who might call. Skeptics have suggested the quickest way to get rid of UFO investigators was to say that the events were classified and couldn't be discussed. In reality, the quickest way would have been to suggest that nothing was known about the crash. If he suggested it was classified, it would have started a campaign to learn exactly what he knew that was of a classified nature.
Easley said, repeatedly during that first audio-taped telephone interview, that he had been sworn to secrecy. He couldn't talk about these events. Not that the events didn't happen, not that it was all invention, delusion and imagination, but that he was sworn to secrecy. He couldn't talk about it. He would later say that he had promised the president he wouldn’t talk about it. Here, I believe he told a representative of the president rather than speaking with Truman himself. To Easley it would have been the same thing as actually giving the president a face-to-face promise.
In a February 1991 interview Easley provided the details of the case that he could. For example, he said that Mack Brazel had been held at the guest house on the base. Mack Brazel, remember, had told friends and family that he had been in jail, put there by the military. Easley's statement seemed to corroborate that story. And, while being in the guest house is not exactly the same as being in jail, if you are not allowed to leave and there is a guard on the door, it is, basically, the same thing.
But the most important aspect of that conversation with Easley was the end of it. Here was a man who clearly knew something about the details of the Roswell case. He had been sworn to secrecy according to what he had repeatedly said himself. He didn't want to talk about it and his answers were often short and sometimes cryptic. For example, when I asked if he thought UFO researchers were following the right path, he asked, “What do you mean?”
I said, “We believed the craft found was of extraterrestrial origin.”
He then said, "Let me put it this way. That's not the wrong path."
Here is a man who retired from the military as a full colonel. In 1947 he was a major and in charge of the military police at the Roswell Army Air Field. He went from Roswell to a long career in the Air Force. He certainly wasn't the type of individual to invent such a tale. In fact, had he not been sought out and interviewed, his role in the Roswell events would never have been known. He didn't come forward to find his place in the spotlight or see himself on television. Because he was so reluctant to talk, his testimony suggesting the craft was of extraterrestrial origin is extremely important.
The problem for skeptics, and frankly some of the believers, is that I didn’t get Easley on tape saying this. The situation at the time, I was at the CUFOS office and they told me to make some telephone calls while they completed their business meeting, meant I had the use of a telephone and didn’t have to pay for it. I called Easley to verify some things. It was in the course of this conversation that he verified the idea that the craft had been extraterrestrial.
Others have told me, had that happened to them, they would have gone out to buy a tape recorder and called him back. I didn’t think there was any such pressure. Easley had always been cordial with me and there was no reason to believe that I wouldn’t have a chance to talk with him again.
It was also about this time that we heard that Easley, asked by his granddaughter about the UFO crash, said very little about it. He replied to her, “Oh, the creatures.”
Mark Rodeghier, the scientific director of CUFOS, wanted to interview Easley when he went to Fort Worth later that year. I attempted to arrange it, believing that, if nothing else, Rodeghier would be able to verify Easley’s statement. Easley, unfortunately, became ill, too ill to meet with investigators. He died not long after that.