Exon was, because of his assignments and his locations during those assignments, in a position to see and hear things about flying saucers and the surrounding investigations. These he reported during the initial interviews with him, drawing on his memories of the situation and what he had seen himself. During these interviews, Exon kept referring to a group of high-ranking officials, both governmental and military, who controlled access to all the data about the Roswell crash in particular and UFOs in general.
Of course, by listening to the tapes of the interviews, and reading the letter that Exon sent to me on November 21, 1991, it is clear that most of what he told me wasn’t really speculation. It was information that he gained because of who he was and where he was and what he had seen himself. The areas of speculation were quite small. There were be more details of this discussed in “Investigators and Investigations” chapter.
Exon told me, for example, that he had been at Wright Field when they heard the material found at Roswell was being brought in. He said that he knew it was coming in. He said that the bodies had been brought to Wright Field and that he believed that one of those bodies had been sent to Lowry Army Air Field because the Army's mortuary service was based there.
During the initial interview conducted on May 19, 1990, I asked Exon, "You've heard the rumors about the little bodies and all that stuff hadn't you?"
Exon responded, "Well, yes, I have. In fact I know people that were in photographing some of the residue from the New Mexico affair near Roswell."
Exon then said, "As a result of that, I know they saw the one sighting and then where…a good bit of the information came down. There was another location where it was where apparently the main body of the spacecraft was [I will note parenthetically that Exon is confirming here, more than one crash site]…where they did say there were bodies there… I've got special information but it may be more rumor than fact about what happened to those bodies although they were all found apparently outside the craft itself but were in fairly good condition. In other words, they weren't broken up a lot."
Exon, a retired Air Force brigadier general, was saying that he heard, from those he knew at Wright Field, that the rumored bodies and the "residue" from New Mexico were being brought to the base for analysis. It was clear from what he said that he did not personally see the bodies, but had heard of them from those who had. He spoke of his special knowledge, suggested it might be rumor but then he described the discovery of the bodies in a serious light based on what his friends, who were first-hand witnesses, had told him.
Talking of the bodies and if they were taken to Wright-Patterson, he said, "Well, that's my information. But one of them was that it went to the mortuary outfit…I think at that time it was in Denver, where these people were being identified. But the strongest information was that they were brought into Wright-Pat."
Exon continued, saying, "But back in that '47 time period, everybody was, it happened and why wasn't there more information and who kept the lid on it. Well, I know [emphasis added] that at the time the sightings happened it went to General Ramey… who was at Carswell Air Force Base [Fort Worth Army Air Field] and he along with the people out at Roswell decided to change the story while they got their act together and got the information into the Pentagon and into the President."
There is no speculation here. Exon was telling researchers what he knew from his conversations with the people directly involved. Notice that there was no hint of speculation anywhere, but Exon, in fact, used the term "I know" instead of anything suggesting that he was guessing based on who he was and what he had heard through the grapevine.
"Of course President Truman and General Spaatz [then commander of the Army Air Forces], the Secretary of Defense [Forrestal] who has now passed away, and other people who were close to them were the ones who made up the key investigative teams in relation to the released information… So they decided to make it a national cover up…I did know [emphasis added] that their numbers one and two people were at the top of the staff including the Secretary of Defense and the Chief of Staff and the intelligence circle including the President, I don't know whether anybody outside the President's office, I never hear of any elected officials."
He then qualified the statements, saying, "This is stuff I've heard from '47 on to the present time, really. About why wasn't it…about who was responsible and it was no problem to find out who was in those positions in '47 and '48 and I just happen to remember them because the Air Force was being formed and I was in the Pentagon and worked around a lot between the Pentagon and the field so I knew these people."
Although he speculated about the location of the metal, meaning he believed that it was still at Wright-Patterson in 1990 when the interviews took place, he did know what happened once it had arrived at the base in 1947. He said, "I think it was there because there was quite a bit of effort to take it to the labs and try to analyze it chemically and metallurgy and everything else involved in trying to find out what the material was because some of it was very flimsy and was tougher than hell and other was almost like foil but strong. It had them pretty puzzled so I know people were investigating trying to find out what it was. And it wouldn't surprise me if some of the material wasn't still around. Certainly the reports."
So Exon was aware of the various laboratory tests that were conducted. It is not necessary for him to have witnessed the tests to know what had transpired during them. Exon might not have seen the tests or participated in them but he was reporting exactly what he had heard from those who had.
In fact, the only area of speculation was that the material would still be around Wright-Patterson somewhere in the 1990s. And, if the material itself couldn't be located, then the reports and analysis of the debris would be available. Reasonable speculation by Exon considering who he was and what he had already admitted to knowing.
Exon then began to speak of the alien bodies. I mentioned the bodies to Exon, saying that he knew the bodies from Roswell had been taken to Wright-Patterson. Exon answered saying that he knew it too, and then added, "Well, I don't know that."
Exon then said, "People I have known were involved in it and they're the ones that told me they [the bodies] got to Wright-Patterson. But what I've been trying to do is try to imagine what could have been done with them scientifically from a storage stand point for further investigation. It's one thing to kind of have an autopsy and another thing to keep them. I know there were facilities available that could have done that but I don't believe they were at Wright-Patterson."
In other words, Exon's speculation wasn't about the bodies arriving at Wright-Patterson, or even the fact there were bodies recovered. Instead, he was speculating on the tests that could be conducted on them when they arrived at Wright-Patterson and where they could have been stored once the preliminary research had been completed.
His knowledge of the Roswell events went far beyond what he had been told by those he trusted. Again, in the last few months before he died, Exon has suggested to some researchers, or more accurately it has been reported by those researchers, that the situation isn't exactly as has been reported. He supposedly told some investigators that he had flown over many areas in the desert southwest and as he had, he had speculated about the location of the crash.
But this reading of the situation simply isn't the case. On June 18, 1990, Don Schmitt had the opportunity to visit Exon at his home in Riverside, California. Schmitt was able to record most of the conversation, though he had trouble with his recorder and a gardener who decided that it was time to mow the lawn. Schmitt also made notes to back up the tape and provided me with a copy of those notes.