According to the notes that Brangalia shared with me, as a lieutenant, Cordes admired Jesse Marcel, Sr. (who was an intelligence officer and Cordes would find himself assigned to intelligence later in his career) and said that there was no reason for him to lie about anything. She said that Glenn Dennis’ nurse had been committed to a home before she died (Hey, I’m just reporting what was said, but here is a little corroboration for the Dennis story). She said that Blanchard was “a believer and anyone in the military who wanted to stay in didn’t talk about it.”
Because she had grown up on a farm near Roswell and had worked in the First National Bank there, she knew many of the players in this story, knew some things about the case outside the military. She said that she had lived two doors down from the Wilcox family and said that they “were threatened and were afraid for their own reasons.”
Working in the bank she heard things from the ranchers and wrote, “At the bank I heard the ranchers discussing Mack Brazel and they thought his new red pickup was his payoff.”
But her story wasn’t just about what she had heard in the bank. She wrote, “My story begins the night of July 3rdwith my family in Ruidoso where we always celebrated the 4thand I had to close the bank and was tasked with icing the soda and beer and driving to meet them. As I made the usual rounds for ice I was told that the Air Base had bought all the ice so I went to the train station looking for dry ice but was told the AFB had wiped them out…”
She added, “Then when our family returned that week to go back to our ranch to attend to our stock we were barred from the Pine Lodge hiway by camaflogued [sic] airmen with machine guns that some fear entered the picture. Many stories at the bank from early rising ranchers about long trucks covered in canvas going to the base before dawn!!”
She said, “My husband flew 25 different planes including the U-2 and Airborne [sic] Looking Glass [which was the airborne command post during the Cold War] and said there was nothing hidden at Area-51 except planes [sorry Bob Lazar fans]. He also wondered his whole life why there was a cover-up and yes, he did tell me that he perused the files as a CIA agent but found everything empty.”
I will note here that there is nothing in Cordes official biography that suggests he was detailed to the CIA, but, by the same token, there are gaps in in that resume. However, after his completion of Command and Staff School he was assigned as an intelligence staff officer which could mean he worked with the CIA and would have had some access to their records. He wasn’t detailed to the CIA, but might have had contact with those there.
There is one other point to be made here. Kent Jeffrey, as he was conducting his Roswell research, contacted Cordes. Apparently Cordes said nothing to him about his involvement or knowledge but referred Kent to George Weinbrenner. Jeffrey wrote about this saying, “After my conversations with Klinikowsky and Vatunac, Harry Cordes, a former 509thpilot and a retired brigadier general suggested I call a former acquaintance of his, George Weinbrenner, who had also been at the FTD [Foreign Technology Division, where Klinikowsky and Vatunac had also served]… Weinbrenner told me pretty much what I had already learned from Klinikowsky and Vatunac, but it was interesting to talk to him, nonetheless. With respect to the crashed UFO subject, he also found it humorous and stated that if something like that had happened, I would have know about it…”
But now we have evidence, from both Cordes and his widow that Cordes knew about it. So the question is, why didn’t Weinbrenner know? Could it be that Weinbrenner was keeping the secret? And why would Cordes tell Jeffrey to talk to Weinbrenner?
In the end, we have an intriguing story that begins with a quote from a former Air Force brigadier general and then we have additional information from his wife. First-hand quotes from the general, first-hand quotes and observations from the wife, and then her memories of things her husband had shared with her. Maybe not the smoking gun, but certainly interesting testimony to add to the stack.
J. Bond Johnson, the Ramey Memo and Me
In reviewing what Barry Greenwood had written about the Ramey Memo I thought about my interaction with J. Bond Johnson (seen here), the man who had taken the photographs. It started cordial enough with two long recorded telephone conversations and ended with two more that were somewhat acrimonious. All this came about because Johnson started talking to others and realized that what he originally said and originally believed was in conflict with the spotlight he wanted to draw to himself. To keep that spotlight focused on himself, he had to say things about me, and about his interactions with General Ramey that he had to know were not true.
As I have explained in the past, I learned about Johnson by accident. I was attempting to find an original copy of the picture of Warrant Officer (later major) Irving Newton that had been taken in Ramey’s office on July 8, 1947. According to that old Lookmagazine special on Flying Saucers, the picture of Irving Newton with the weather balloon was held by the Bettmann Photo Archives. They sent me two black and white Xerox copies of photographs of Roger Ramey with the balloon and target they held. The caption (cutline for those interested in precise terminology) told me that the pictures had been transmitted by INP Soundphoto at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time and had been taken by J. Bond Johnson. If nothing else, this confirmed Johnson’s participation. I learned that Johnson had worked at the Fort Worth Star-Telegramand that the negatives should be there. Of course, they weren’t and I was directed to the University of Texas at Arlington and to their Special Collections library. And that is where I found additional pictures. None of Newton, by the way, but others of Major Jesse Marcel Sr., Brigadier General Roger Ramey and Colonel Thomas J. DuBose.
The woman who worked there at the time, which was 1989, was Betsy Hudon and she mentioned that she had been talked with a fellow who claimed to be the photographer. Given my cynical nature, I wasn’t sure I believed that, but thought I should check it out and asked who that was. She refused to give me the name, believing that it would violate his privacy. She had no problem, however, sending along a letter to him from me as a way of introducing me to him.
As a courtesy, she sent me a copy of the letter she had enclosed with mine, and on it was the name and address of the mystery photographer. So, I knew who he was though I’m sure her mistake was entirely unintentional.
In a few days I received a telephone call from J. Bond Johnson and in a taped interview, he told me what happened in General Ramey’s office. Of course I asked him if he minded if I recorded the call and he said he did not. As a note, on the second call to him, I asked him on tape if he minded and again he said that he did not. Later he would claim that I had called him cold and that I had not said anything about recording the conversations.
I will also note here that I didn’t call him cold because he had received a letter from me so he knew my interest and I got his telephone number from him. He called me so that we could talk.
Given the nature of the following events, I believe that the first and second interviews with Johnson are the closest to the real truth. I believe this because the facts, as established through other sources such as newspaper articles including one that Johnson originally claimed he had written himself, and with interviews with others who were in Ramey’s office on July 8, 1947, corroborate the facts. Later, as Johnson moved into his fantasy world, his comments were completely contradicted by other evidence.
I began the interview by asking, “ You took the pictures of Marcel and the guys with the wreckage?”