UFOs, et al: INTERVIEW WITH DR. JESSE MARCEL, JR.

THE ROSWELL LEGACY

An interview with Dr Jesse Marcel jr

By Philip Mantle

In early July 1947, something crashed in the high desert outside of Roswell, New
Mexico. Sheep rancher Mac Brazel discovered some strange metallic debris on his
land. Not knowing what it was he eventually took some of this debris into Roswell
and reported it to the Sheriff’s Office. They in turn contacted Roswell Army Air
Force who housed the 509th Bomb Wing, the only atomic bomb wing in the world at
that time. RAAF dispatched two men to Roswell to look at his strange debris. One
of these was base intelligence officer Major Jesse Marcel. Major Marcel drove out to
the ranch in question and recovered some of this material. On his way back to base he
stopped at his home in the early hours of the morning. He awakened his wife and his son,
11 year-old Jesse Marcel jr.

Major Marcel spread some of the recovered material on the kitchen floor of his
house and Jesse jr was most intrigued by it. Little did either of them know then that
they were to become involved in what has become known as the Roswell Incident.
Major Marcel passed away in the l980’s, but not before he had told his story. Over
the weekend of October 20th and 21st 2007, UFO DATA magazine held it’s annual
conference. This years theme was the 60th anniversary of the Roswell Incident. In the
UK for the first time was the now Dr Jesse Marcel jr, the son of Major Jesse Marcel.
He was the keynote speaker at the event and I had the pleasure of his company for the
day on October 24th. During this beautiful autumn day I took the opportunity to show
Dr Marcel some of the unique countryside of North Yorkshire, the Yorkshire Dales
National Park and one of its many historic attractions at Bolton Abbey in Wharfedale.
After a day in the autumn sun I took the time to interview Dr Marcel about his
recollections of that morning back in l947.

Philip Mantle (PM).
Dr Jesse Marcel jr (JM).

PM: Just tell me a little bit about yourself. Who is Dr Jesse Marcel jr.
JM: Well, my dad was the air base intelligence officer in Roswell, New Mexico.
I went to grade school in Roswell. When my dad left the military we moved to
Louisiana where I graduated high school. I went to under graduate school and then to
Louisiana state school of medicine and graduated in l961.
PM: I believe you also served in the armed forces yourself.
JM: Yes I did. I joined the US Navy and toured the Western Pacific, was involved
in the Cuban missile crisis at one time. I was in Japan, China and Vietnam. I went
through specialist training at the naval hospital where I became a specialist in ear, nose
and throat. I stayed ten years in the navy. After that I moved to Helena, Montana.
PM: I believe you continued in the reserves after that.
JM: The National Guard. I joined them in 1972 I believe. I went to flight school for
helicopters and became a flight surgeon. I finally retired in l996.
PM: I believe you did retire but I understand you were still on active duty just
recently.
JM: Yes, I retired on my 60th birthday. However with the conflict in Iraq I was
called up again for active duty as a flight surgeon and I saw 13 months in Iraq
in a helicopter squadron. I saw much of Iraq from a Black Hawk helicopter.
PM: As a young Jesse Marcel, how old were you when the incident in Roswell took
place,
JM: I was 11 years old at that time.
PM: What date was this.
JM: It was early July 1947, I’m not sure of the exact date.
PM: Could you just recount the events again of that morning of early July, l947.
JM: As I said, my dad was the base intelligence officer. It was his job to investigate
certain events. He was called out to a ranch northwest of Roswell to pick up some
debris from something that had crashed on the ranch land. And it just so happened
that our house was on the way back to the base, when he was bringing the material
in. He realised the unusual nature of this (material). So he came in the house, woke
up my mother and myself to look at this debris he had found in the desert just outside
of Roswell. He had already pre-positioned this material on the kitchen floor. He
said, “look at this”, he said, "I think this is the remains of a flying saucer”.
PM: So what did this debris look like.
JM: Actually there were three kinds of debris. There was a lot of foil-like debris,
looked almost like today’s aluminium kitchen foil. Some beams that had some very
strange writing or symbols on it. And some black plastic like material. The beams
were the most intriguing part of the whole thing with the symbols.
PM: So was it you who first identified these symbols on the beams or did your father
point them out to you.
JM: Well I like to think I did but I’m not sure. My mother said that she pointed them
out but I like to think I did.
PM: What did the beams look like, what were these symbols.
JM: These were like small I-beams, 12 to 18 inches long. They were about three
eighths of an inch across. The symbols were just like geometric forms printed on the
inside of the I-beam. They had a very distinctive colour of purple or violet. They were
solid and not line drawings, they were solid.
PM: Did your father comment on them at all.
JM: He said something about maybe seeing writing from another civilisation.
PM: So how long did you view this material for.
JM: For probably about 15 to 20 minutes in total. And then I helped him box it back
up and put it into a l942 Buick. Then I’m not sure if he took off back to base that
night or waited until the next morning. But he did take it back to the base at that time.
PM: So were you aware of the excitement in the town at that time when the RAAF
issued its press release stating they had material from a crashed disk.
JM: Well you know, I was busy riding my bicycle and did not pay any attention to
what the town folk were saying and I did not see the newspaper.
PM: So your father was away for a few days.
JM: When he took the material to the base he was gone for a period of time, I’m not
sure how long it was. My understanding is he was ordered by Colonel Blanchard,
the base commander, to fly the debris to Fort Worth Army Air Field, where General
Ramey the 8th Air Force commander could view the wreckage. I’m not sure exactly
how long he was gone but I do know that he sat my mother and myself down and told
us never to talk about this again. To treat it as a non-event, it did not happen, period.
PM: So when was it that you learned that the official explanation had been put out
that it wasn’t a flying saucer but it was instead a weather balloon.
JM: You know I’m not exactly sure when I learned that, it might have been years
later, because I just put it out of my mind, I did not think about it.
PM: Did you talk to your friends about it.
JM: No. It was a taboo subject.
PM: So in the intervening years, it wasn’t until l978 that your father was contacted by
UFO researcher Stanton Friedman. Did your father talk about it in those intervening
years at all.
JM: You know, we would briefly mention it to each other. Like at the grocery
checkout stand, you see these sensation newspapers with headlines like ‘I was
captured by a Venusian’, and we’d kind of look at each other as if to say ‘we know
the real story’.
PM: And of course there is another witness, it’s your mother. What did she make of
all of this.
JM: Well you know, she was a housewife of the 1940’s. She did not say a whole lot,
her place was in the kitchen so-to-speak. So she never really talked much about it. Of
course I was out of the house by the time Stanton Friedman started interviewing my
dad. I was practicing medicine in Helena, Montana at that time.
PM: So you were out of the way.
JM: Yes, out of the way. Out of the loop.
PM: Now it’s quite some time since your father passed away. Did he add anything
further to the story in those last few years when his story became known.
JM: Well I called him weekly on Sundays I guess it was. We would briefly talk about
this to confirm our memories of this, what did it look like, and he confirmed what I
recollected it looked like. And I remember one of the last conversations I had with
him was he had just gone out to Roswell at the behest of one the TV stations in New
Orleans. And they went out to the debris field and when I talked to him and I jokingly
said to him “ was any of it left out there” and his words were “no, they vacuumed that
place up a long time ago”.
PM: Tell us a little bit more about your father. He was a career military man. For
example, what did he do during World War 2.
JM: Well he was with the 509th bomb group, which was the unit that dropped the
atomic bombs on Japan. He did a lot of training with them; he was the intelligence
officer for that unit. They were a handpicked group. They were not fly-by-night
people at all, so was qualified for that. He was out in the Western Pacific during the
war, and then later in preparation for the dropping of the atomic bomb drops on Japan
he was at Tinian where the B29’s took off from to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
PM: Prior to this incident at Roswell happening in l947, the official explanation is that
your father and others, misidentified a weather balloon with a radar reflector attached
to it. Was your father qualified to comment on what balloon and radar target would
look like.
JM: He was very qualified as he had gone through radar school a short time before
that and was well acquainted with what radar targets and weather balloons looked
like. And the equipment that went with them so he knew that what he was looking at
was not a weather balloon or radar target and I can confirm that also.
PM: So if we are to believe the official explanation, for the sake of argument. It
was a weather balloon and your father misidentified it. On his military record was
he ever he reprimanded, was he demoted, was he promoted sideways so-to-speak.
JM: No, I’ve seen his military record and his officer evaluation reports and they
were always of the highest quality. He was well respected, well respected as a
highly trained individual and he was never reprimanded or suffered any kind of any
degradation because of his so-called misidentification, period.
PM: And later in his carer, what was his final rank.
JM: He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.
PM: So in actual fact he was promoted.
JM: Yes he was promoted over and above from where he was in Roswell.
PM: So where did your father finish his military career.
JM: He was in Washington, not at the Pentagon at an office in town, and I never knew
where that was, so he finished his career in Washington DC. He resigned from the
Air Force as he wanted to return to Louisiana. I think he had had enough of the military
life and was maybe a little disheartened with what was going on at that time with the
Korean War and he wanted to go home.
PM: So you have just lectured at the UFO DATA magazine’s annual conference. Now
one of the tings you talked about was the fact that you were invited to the Capitol
Building some time afterwards, now could you tell us a little bit more about that.
JM: I was busy at my office at home in Helena and my secretary came and said
there’s a gentleman on the line that wants to talk to you. I said I couldn’t right now
as I’m seeing a patient could you please take a number. And she came back and said
that he insisted on talking to you right now. So I got on the phone and yes what can
I do for you. He said well I understand that you’ll be going to Washington DC to a
meeting and I replied that was right. He said that when I got there he wanted to talk
to me about the Roswell thing. So he said when you get there I want you to call me.
So when I got to Washington and I’d checked in to my motel, there was a message
from him already on the phone, so he knew where I was staying. He wanted to meet
the next day in the Capitol Building, room number 228. So I walked up to the Capitol
Building and introduced myself to him, he was a very nice individual. He says we
need to talk about Roswell. So I said okay. But at any rate he asked me if I wanted to
talk in a secure room. I said no, I’m not going to say anything I haven’t already said
many times before. He said well I might tell you something so we are going to talk in
a secure room. Okay. So we got in the elevator and went down many levels below the
capitol Building to where there’s a group of very nicely furnished meeting rooms for
very high-ranking people. He had a book on Roswell pre-positioned on the desk there,
and he pointed to the book and he said, “This is not fiction”. I said well I know it’s
not fiction and when are you guys going to tell everybody about that. He said if it was
up to him he’d have told everyone years ago but it was not up to him
PM: So who was this man. Was he a government official.
JM: His name was Dick D’Amato. He described himself as being with the NSA or the
NSC. So I told him what I know about the Roswell affair. And he said that’s right. He
asked me if I’d ever been threatened by anyone. I told him no I had not. He said he
knew people that had been threatened. So he wrote his name down on a piece of paper
and his telephone number. So he said if I was ever threatened to just give him a call.
But I’ve never had to do that.
PM: In recent years there’s been attempts to slur your fathers good name. If you can’t
destroy the message then shoot the messenger. What do you have to say about that.
JM: Well you know, I just take it as part of the territory, you know I know there’s
going to be people, for their own agenda, want to destroy any notion of UFOs or
flying saucers or Roswell. I just take it as part of the territory.
PM; Now down the years I dare say you’ve spoken to others involved in the incident
at the time. Is there anyone that stands out among the crowd whose testimony you
find most compelling.
JM: I guess there would be Bill Brazel, the rancher’s son, who picked up a piece of
the wreckage up before it was vacuumed up. He put it in his saddlebag and some time
later in a bar in Corona he got drunk and talked about having a piece of it. Then a couple
of days later he had a knock on his door and they wanted the piece back.
PM: Did Bill Brazel describe this material to you. Did it have any unusual properties.
JM: It was described as a foil (material), just like I’d seen.
PM: People have said it was some kind of memory metal. Did Bill Brazel mention
this.
JM: He did not but my dad did. He mentioned that if you folded it up it would unfold.
I myself did not witness that.
PM: Did your father also tell you about the unbreakability of the material.
JM: He related one event where one of the men in his office took a larger piece
that I did not see, and tried to dent it with a sledgehammer and could not make any
permanent marking on it with a 12-pound sledgehammer.
PM: Now we’ve just gone past the 60th anniversary of the Roswell event and you have
published your own book ‘The Roswell Legacy’. Tell me a little bit about the book
and why you have decided to publish it now.
JM: Well I am getting on a little in years and there’s not many people like me left that
had direct knowledge of this event. So I just wanted to get into print, my story, my
thoughts and why I think that the events at Roswell were a real UFO from some place
else. I just wanted to get that down while I still could.
PM: Right, especially if you get called back into active service in Iraq.
JM: Well I started writing the book while in Iraq. Reminders of your mortality are
everywhere there. One night a mortar hit nearby. So you didn’t sleep with your flak
jacket on but after that I started putting my laptop in my flak jacket to protect it. If we
got hit at least the book would survive.
PM: Now you’ve called the book ‘THE ROSWELL LEGACY’. Now in your opinion
what is the legacy of Roswell Incident.
JM: The legacy is to acknowledge the fact that we are not alone in this universe. That
there are other civilisations out there and more importantly is that they know how to
get here from there, so they are more advanced. And I think one of the messages is
that they are more advanced than we are so they have probably survived their own
nuclear adolescence. So the message is if that others can survive this and warfare then
maybe we can too.
PM: So one last thing. The United States Air Force official position still remains
that the crash at Roswell was a balloon, or even Project Mogul, which is still just a
balloon. What do you say to that.
JM: Well a balloon is a balloon is a balloon. Project Mogul’s mission was top secret
but the material they used was just off-the-shelf material, radar targets and balloons.
There was no difference just the mission that was different.
PM: Now you’ve seen you father’s photographs taken at Fort Worth just after the
incident. He is holding this wreckage on the floor.
JM: No, it definitely was not. You know that’s what is funny about this whole thing.
If you look at my dad’s face when he’s holding up this obvious radar target. He face is
like ‘you’ve got to be kidding me, this is not the real stuff, they switched it’.
PM: So what would you say to anyone who doubts the extraterrestrial idea of the
crash at Roswell.
JM: Stay tuned and look to the skies because they are out there.
PM: Dr Jesse Marcel, thank you very much.
I must say that it was a real pleasure to spend the day with Dr Jesse Marcel jr and to
be able to take time for an interview with him. Irrespective of your thoughts on what
happened at Roswell you cannot doubt the honesty and sincerity of this man. I would
heartily recommend you add The Roswell Legacy to your book collection and you
can order a copy online at: www.theroswelllegacy.com.

Philip Mantle is an international author, lecturer and broadcaster on the subject of
UFOs. He can be contacted at: philip@mantle8353.fsworld.co.uk.

We want to thank Philip for sending this interview with Jesse Marcel.
____________

Jesse Marcel, Jr.

My focus in this book will be to present the reader with a clearer picture of the man who was - and remains - at the center of the Roswell controversy; my father, Jesse Marcel, Sr. While I must acknowledge that my own account carries within its own bias, I realize that my duty to my father is to present him as the man he was, as accurately as possible, lest I fall into the same trap as those who have allowed their own biases and agendas to paint a portrait that is not as much the man as what he represents to them and their goals. As such, I feel I am the only living person truly qualified to wield the brush. I hope I serve his memory well.

n interview with Dr Jesse Marcel

By Philip Mantle

UFOs, et al

Pages

Sunday, September 12, 2010

INTERVIEW WITH DR. JESSE MARCEL, JR.

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