The 1947 Roswell, New Mexico alien sighting is perhaps the most famous in American history. On July 2, 1947, a local rancher named Mac Brazel heard an explosion and, upon investigating the following morning, found a debris field with unidentifieable metallic like objects. Major Jesse Marcel from the local Army Air Field (precursor to the US Air Force) was brought in which led to a series of secretive and protective measures which themselves caused a tidal wave of speculation about the nature of the discovery. The leading theories, none of which have been substantiated, were that two alien craft had crashed, one of which contained the remains of four or five alien bodies which were autopsied by the US government. A 1995 investigation by Congress found no evidence of any alien landing, instead theorizing that any remains that had been discovered were those of balloon crash test dummies.
The strongest evidence of alien remains were descriptions and sketches provided by two military personnel involved in the investigation. Photographs and videos of the remains have all been fakes, including the still from a faked film made by Ray Santilli in 1995. Perhaps influenced by popular culture iconography of alien life, most depictions of the Roswell aliens are remarkably similar. These imagined extraterrestrials represent a futuristic and idealistic version of man. Their features are completely devoid of gender, even as shown in the utterly revealing "autopsy" images. Perhaps this lack of gender is a result of the perception that these aliens represent a highly evolved version of the human race. If this alien race can travel between galaxies (and therefore overcome the known inability to exceed the speed of light), they become god-like, at least in comparison to humans. They must either be immortal due to their ability to travel thousands of light years to other worlds, or have physical compositions which are far superior to the human body. Such a composition would alleviate such human inconveniences as thirst, hunger or even procreation.
Perhaps it is not coincidental that the coverup (if there was one) was undertaken by the US Military. If the Roswell aliens were an evolved and apparently peaceful race of extraterrestrial, it is fitting that those whose business is war would seek to suppress any possibility that war might become obsolete at some point in man's existence.
Roswell, 1947
