Richard French, a retired lieutenant colonel, has given an interview with the Huffington Post in which he not only confirms the story that a UFO crashed there, but thickens it by saying “There were actually two crashes at Roswell, which most people don’t know about.”
The supposed crash was first reported as a “flying disk” by the air force, but the story was amended to clarify that it was in fact a weather balloon. The changing of the story cued many suspicious theorists that something was being hidden. French fills in the details:
“The first one was shot down by an experimental U.S. airplane that was flying out of White Sands, N.M., and it shot what was effectively an electronic pulse-type weapon that disabled and took away all the controls of the UFO, and that’s why it crashed.
“When they hit it with that electromagnetic pulse — bingo! — there goes all their electronics and, consequently, the UFO was uncontrollable.”
The second UFO, he claims, was trying to recover the first.
“We think that the reason they were in there at that time was to try to recover parts and any survivors of the first crash. I’m [referring to] the people from outer space — the guys whose UFO it was.”
French had long debunked UFO myths, so the fact that he is now making one suggests either that he ran across compelling evidence in his search, or that his debunking was fueled by a fascination that finally won control of him. Or he might like the attention. Whatever the case, Army Col. John Alexander disputes the part of the story about U.S. electronic pulse technology.
“We couldn’t have done it then,” he told the Huffington Post. “No chance! Zero chance!”
So what to make of all this? It seems French is offering his story, which he learned from another unidentified officer, on his own authority, but otherwise has no substantiating evidence to suggest it is more than opportunistic reporting. He does, however, have his own conspiracy theory as to why it was covered up.
“They never give you an explanation, but I’ll tell you what my analysis of it is: If they accepted the fact that there are creatures coming to Earth from other universes or from wherever, it basically would destroy religions, and the fact that our military’s helpless against them would destroy the reputation of the military,” French explained. “You’re talking about military, national defense, and religious reasons.”