Person · 1907 – 1986
Jesse Marcel
Also known as Maj. Jesse Marcel, Major Jesse Marcel, Jesse A. Marcel, Major Marcel, Jesse Marcel Sr., Maj. Jesse A. Marcel
- Major, intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group, Roswell Army Air Field (1947); Lt. Col., USAF Reserve
Jesse A. Marcel (1907–1986) was the intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell Army Air Field, the U.S. atomic bomb unit, and the first officer sent to the Foster ranch in July 1947. With the counter-intelligence agent Sheridan Cavitt he collected the debris rancher Mac Brazel had found, and on 8 July the base announced that he had recovered a "flying disc". Flown to Fort Worth the same day, he was photographed with the wreckage in General Roger Ramey's office, where it was identified as a weather balloon and radar target; the Fort Worth Star-Telegram quoted him describing "the remnants of the kite and balloon".
He said nothing more in public for three decades. In 1978, retired in Louisiana, he told the researcher Stanton Friedman that the debris was like nothing he had seen and the balloon story a cover, which opened the modern Roswell story. In a long interview with the NBC reporter Lee Speigel about 1980 he described a debris field three quarters of a mile long, foil-thin metal no sledgehammer could dent and light members carrying pink-lavender symbols, said Ramey ordered him not to talk, and called an origin in outer space "a conjecture" he was nonetheless convinced of. His son, Jesse Marcel Jr., told the same story of the debris shown to the family that night until his death in 2013.
The Air Force's 1994 investigation found the Fort Worth photographs show the same wreckage throughout, and that it matches a Project MOGUL radar target; Cavitt, the other officer at the ranch, recognised it as a balloon, and the Fort Worth weather officer said Marcel tried to persuade him the markings were alien writing. Researchers found that several of Marcel's later claims about his own career, among them a pilot's rating and university degrees, are not borne out by his service records.
Sources: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 9 July 1947 · interview with Lee Speigel (about 1980) · The Roswell Report (U.S. Air Force, 1995) · U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence (2024) · Wikipedia
Facts and claims
- documented The Roswell Daily Record of 8 July 1947 reported, from the base's announcement, that “the Intelligence Officer of the 509th Bomb Group, stationed at Roswell Army Air Field, Major Jesse A. Marcel, had recovered a “flying disc”” that had been flown to higher headquarters. Source: The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert (U.S. Air Force, 1995)
- claimed At General Ramey's headquarters in Fort Worth the next day, the Star-Telegram quoted Marcel: “Brazell then hurried home, and bright and early Sunday dug up the remnants of the kite and balloon”, and “The ranch is out in the middle of nowhere … and we spent a couple of hours Monday afternoon looking for any more parts of the weather device. We found a few more patches of tinfoil and rubber.” — Jesse Marcel Source: newspapers.com (archived)
- claimed Capt. Sheridan Cavitt, who went to the ranch with him, told the Air Force in 1994 that the debris was “consistent with a weather balloon” and that Marcel and Rickett “did tend to exaggerate things on occasion”; the Fort Worth weather officer Irving Newton said Marcel tried “to convince me that some notations on the sticks were alien writings”. Source: The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert (U.S. Air Force, 1995)
- documented A 2024 history by the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence says that in 1978 “then-Lt. Col. Marcel claimed in an interview with ufologists (researchers of UFOs) that the materials were “extraterrestrial.”” and that “shortly after the 1947 incident, Marcel's personnel file noted his tendency to exaggerate.” Source: dvidshub.net (archived)
Connected files
Claims
Incidents
- Roswell crash (witness) — As the 509th Bomb Group's intelligence officer he collected the debris on the Foster ranch and flew it to Fort Worth; from 1978 he said it was not from this earth
People
- Jesse Marcel Jr. (family of) — His son, who says that at eleven he handled the debris his father brought home in July 1947
- Sheridan Cavitt (investigated with) — Marcel checked out the jeep; Cavitt thought the request to come along came from Marcel
Documents
- The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert (U.S. Air Force, 1995) (quoted in) — The Air Force's 1994 report retraces his part from the 1947 papers and the testimony of Cavitt and Newton
Videos
- Maj. Jesse Marcel interviewed by Lee Speigel on the Roswell debris (audio, about 1980) (appears in)
- UFO Cover-Up?: Live! (1988 television special) (discussed in)
- Roswell reunion interviews, July 1990: Walter Haut, Robert Shirkey and Sheriff Wilcox's daughters (National Archives, “Roswell Reunion: Number 1”) (discussed in)
- Roswell reunion interviews, July 1990: Jesse Marcel Jr., Vern Maltais and Robert Porter (National Archives, “Roswell Reports, Volume 6”) (subject of)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Roswell, Part 1 (discussed in)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Roswell, Part 2 (discussed in)
Mentioned in videos
- Roswell reunion interviews, July 1990: Walter Haut, Robert Shirkey and Sheriff Wilcox's daughters (National Archives, “Roswell Reunion: Number 1”)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Roswell, Part 1
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Roswell, Part 2
Mentioned in documents and records
- Crash at Corona: The U.S. Military Retrieval and Cover-Up of a UFO
- The Roswell Legacy: The Son of the First Military Officer at the 1947 Crash Site Tells His Father's Story — and His Own