THE AZTEC RECOVERY 1948It was the c

THE AZTEC RECOVERY 1948

It was the columnist Frank Scully who first alerted the world to sensational
stories of recovered flying saucers and little men in his best-selling book
"Behind the Flying Saucers" published in 1950. Scully claimed that up to that
time there had been four such recoveries, one of which was alleged to have
taken place around Aztec, New Mexico, when sixteen humanoid bodies were
recovered together with their undamaged craft. According to Scully's
informants, the disk that landed near Aztec was 99.99 feet in diameter, its
exterior made of a light metal resembling aluminum but so durable that no
amount of heat (up to 10,000 degrees was applied) or diamond-tipped drill had
the slightest effect. The disk apparently incorporated large rings of metal
which revolved around a central, stabilized cabin, using an unfamiliar gear
ratio. There were no rivets, bolts, screws or signs of welding. Investigators
were eventually able to gain entry. Scully was told, because of a fracture in
one of the portholes, which they enlarged, revealing a knob inside the cabin
which when pushed (with a pole) caused a hidden door to open. Sixteen small
humanoids, ranging in height from 36 to 42 inches, were supposedly found dead
inside the cabin, their bodies charred to a dark brown color. Scully was told
that the craft landed undamaged, having landed under its own guidance. The
craft was eventually dismantled, the investigators having discovered that it
was manufactured in segments which fitted in grooves and were pinned together
around the base. The complete cabin section, measuring 18 feet in diameter,
was lifted out of the base of the saucer, around which was a gear that fitted a
gear on the cabin. These segments, together with the bodies, were then
transported to Wright Field (Wright Patterson AFB). Some of the bodies were
later dissected and examined by the Air Force, and were found to be similar in
all respects to human beings, with the exception of their teeth, which were
perfect.

New Supportive Evidence?
-----------------------

According to important information published by William Steinman in 1987 there
is a large grain of truth in the Aztec story, and he has managed to acquire
some astonishing supportive evidence. Like Scully, he is unwilling to divulge
his sources, which inevitably lays him open to charges of fabrication.
Steinman discovered that the Aztec disk came to earth on 25 March 1948, having
been detected by three separate radar units in the southwest, one of which was
said to have disrupted the craft's control mechanism. The area of impact was
calculated by triangulation and this information was immediately relayed to Air
Defense Command and Gen. George C. Marshall, then Secretary of State, who
allegedly contacted the MJ-12 group as well as the Interplanetary Phenomenon
Unit (IPU) of the Army Counterintelligence Directorate. The IPU operated out
of Camp Hale, Colorado, at this time, Steinman claims, and its main function
was to collect and deliver disabled or crashed disks to certain specified
secret locations.

The craft was recovered within hours by the IPU scout team about 12 miles
northeast of Aztec. General Marshall ordered Air Defense Command to go off
alert status, and the radar units were advised that there had been a false
alarm. Marshall then gave orders to the commander of the IPU to organize a
recovery team and contacted Dr. Vannevar Bush - the head of MJ-12 - to gather
together a team of scientists to accompany the IPU to the crash site. Steinman
has named these scientists as follows:

Dr. Lloyd Berkner
Dr. Detlev Bronk
Dr. Carl A. Heiland
Dr. Jerome Hunsaker
Dr. John von Neumann
Dr. Robert J. Oppenheimer
Dr. Merle A. Tuve
Dr. Horace B. van Valkenberg

Four of these scientists, it will be noted, were members of the original
MJ-12 panel set up in September 1947. Dr. Carl A. Heiland was a geophysicist
and magnetic sciences expert who was the head of the Colorado School of Mines,
and according to Steinman leaked details of the recovery to one of Scully's
sources, Leo GeBauer. Dr. Horace B. van Valkenberg was an inorganic chemist
associated with the University of Colorado. Dr. Merle A. Tuve worked for the
Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II, and is
chiefly remembered as a geophysicist for his techniques of radio wave
propagation of the upper atmostphere. Dr. Robert J. Oppenheimer distinguished
himself primarily as leader of the Los Alamos atomic bomb project, commanding
the allegiance of the world's top physicists. He was the Director of the
Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton from 1947 and became Chairman of the
General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission. Dr. John von
Neumann, the famous Hungarian born mathematician, became a consultant on the
atom bomb (Manhatten Project) in 1943. His main area of expertise lay in the
design and development of computers. The scientists, according to Steinman,
were told by Dr. Bush to assemble at Durango Airfield, Colorado, 35 miles to
the north of Aztec, with the minimum delay. All those involved in the
recovery were sworn to an above top secret oath.

The IPU convoy used a route to the site that avoided main roads, and on
arrival road blocks were set up at strategic points within two miles of the
recovery area. The owner of a ranch and his family were allegedly held
incommunicado and told never to discuss the matter (cf. the Roswell incident).
Equipment hauling trucks were camoflaged to look like oil drilling rigs during
the operation.

Inside the Craft
----------------

The team of scientists arrived at the site a little later than the IPU
team and began inspecting the disk. According to Steinman, they entered the
craft one by one, entry having been gained via a fractured porthole as
discribed in Scully's account. The portholes themselves looked metallic and
only appeared translucent on close inspection. Inside the craft they found
two humanoids, about two feet in height, slumped over an instrument panel,
charred deep brown. Another 12 bodies lay sprawled on the floor in a chamber
within the cabin, making a total of 14 bodies (not 16 as Scully had been told).

An instrument panel supposedly had several pushbuttons and levers with
hieroglyphic-type symbols, as well as symbols illuminated on small display
screens. Bush and von Neumann discovered that the control panel had drawers
which rolled out, but no wiring could be detected. A book composed of
parchment-like leaves with the texture of plastic also contained the strange
hieroglyphs - similar to Sanskrit, Oppenheimer thought. This was given to
General Marshall, who then passed it on to two leading cryptological experts
for analysis, William F. Friedman and Lambros C. Callihamos (who both later led
distinguished careers in the National Security Agency).

Dr. Bonk, a physiologist and biophysicist, examined the bodies and asked
Bush to get hold of cryogenic equipment with which to preserve them.
Cryogenics specialist Dr. Pual A. Scherer, a colleague of Bush's, was contacted
and advised Bush to obtain some dry ice. Meanwhile, another small group of
scientists and military personnel examined the craft and were eventually able
to dismantle it when several interlocking key divices were found which opened
up seams at specific points.

Three days later the segments were loaded onto three trucks, together with
the bodies, and were with a tarpaulin marked "Explosives". The convoy headed
at night by the least conspicuous and often most laborious route to the
restricted Naval Auxilary Airfield complex at Los Alamos, arriving one week
later. Here theyy remained for over a year, Steinman claims, before being
transported to another base.

The Bodies
----------

Dr. Paul A. Scherer eventually obtained special preservation containers
for the least damaged bodies, Steinman relates. One of the ocmpanies which
supplied equipment was the Air Research Corporation, of which Scherer was
Director of Research and Development; it supplied the liquid nitrogen pump,
circulation system and refridgeration units. Other specimens were given a
complete autopsy, by a team headed by Dr. Bronk, of biophysicists,
histochemists and pathologists. The results were put in a report, part of
which, Steinman claims, appeard in the "Air Force Project Sign (Grudge) Report
No. 13" which has never been released.

According to the report, the bodies were described as averaging 42 inches
in length. The facial features strongly resembled "mongoloid orientals" in
appearance, with disproportionately large heads, large "slant" eyes, small
noses and mouths. The average weight was about 40 pounds. The torsos were
very small and thin, with very thin necks. The arms were long and slender,
reaching the knees, with hands containing long and slender fingers with webbing
between them. There was no digestive or gastrointestinal tract, no alimentary
or intestinal canal, and no rectal point. No reproductive organs were
apparent. Instead of blood there was a colorless liquid with no red cells
which smelled similar to ozone.

-Timothy Good