It has been announced by the University of Texas at Arlington that on June 1, 1998, a special exhibit will open in the Special Collections Section of the Main Library featuring super-enlargements of the more than half-century old famous Roswell UFO crash photographs.

In making the announcement, Dr. Gerald D. Saxon, Associate Director for Special Collections, Branch Libraries and Programs, University Libraries, stated that the special exhibit will be offered in response to an unprecedented demand by the public to view at close range details of the newly enhanced photographs of the most famous and controversial UFO wreckage, which was "captured" by United States military forces near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.

Dr. Saxon stated that photographic exhibits at the library usually are scheduled at least two years in advance, but that this special photo exhibit has been arranged on very short notice due to world wide attention once again being focused on the UTA Library following a recent announcement that it has finally been established that the photos are of portions of the actual Roswell crash debris.

Dr. Saxon said that due to a series of recent telephone calls being received at the library inquiring as to details of the library security system, that increased surveillance plans will be in effect. Visitors to the exhibit will not be permitted to bring into the library any purses or brief cases but that hand magnifying glasses will be allowed.

The UFO research community was electrified this week by the surprise announcement that modern technology has debunked a longtime charge by some UFO writers of a blatant "cover-up" by Air Force Lt. General Roger M. Ramey in connection with the sensational Roswell Incident of 1947, which involved the announced "capture" of a crashed UFO.

The results of a new digital scan applied to super-enlargements of the famous UFO photos taken by a reporter-photographer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram show that the debris displayed in General Ramey's 8th Air Force Headquarters office in Fort Worth on July 8, 1947, is clearly consistent with eyewitness descriptions of the world's best-known "flying saucer" which had crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, a few days before and is not a "weather balloon" which had been substituted on orders of General Ramey. This includes clear identification of the "hieroglyphic-like" characters displayed along stick-like structures, including I-beams, and inclusion of very thin, but super strong metal-like material that resisted bending or crumpling.

The resulting new discoveries discredit frequently repeated claims that General Ramey had concocted the "weather balloon" ruse and then had ordered the substitution of the "weather balloon" for the real wreckage, which had been flown secretly to Wright-Patterson Air Force base -- then known as Wright Field -- in Ohio for "further analysis" and where it reportedly has been kept under tight security for more than a half century.

The newly obtained, digitally enhanced photographs reveal for the first time that "out of this world" qualities described by Major Jesse A. Marcel, Sr., Intelligence Officer stationed then at Roswell Army Air Base, who retrieved parts of the wreckage of the alleged alien-operated craft, are clearly established in the photos.

The photographs were taken by Dr. J. Bond Johnson, who had been a reporter for the Star-Telegram since January of 1943. At the time of the Roswell Incident in 1947, Dr. Johnson had been discharged from the Army Air Corps after World War II service, which included training as an aircraft mechanic and pilot. He has practiced as a clinical psychologist and United Methodist minister for the past 35 years in Long Beach, California. He also is a retired US Army colonel.

Upon arrival at General Ramey's office on July 8, 1947, Johnson unpacked portions of the wreckage from its paper wrappings and arranged the pieces for the photos while awaiting the arrival of General Ramey at his office. Johnson then took six shots with General Ramey, Colonel (later Brig. General) Thomas J. Dubose, Ramey's chief of staff, and Major (later Lt. Col.) Marcel, who had couriered the wreckage from Roswell to Ramey's headquarters in Fort Worth. Other packages of the wreckage, still unopened, also appear in the photos.

Two of the negatives have disappeared from the files of the UTA Library but four original negatives remain and are safeguarded under heavy security. These four photographs will be featured in the special exhibition.

The frequently quoted descriptions by Marcel, and repeated by Marcel's son, Dr. Jesse A. Marcel, Jr., an Army helicopter pilot and flight surgeon, who was shown some of the wreckage parts by his dad prior to their being turned over to the Roswell base commander, are further corroborated by civilian eye witnesses who were employees of the Brazell Ranch 85 miles northwest of Roswell, where the craft crashed, and some of their neighbors.

The witnesses described the wreckage as including material that was "very lightweight, lead foil-like, very thin, metallic-like but not metal, and very tough." It also included very light "balsa-wood appearing sticks," including I-beams, some of which included "hieroglyphic-like" characters, possibly depicting some unknown writing. One witness described the "figures" as similar to the petroglyphs the ancient Native Americans etched on rocks in the Roswell area.

Further, the witnesses described that some of the material, even though very thin, when crushed tended to "smooth-out" when released. There also was a quantity of black plastic looking material "which looked organic in nature that had either been melted or burned." Johnson also described the strong odor of burned debris when he was in the general's office with the wreckage.

When questioned, Marcel -- who retired from the Air Force as a Lt. Colonel -- described the unusual markings on the sticks as "like Chinese writing....nothing you could make any sense out of." In his interviews Marcel stated that "they took a photo of me on the floor holding up some of the less-interesting metallic debris...pieces of the actual stuff we had found." Marcel said that the debris was scattered over a square mile of a ranch near Roswell. "It was something that must have exploded above ground and fell...it scattered all over."

The new digitally enhanced, super-enlargements clearly show the strange metallic debris as described, including some thin metal-like parts, which are quite rigid and smooth, and the I-beams identical with the witnesses' descriptions. Marcel stated that the solid members were mostly square, "of varied lengths, and along the length of some of those they had little markings...two color markings as I can recall...like Chinese writing." His son described the markings as "flower-like" figures printed along the sticks.

Yet for nearly 20 years UFO writers have claimed that the Air Corps engaged in a dramatic fraud to protect the UFO wreckage from Roswell and to mislead the press -- and the American public. The story concocted by the writers tell it generally this way:

When Marcell turned the portions of the UFO wreckage he had recovered over to his base commander, Colonel William Blanchard. Blanchard then issued an official public announcement that the Air Corps had "captured" a flying saucer near Roswell and then notified his boss, General Ramey, of this dramatic event. The military had been widely searching for UFOs following sightings in many parts of the country during June and early July 1947.