Sheridan Cavitt
| Sheridan W. Cavitt | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1915 |
| Died | 1999 |
| Occupation | Military intelligence officer |
| Known for | Roswell incident investigation |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Army |
| Rank | Captain |
| Unit | Counter Intelligence Corps |
Sheridan W. Cavitt (c. 1915–1999) was a United States Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) captain stationed at Roswell Army Air Field in 1947. He accompanied Major Jesse Marcel and rancher Mac Brazel to the Foster Ranch debris field on July 6–7, 1947, making him one of only three men to inspect the Roswell crash site firsthand during the initial recovery. Cavitt's contradictory statements over decades of investigation have made him one of the most disputed figures in Roswell research.
Counter Intelligence Corps background
As a CIC officer, Cavitt's primary mission involved detecting foreign intelligence threats — his role at Roswell was to determine whether unidentified wreckage might be of foreign (i.e. Soviet) origin. This explains why Colonel William Blanchard ordered Cavitt, rather than only intelligence officer Marcel, to accompany the investigation: CIC officers were specifically trained to assess whether recovered materials constituted foreign weapons technology. His immediate subordinate in the CIC unit at Roswell was Master Sergeant Lewis B. "Bill" Rickett.
Contradictory testimony
Main article:
Roswell cover-up
Cavitt's accounts shifted repeatedly over decades of investigation. When first contacted by Roswell researchers in the early 1980s, he denied ever knowing Jesse Marcel, denied being stationed at Roswell in July 1947, and denied participating in any recovery of any kind. When confronted with documentation proving his assignment to Roswell, he claimed he had been on leave during the critical period of July 4–9. When further confronted with testimony placing him at the debris field itself, he could only respond, "Why would anyone say that?"
Kevin Randle first interviewed Cavitt in January 1990 in Sierra Vista, Arizona, where Cavitt maintained that he had not been in Roswell in July 1947 and had participated in no recoveries of any kind. In a March 1993 interview, Cavitt showed Randle copies of his orders from 1947, which documented his assignment to Roswell effective June 16, 1947 — contradicting his earlier denials.
In 1994, when interviewed by Air Force Colonel Richard Weaver for the official Air Force investigation, Cavitt reversed course entirely and admitted going to the site — but now claimed he immediately recognized the debris as a weather balloon. He told Weaver: "It was a small amount of, as I recall, bamboo sticks, reflective sort of material that would, well at first glance, you would probably think it was aluminum foil." Randle noted that Cavitt never explained why, if he had recognized the debris as a mundane balloon, he failed to communicate this to Marcel — an omission that would have allowed the entire "flying disc" announcement and subsequent cover-up to have been avoided entirely.
Cavitt's subordinate Rickett, who left audio and videotaped testimony before his death, contradicted Cavitt's balloon account, describing material that "wouldn't wrinkle" and was "damn hard" — consistent with other witnesses' accounts and inconsistent with balloon debris.
Assessment
Cavitt remains the only firsthand Roswell witness whose testimony supports the weather balloon explanation — and only after first denying any involvement whatsoever. Randle and Schmitt have assessed him as unreliable in both directions: his initial denials are contradicted by documented evidence, while his later balloon claim is contradicted by every other witness and by his own subordinate.