Walter Haut

Walter G. Haut (June 2, 1922 -- December 15, 2005) was a United States Army Air Forces officer who served as public information officer of the 509th Bomb Group at Roswell Army Air Field in New Mexico. On July 8, 1947, he issued the only official United States military press release confirming recovery of a "flying disc," an announcement retracted within hours as part of a cover-up operation. He co-founded the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico, and left a sealed affidavit — signed in 2002 and released posthumously in 2007 — in which he stated he had personally seen the recovered craft and non-human bodies at Building 84.

Military career

During World War II, Haut served as a B-29 bombardier, flying 20 bombing missions over Japan. He received numerous decorations including the Purple Heart. In the summer of 1946, he participated in Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific, where he was assigned to drop measuring instruments during the detonations.

He was subsequently assigned to Roswell Army Air Field as public information officer of the 509th Bomb Group, the world's only atomic bomb squadron. The assignment placed Haut at one of the most sensitive military installations in the country — the headquarters from which the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic missions had been launched only months prior. His office adjoined that of base commander Colonel William Blanchard, and researchers Donald Schmitt and Tom Carey described his relationship with Blanchard as that of "a nephew to an uncle" — Blanchard's "favorite son" among the base staff. When Blanchard died of a heart attack at his desk at the Pentagon years later — by then a four-star general — Washington notified Haut not by telephone but by special courier who personally delivered the news to his home in Roswell.

Haut resigned from the military approximately one year after the Roswell incident.

The July 8 press release

Main article:

1947 Roswell incident

On the morning of July 8, 1947, Colonel Blanchard telephoned Haut's office at approximately 9:30 a.m. and dictated a press release announcing that the 509th had recovered a "flying disc" from a ranch northwest of Roswell and that Major Jesse Marcel was flying the material to higher headquarters. Haut hand-delivered the release to Roswell's two radio stations — KGFL and KSWS — and its two newspapers, the Daily Record and the Morning Dispatch.

The story hit the wire services at approximately noon Central Standard Time. Within an hour, Eighth Air Force commander Brigadier General Roger Ramey in Fort Worth, Texas, began telling inquiring reporters that the object was a weather balloon with a radar target. The military subsequently confiscated copies of the original press release from local media outlets.

Public silence

For decades after the incident, Haut publicly maintained that his involvement had been limited to typing and delivering the press release: "I typed up the press release. I hand delivered it to the two newspapers in Roswell and the two radio stations. That was the extent of my involvement. End of story." Both Haut and Blanchard's executive secretary, June Blair, had promised the colonel never to speak about what they knew.

The silence was reinforced by intimidation. Haut's wife Lorraine "Pete" received anonymous threatening telephone calls for almost 30 years, always in the early hours of the morning, always carrying the same message: "If you ever tell the truth about 1947, your lives will be in jeopardy." Haut's daughter Julie Shuster later confirmed to investigators the closeness her parents maintained with the Blairs throughout their lives — a friendship rooted in the shared secret of 1947. June Blair's sister Ada, when contacted by investigators, deflected questions but revealed the depth of what had been suppressed: "Because of their strong religious beliefs, the people of Roswell weren't ready to hear what they knew. They would never see life the same way again."

Sealed affidavit

Main articles:

Roswell craft

and

Roswell bodies

After years of interviews with researchers Schmitt and Carey, Haut agreed to provide a formal sealed statement for the historical record. The affidavit was signed on December 26, 2002, witnessed by a private individual and notarized by Beverlee Morgan. It was sealed with instructions that his surviving family would determine its disposition after his death.

Haut died on December 15, 2005, and was buried at South Park Cemetery in Roswell. Two years later, in 2007, his family released the affidavit. In it, Haut described attending the 7:30 a.m. staff meeting on July 8, 1947, at which Colonel Blanchard, Major Marcel, CIC Captain Sheridan Cavitt, and — from Fort Worth, Texas — Brigadier General Roger Ramey and Colonel Thomas DuBose were present. Samples of crash debris were passed around the table; Haut stated the material was "unlike any material I had or have ever seen in my life."

Before leaving the base that day, Blanchard personally took Haut to Building 84 (Hangar P-3), a B-29 hangar on the east side of the tarmac, which was under heavy guard both inside and out. From a safe distance, Haut observed the recovered object: approximately 12 to 15 feet in length, not quite as wide, about 6 feet high, egg-shaped, and metallic in appearance, with no windows, portholes, wings, tail section, or landing gear visible. He also observed bodies under a canvas tarpaulin; only the heads extended beyond the covering, appearing larger than normal, with the contour of the canvas suggesting the size of a ten-year-old child.

The affidavit's final substantive paragraph stated: "I am convinced that what I personally observed was some type of craft and its crew from outer space."

The affidavit also described the cover-up strategy discussed at the staff meeting: General Ramey proposed a plan, which Haut believed originated with Ramey's superiors at the Pentagon, to divert attention from the more important impact site north of town by publicly acknowledging the debris field site instead. Too many civilians were already involved, and the press had already been informed. Haut further stated that Marcel described to him, upon Marcel's return from Fort Worth, how the wreckage had been substituted with weather balloon remains while Marcel was briefly out of General Ramey's office: "Marcel was very upset over this situation. We would not discuss it again."

Donald Schmitt has described Haut as "the number one witness to the events that happened in Roswell in 1947." George Noory of Coast to Coast AM and attorney William Burns have both stated that the affidavit convinced them beyond doubt that the Roswell incident was genuine.

International UFO Museum and Research Center

Following his retirement and decades of civilian life in Roswell, Haut co-founded the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico, alongside Glenn Dennis and Max Littell. The museum opened in 1991, the same year Haut and others began organizing the annual Roswell UFO Festival to keep public attention focused on the incident. By the mid-2020s, the museum was approaching five million visitors and had become one of the most frequented tourist destinations in New Mexico, serving as a repository for witness testimony, documentation, and artifacts related to the crash. Researcher Donald Schmitt served as its lead investigator. Researcher Tom Carey has appeared as a speaker at the museum's events.

Despite co-founding the museum and hosting visitors for over a decade, Haut continued to publicly maintain his limited-involvement story until signing the sealed affidavit in 2002. He remained active in the Roswell community until his death on December 15, 2005.

See also

• Roswell craft retrieval operation

References