By Kris Wheeler
Daily News Staff Writer
PENSACOLA-Unraveling the mysteries of unidentified flying objects drew more than 1,000 UFO enthusiasts to the Pensacola Civic Center on Saturday for day two of the Mutual UFO Network's 21st annual International Symposium.
Among other topics Saturday, they heard about one of the long-debated UFO mysteries, a supposed landing of an alien craft in Roswell, N.M., in July 1947.
Donald R. Schmitt, MUFON's state director in Wisconsin, has long been on a trail to expose what he and many others believe is a government coverup of epic proportions regarding the recovery of the body of four aliens and a UFO wreck at Roswell.
"Roswell appears to be the target of a disinformation program," Schmitt said.
That accusation is nothing new among those who have made it their business to investigate UFO sightings.
At the time of the crash near the Roswell Army Air Force Base, military officials initially denied the object that crashed as a UFO. But later the military changed its official version of what object actually was, identifying it as a misguided weather research balloon.
Schmitt and many of his colleagues say there is overwhelming evidence proving otherwise.
Schmitt and other UFO investigators have relied on testimony over the years from military intelligence officers who were at the crash site, their family members, and relatives of a rancher who retrieved the crash site, to piece together their version of the Roswell UFO mystery.
Schmitt said he and a colleague recently interviewed two men who were once stationed at RAAFB who were involved in the recovery operation at the crash site.
Most of the military personnel who had first-hand knowledge of the crash are now dead, said Schmitt.
The men interviewed the chief of security at the crash site, and a military intelligence officer and two of the few crash-site witnesses still alive, he said.
Schmitt said the former chief of security refused to comment about the matter, saying he was sworn to secrecy.
Schmitt questioned why information on a crashed weather balloon would be kept secret.
"Why the need to conceal the recovery of a weather balloon?" Schmitt asked.
The other man interviewed was an intelligence agent who was also involved in the recovery. Schmitt said the man would only say that, "Something came down and was recovered."
MUFON officials selected Pensacola as the sight [site] of their annual international UFO symposium of the magnitude of reported UFO sightings in nearby Gulf Breeze-more specifically, those photography Gulf Breeze residents Ed and Francis [Frances] Walters in November 1987.
The Walters have written a book about their experiences called "The Gulf Breeze Sightings."
The photographs and the Walters' stories have been challenged recently by some critics and UFO investigators who say it is a hoax.
One Gulf Breeze man has said publicly that he was shown by Ed Walters how the UFO photos were faked.
Walters has denied all of the allegations.
MUFON has reopened its investigation into Walters' matter. MUFON officials, however, say they eye Walters' photographs are authentic until proven otherwise.
The Walters were scheduled to speak to the MUFON delegation and hundreds of its guests about the matter late Saturday night.
The three-day MUFON symposium began Friday and will conclude with an open forum scheduled for 4 p.m. today.
