Roswell 1947 - Documents on the witnesses

Brigadier General Arthur Ernest Exon is director of the defense contract administration services region, Defense Supply Agency, Los Angeles, Calif.

General Exon was born in Geddes, S.D., in 1916. He attended high school in Fairfax, S.D. and Southern State Teachers College at Springfield, S.D. He was principal of the Junior High School at Fairfax, S.D. for four years before entering military service in January 1942.

In March 1942, General Exon entered aviation cadet training and received his pilot rating in November of the same year. His first duty assignment following flight school was with the 57th Fighter Group in the European-African-Middle Eastern theater of operations. He flew 135 combat missions in Africa, Sicily, Italy, Corsica and Southern France with a total of 325 combat hours. During a mission over Cecina, Italy, in April 1944, his aircraft was severely damaged by an exploding ammunition depot and he was forced to bail out. Captured by the Germans, he remained a prisoner of war until June 1945.

In 1948, following completion of a two-year industrial administration course at the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, he was assigned to Air Materiel Command Headquarters, as chief of the Maintenance Data Section. From August 1951 until April 1952, he was deputy director of maintenance engineering at the Middletown Air Materiel Area, Olmsted Air Force Base, Pa.

Following two years of duty as deputy for operations for the Far East Logistics Force, Japan, he returned to the United States in July 1954 to attend the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

He later was assigned to the Pentagon for five years where he held various procurement assignments, among them deputy for procurement and production, deputy chief of staff for materiel. In 1960 he became chief of ballistic missiles within the Directorate of Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe, and was responsible for establishing the Jupiter Ballistic Missile system for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Italy and Turkey.

He departed Europe in July 1963 for duty as deputy commander, Middletown Air Materiel Area, Olmsted Air Force Base, Pa. In August 1964 he was assigned as commander, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He assumed duties in January 1966 as director, Defense Contract Administration Services Region, Los Angeles, Calif.

His decorations include the Distinguished Service Cross, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 15 oak leaf clusters, Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, British Distinguished Flying Cross, Croix de Guerre (France), with palm and star.

AFFIDAVIT

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Location: UFOUpDatesList.Com > 1997 > May > May 28
Korff on Roswell (3)

From: Greg Sandow
Date: Mon, 26 May 1997 22:26:32 -0400
Fwd Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 09:18:21 -0400
Subject: Korff on Roswell (3)

Now a look at Kal's comments on General Arthur Exon. Remember my disclaimers -- that I'm not commenting on the nature of the Roswell crash, or on the overall worth of Kal's book. I won't be drawn into arguments about those subjects. I'm only commenting on three passages in the book.

Exon, as Roswell fans know, was Base Commander at Wright-Patterson air force base, a position that (as I understand it) made him one of the four or five top-ranking officers at the facility, with responsibility for logistics and administration. Supposedly he told Kevin Randle that what crashed at Roswell was extraterrestrial. This makes him an important witness indeed.

What does Kal say? Something really sharp: "There is no excuse for how Exon's 'testimony' is misrepresented in the Randle-Schmitt book. It is blatant fiction on the part of the authors...Randle and Schmitt were deceptive in their presentation of both Exon's recollections and his supposed 'involvement' in the Roswell affair."

So what's that about? The indictment, as it turns out, rests on one lone accusation, that Kevin Randle and Donald Schmitt presented Exon's remarks as if he were relating first-hand testimony, when actually he was only reporting things he'd heard from others. This, in some ways, is a remarkably trivial charge. Why do I say that? Well, suppose that it's true. Then we can shout "gotcha" to Randle and Schmitt, and we'll be careful to check anything either of them says in the future.

But then what did Exon say even as a second-hand witness? As Kal himself tells us (see p. 93 of his Roswell book), Exon talks about Roswell debris being flown to Wright-Patterson. "The boys who tested it," Exon says, "said it was very unusual....It had them pretty puzzled." First-hand, second-hand....either way we've got a banner headline, even if Exon never said one word beyond what Kal quotes. An Air Force general, even if he's only giving his general impression of what he's heard about Roswell, says the same things about the Roswell debris as some of the controversial first-hand witnesses do! If you put any weight on Exon's impressions, the Mogul theory takes a big hit. Isn't that more important, in the overall scheme of things, than any question about Randle and Schmitt? And, as we'll see, Exon said much more than that.

But then is Kal right to say Randle and Schmitt distorted Exon's remarks? I don't think so, for three reasons.

(1) I've heard Kevin's first interview with Exon on tape, and read Kevin's scrupulously accurate transcript. I thought Exon said exactly what he's quoted as saying in Kevin's book.

(2) Even the passage Kal quotes doesn't support his view. Here's how Kal presents it: "To read the Randle-Schmitt book, it appears that Exon _corrorborates_ the Roswell UFO recovery by providing impressive-sounding testimony that appears to be firsthand. 'We heard the material was coming to Wright Field....It was brought into our material evaluation labs. I don't know how it arrived but the boys who tested it said it was very unusual.' Exon described the material: '[Some of it] could be easily ripped or changed....there were other parts of it that were very thin but awfully strong and couldn't be dented with very heavy hammers....It was flexible to a degree,' and, according to Exon, 'some of it was flimsy and was tougher than hell and almost like foil but strong. It had them pretty puzzled.'"

"To almost anyone reading this," Kal writes, "it would appear that...[Exon] was a _firsthand_ source who was present and personally saw what he describes." But I don't see it that way at all. Consider these statements: "We heard the material was coming....I don't know how it arrived, but the boys who tested it said...It had them pretty puzzled." Isn't it clear that Exon isn't speaking of first hand knowledge? Who wouldn't understand that Exon didn't handle this debris himself?

A page later in the Randle-Schmitt book comes another Exon quote, which Kal doesn't reprint: "The metal and material was unknown to anyone I talked to. Whatever they found, I never heard what the results were. A couple of guys thought it might be Russian but the overall consensus was that the pieces were from space."

Again, it's perfectly clear that Exon didn't handle or analyze the material himself, and even that his knowledge was limited. But he appears to think he'd spoken to people who knew at least something about what the analysis had shown. How sure was he of this knowledge? :Let me quote a few suggestive passages. First, an Exon quote from Randle's book: "I _know_ [my emphasis] that...{General Ramey] along with the people out at Roswell decided to change the story while they got their act together and got the information into the Pentagon." (UFO Crash at Roswell, paperback, p. 111.) Another Exon quote from Randle: "_I just know_ [again my emphasis] there was a top intelligence echelon represented and the President's office was represented and the Secretary of Defense's office was represented..." (He's talking about the secret UFO committee that he's sure existed; UFO Crash, p. 232.)

And here's something Exon said on the tape, which wasn't quoted in Randle's book. Kevin asks, referring to stories we've all heard about alien corpses at Wright-Patterson: "You've heard the rumors about the little bodies, haven't you?" "Yes, I have," answers Exon. "In fact, _I know people_ that were involved in photographing some of the residue from the New Mexico affair near Roswell." (My emphasis.)

Here's something else, about how Exon knows that there were alien bodies form Roswell at Wright-Patterson: "People I have known _who were involved with that_" told him so. (My emphasis.) Look back at the quote Kal thinks is so damning: 'We heard the material was coming to Wright Field....It was brought into our material evaluation labs. I don't know how it arrived but the boys who tested it said it was very unusual.' Exon described the material: '[Some of it] could be easily ripped or changed....there were other parts of it that were very thin but awfully strong and couldn't be dented with very heavy hammers....It was flexible to a degree,' and, according to Exon, 'some of it was flimsy and was tougher than hell and almost like foil but strong. It had them pretty puzzled.'"

Given the full context of Exon's remarks...and bearing in mind everything I've quoted from Kevin's interview with him....isn't it clear (a) that Exon certainly _thought_ he knew quite a bit (even if not first hand) about the subjects he was quoted on, that (b) he says quite clearly that he'd talked to people who _were_ involved first-hand, and (c) that therefore the passage Kal quotes from Kevin's book is really quite reasonable in both its tone and content? I don't think it misrepresents Exon at all. (Here's another quote from Exon, from the tape: "Most of the people you're talking to are a little bit like me. Close enough to know that there was something happening. They had no direct responsibility for any of it." Anyone who reads the complete sections on Exon from Randle's books will, I think, form exactly that impression.)

And now let's take a closer look at what Exon actually said. Let me say again that I've done more than read Kevin's two Roswell books (and, by the way, the second, which Kal doesn't mention at all, has additional material that continues to make it clear that Exon wasn't speaking first-hand). I've listened on tape to the interview Kevin quotes, and read Kevin's entirely accurate transcript.

What does Exon say? Taking account the full text of the interview, and the full extent of accurate quotes from it in Kevin's book, including many things I haven't mentioned here yet:

1. Exon says he believes the Roswell crash was extraterrestrial. ("Roswell was the recovery of a craft from space.")

2. He says he knows that debris from the crash was studied at Wright-Patterson, and that the debris was extremely unusual. His description matches that of alleged first-hand witnesses.

3. He says that "apparently" there were bodies found, and that they were located at "another location," or in other words not at the location of the metallic debris. The main body of the craft, he says, was also found there. (What he means by "apparently" isn't clear. He says this, however, just after he talks about what people have told him about the metallic debris. It seems reasonable to assume the same people told him about the bodies. Note that Exon's mention of "another location" supports Kevin's thesis of two crash sites. When you hear the interview on tape, it's clear that Exon says this all on his own. Randle hasn't even brought up the topic.)

4. He says the bodies were brought to Wright-Patterson.

5. He says he flew over the Roswell crash site, and saw the "gouge" the crashed object made in the ground. (Kal, rather oddly, mentions this elsewhere in his book, but doesn't dispute it -- or, in fact, even mention it -- in the passage I'm discussing, which is his major examination of Exon's role as a Roswell witness. I can assure everyone that Exon indeed did say this. I heard him say it on the tape.)

6. He says there was a coverup. In fact, he calls it (on the tape) "a national coverup project."

7. He talks about which government officials served, in his opinion, on a secret UFO project.

8. He talks about a secret Air Force team that investigated UFO events. This is first-hand knowledge. He dispatched the planes that flew the team to the events they investigated.

It's also notable that he brings up Roswell all by himself. Kevin didn't know he knew about it. Kevin's only thought was to talk to someone who'd been at Wright-Patterson about the rumors of crash debris there. Let me repeat a passage from the tape that I quoted earlier. Kevin asks, referring to stories we've all heard about alien corpses at Wright-Patterson: "You've heard the rumors about the little bodies, haven't you?"

"Yes, I have," answers Exon. "In fact, I know people that were involved in photographing some of the residue from the New Mexico affair near Roswell." This is the first mention of Roswell in the interview.... and it comes from Exon.

Is all of this remarkable? Of course it is. An Air Force general, whose assignment at Wright-Patterson suggests he might have been in a position to know what he was talking about, says, in great detail, that he thinks the Roswell crash was real. This is big news. Does Kal give any hint of how big the news is? Not at all. In fact, his book raises a screaming, unspoken question. Suppose Kal's right to say that Kevin exaggerated Exon's knowledge. That doesn't change the fact that Exon really believed the Roswell crash was alien. Why, then, did Exon believe that? How deeply did he believe it? Does he believe it still? Aren't these the basic questions here? Why doesn't Kal seem even remotely interested in them?

One last point. Kal says that Exon doesn't stand behind what Kevin and Don Schmitt wrote. And sure enough, he has a quote from a letter wrote to Randle:

"Further, you both [Randle and Schmitt] likely recall on many occasions during my visits with you in person and on the phone... that I did not know anything firsthand. Although I believe you did quote me accurately, I do believe that in your writings you gave more credence and impression of personal and direct knowledge that [sic -- I think he means "than"] my recordings would indicate on their own! I felt that throughout the portions where my name was used."

Fine. Let's forget for a moment that Exon might have every reason to back off from what he'd said -- he'd been talking out of school, and someone might have firmly told him so -- and assume he really stands behind this criticism. He truly thinks Schmitt and Randle exaggerated his direct involvement. But he also says they quoted him accurately! In other words, he doesn't challenge their assertions that he though the crash was extraterrestrial, that he'd heard the metallic debris was really changed, that he'd heard there were bodies, that he believed there was a coverup, that he believed top government officials were involved in a secret UFO committee, and that he himself had dispatched planes on secret UFO-related missions.

If he's not challenging all of that, then his words to Kevin are the mildest of rebukes. If this relatively minor point is the full extent of his disagreement with the things about him in the book, isn't he in effect endorsing everything important that Schmitt and Randle said?

Greg Sandow