Why did Brazel tell neighbors, friends and family about this odd debris - because he recognized it as not being normal, apparently.
A central feature is why Major Marcel thought the debris was 'not of this world', to an extent that he stopped off at home first, to show his family.
What made him think so?
it's something which has always puzzled myself and recent discussions have been helpful in recreating a perspective of that time.
Are we mistakenly contemplating a scenario, where he believed the debris came from an enormous, circular, metallic spacecraft, when that's not what he had in mind at all?
It was only some 15 days after 'flying saucers' became a headline story. The newspaper front pages were reporting latest sightings of 'flying discs', which were of all manner of things and every size, even only a few feet in diameter.
Those 'I-beams' with 'non-earthly' writing seem to have been pivotal in Marcel's conclusion.
The idea why it could be part of a spaceship, might also have been influenced by debris apparently strewn over a large area - a significantly more sizable 'project mogul' balloon was involved, not a weather balloon.
Critically, nobody knew what these new 'flying discs' were and whilst Marcel's deliberation may appear incongruous now, it would not have been unreasonable?
Ultimately, it was Marcel's judgement call, however, we have to keep in mind he was not alone in making that determination.
Why did Haut, seemingly of a seperate volition, send a news release, announcing that the base had recovered a 'flying disc', albeit there being no attribution to it being of non-earthly origin.
Profoundly important, of course, is that both Haut and Marcel are basing the assessment on our debris which Brazel discovered - the foil, broken sticks and rubber.
Nothing else.
We have established that its the exact same jumble of pieces Marcel is photograph with - he never claimed otherwise.
It's not from a 'flying disc'... except that it was... so far as Marcel believed.
Marcel was convinced to such an extent, he delayed experienced examination of what might have been evidence of an ongoing threat to the U.S., by stopping of at home first to unload some of the material for his family to see.
Presumably he didn't report this and covered-up that fact.
There's no debate Marcel could have jeopordised national security by doing so. As previously noted, his son, in later years, recalls that there was so much of the debris in their kitchen, perhaps some small pieces were left behind when it was reloaded back onto the vehicle
What if a critical, tiny component, was left unnoticed, at the house.
What about the danger of exposure to an alien virus? Maybe that's what the object was carrying and intentionally bringing to earth as a weapon.
Aside from which, Marcel was in no position to personally rule out the more likely prospect of a secret Soviet weapon, the 'hieroglyphics' being Russian cyrillic characters, he was unfamiliar with.
It is all set against that background, where in the days beforehand, even the New Mexico newspapers were carrying daily front page stories about those 'flying discs' and particularly, how the Army Air Forces (AAF), did not know whate they were, or where they came from.
We can only wonder how much of an influence that might have been.
Whilst Marcel was perhaps, singularly 'overenthusiadtic', how many of us, under those overall circumstances, might have come to that same conclusion.
The story 'grew wings' again, back in the 1980s and remains popularised, because it's almost certainly not generally realised that the AAF did not cover-up the find of a large, metallic, circular, archetypal 'flying saucer'.
All that occurred was that they changed their story from Brazel finding a 'flying disc', to it being a 'weather balloon'.
They didn't change the debris though.
Marcel is photographed holding the same 'flying disc' as the one Brazel came across in the first instance.
Brazel, in his press interviews, expressed he would never report a similar find, simply due to the unanticipated, extraordinary furore it had caused.
Brazel is quoted as remarking, "Lord, how that story had traveled".
Considering this was reportedly on 9, July, 1947, perhaps there is a tangible irony.
His full story, which features nothing remotely sinister, was widely reported and this is one example, by the Clovis News-Journal, in New Mexico.
www.forteanmedia.com/1947-07_09_Clovis_News_Journal.pdf
