|
|
 |
|
|
Famous rocket scientist ‘saw Roswell spacecraft’
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
 UNITED STATES. Wernher von Braun, the scientist who led the development of Germany’s devastating V2 rocket – which did so much damage to wartime Britain – and later became a leading figure in the American space programme, witnessed the Roswell “flying saucer” crash site and testified to seeing the bodies of its alien crew.
That’s the sensational claim being made by a NASA space shuttle team member, Clark C. McClelland (pictured right, in the mission pilot’s station in the Space Shuttle Columbia preparing it for the first Microgravity Laboratory Mission in 1992).
The story of the German V2 scientists is well known, but there are still surprising revelations being made. Last week, for example, it was revealed in newly declassified papers that many of other scientists were abducted at the end of World War II and forced to work in Britain, as part of a secret programme to plunder Germany’s trade secrets and intellectual assets.
However, Wernher von Braun and 500 of his associates had already managed to flee from their Peenemúnde base in the spring of 1945 and surrender to the Americans. After transferring to the United States, von Braun and his associates helped to refurbish, assemble and launch a number of V-2 rockets, shipped from Germany to the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico, which was established in July 1945. Sceptics say it was a secret Air Force balloon launched from White Sands that crashed at nearby Roswell and was mistaken for a UFO.
The Germans’ role, working with American colleagues, was to study the future potential of rockets: work that eventually led to the development of the Jupiter-C which successfully launched the West’s first satellite, Explorer 1. Wernher von Braun subsequently moved to NASA (pictured below in his office) and led the manned space programme, developing the Saturn rockets which put man on the moon. That goal was achieved on 16 July, 1969, when the Apollo 11 crew were launched on their historic eight-day mission to the lunar surface. Saturn V rockets powered five more teams of astronauts in later moon missions.
 Clark C. McClelland met Wernher von Braun (not for the first time) at Cocoa Beach on 15 July 1969 for an MFA (Manned Flight Awareness) pre-launch awards ceremony, prior to the Apollo 11 launch. The two men stepped outside for a brief break and their conversation turned to the imminent launch and astronomy.
Eventually, McClelland, a draughtsman working for subcontractors at what is now the Kennedy Space Centre, who kept quiet about his role as an investigator on behalf of two of the largest UFO organisations, decided to ask von Braun about what is referred to as “the Roswell Incident”. Did he know anything about it?
Writing for The Canadian Blog (posted 27 August, 2007), he says:
“Dr von Braun was a cigarette smoker and he lit one up. He thought for a second, then proceeded to talk freely about his inspection of the crashed craft.
“He trusted me to hear such astonishing events because I vowed to not report it to newspapers, magazines, television, etc. I never broke that vow. Since he is deceased, and the incident happened over 50 years ago, I am now disclosing what I heard. I have a right to speak about anything – even things that, according to certain agencies, ‘do not exist’.”
McClelland goes on: “The recovered bodies were temporarily being kept in a nearby medical tent. They were small, very frail and had large heads. Their eyes were large. Their skin was greyish and reptilian in texture. Dr von Braun said it looked similar to the skin texture of rattle snakes he’d seen several times at White Sands.”
Clark C. McClelland went on to become a Spacecraft Operator (ScO) with NASA’s Ground Test Astronaut-Space Shuttle Fleet at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, until 1992 when he was no longer required. He believes it has to do with his UFO investigations.
A fuller version of his Wernher von Braun claim can be found on Jeff Rense’s website which has an associated radio programme, and it gives McClelland an opportunity to answer some of his critics who argue that in 1969, when he claims to have spoken to von Braun about the crashed UFO, he couldn’t have known about the Roswell incident.
The Rense report (posted on 7 July 2007) is billed as a world exclusive, but McClelland has told the story before. Michael Lindemann wrote a feature about him in the now defunct CNI News (1 and 21 July 1999). It dealt extensively with why NASA decided it no longer needed his services and revealed:
“McClelland says that von Braun, like [Lt Col Philip] Corso, confirmed that a spacecraft of unknown origin crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. When we ran that story on 1 July, we were obliged to note that ‘our initial efforts to confirm [McClelland’s] NASA background have been inconclusive’. Needless to say, if McClelland’s background did not check out, his UFO claims would be worthless.
“As in the case of Col. Corso, we still can't guarantee that McClelland’s UFO stories are true – that would require a talent for mind-reading that we do not possess. But CNI News can now offer assurance that McClelland’s NASA background checks out. He is, in our opinion, a credible witness.”
 Unfortunately, the person who best knows the accuracy of this story – Dr Wernher von Braun – died on 16 June, 1977. It remains to be seen whether McClelland is prepared to identify the other White Sands witnesses he says were named by the German rocket scientist.
Clark McClelland’s own thought-provoking website also contains the von Braun story as well as accounts of astronauts’ sightings of UFOs and other strange encounters.
|
Posted on Monday, September 03, 2007
Category: UFOs
|
| Return |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|