Jesse Marcel

Jesse Marcel Sr. was born on May 27, 1907, in Bayou Blue, Louisiana. He was the youngest of seven children born to Theodule and Adelaide Marcel.{{rp|page=28}} Jesse harbored an early interest in amateur radio and graduated from Terrebonne High School.{{rp|page=28}}

After Marcel graduated from high school, he worked at a general store and attended a few graphic design classes at Louisiana State University. Marcel began working as a draftsman and cartographer for the Louisiana Highway Department, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Shell Oil Company.{{rp|page=30}}

In June 1935, Marcel married Viaud Aleen Abrams. The following year she gave birth to their only child, Jesse A. Marcel Jr.{{rp|page=29}}

In 1924, Marcel began a three-year enlistment in the Louisiana National Guard, being honorably discharged as a sergeant.{{rp|page=29}}{{cite journal |last1=Todd |first1=Robert G. |title=Major Jesse Marcel: Folk Hero or Mythomaniac |journal=The KowPflop Quarterly |date=December 8, 1995 |volume=1 |issue=3 |page=1-4 |url=http://www.roswellfiles.com/pdf/KowPflop120895.pdf}} In July 1936, he enlisted in the Texas National Guard; he was honorably discharged in June 1939 with the rank of private. He was employed by Shell Oil, making maps from aerial photographs.{{rp|pp=63-64}}

In January 1942, Marcel applied to be commissioned as an officer, and in April, he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the US Army Air Force.{{rp|pages=28–32}} He attended the Army Air Force Intelligence School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for training as combat photo interpreter/intelligence officer. Upon graduation from the program, Marcel was promoted to the role of instructor. In May 1943, Marcel was briefly mentioned in a Miami fishing column.{{cite web | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-news-boating-fishing-and-outdo/163565741/ | title=Boating-Fishing and Outdoors | work=The Miami News | date=May 25, 1943 | page=12 }}

In October 1943, 1st Lieutenant Marcel was assigned to the 5th Bomber Command in the Southwest Pacific, serving as squadron intelligence officer and, later, group intelligence officer.{{Cite web|url=https://www.jessemarceljr.com/lt-col-ret-jesse-marcel-sr.html|title=Lt. Col (Ret.) Jesse Marcel Sr.|website=JESSE MARCEL, JR.|access-date=December 29, 2021|archive-date=December 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229014506/https://www.jessemarceljr.com/lt-col-ret-jesse-marcel-sr.html|url-status=live}} He flew in combat missions and received two Air Medals and the Bronze Star.{{rp|pages=41–43}}{{rp|pages=56-61}} After a promotion to captain, in May 1945, Marcel was promoted to the rank of major.

File:Operation Crossroads - Able 001.jpg mushroom cloud rising from the lagoon with the Bikini Island visible in the background]]

Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The purpose of the tests was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships.{{Cite web|url=https://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Crossrd.html|title=Operation Crossroads|website=nuclearweaponarchive.org | first = Carey | last = Sublette | date = December 16, 2001}} There were only seven nuclear bombs in existence in July 1946.{{cite book|last = Weisgall|first = Jonathan|year = 1994|title = Operation Crossroads: The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll|location = Annapolis, Maryland

| publisher = Naval Institute Press|isbn = 978-1-55750-919-2|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/operationcrossro0000weis}}{{rp|page=286}}

The tests, called Able and Baker, both used Fat Man plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapons of the kind dropped on Nagasaki. The Able bomb was stenciled with the name "Gilda" and decorated with an Esquire magazine photograph of Rita Hayworth, star of the 1946 movie, Gilda.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vN20TgiFJIsC&pg=PA24|page=24|title=The Archeology of the Atomic Bomb: A Submerged Cultural Resources Assessment of the Sunken Fleet of Operation Crossroads at Bikini and Kwajalein Atoll Lagoons, Republic of the Marshall Islands|first=James P.|last=Delgado|date=April 15, 1991|publisher=Submerged Cultural Resources Unit, National Maritime Initiative, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service|via=Google Books|access-date=April 14, 2023|archive-date=April 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414090952/https://books.google.com/books?id=vN20TgiFJIsC&pg=PA24|url-status=live}} The Baker bomb was nicknamed "Helen of Bikini".{{rp|page=263–265}}

In mid-1946, Marcel was attached to the 509th Composite Group to prepare for and participate in Operation Crossroads.{{cite web |last1=Thompson |first1=Erin E. |title=Intelligence Agents Investigate UFOs in Roswell (7 JUL 1947) |url=https://www.dvidshub.net/news/475677/intelligence-agents-investigate-ufos-roswell-7-jul-1947 |website=This Week in MI History |publisher=USAICoE |language=en |date=July 8, 2024}} On July 26, 1946, Brigadier General Roger M. Ramey authored a letter of commendation complimenting Marcel's performance during Operation Crossroads.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B6eDDQAAQBAJ|title=Roswell in the 21st Century|first=Kevin D.|last=Randle|publisher=Speaking Volumes|via=Google Books|isbn=9781628155129|access-date=November 11, 2020|archive-date=April 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421020355/https://books.google.com/books?id=B6eDDQAAQBAJ|url-status=live |date=2016}}{{rp|page=125}}{{Cite letter|last=Ramey|first=Roger M.|date=July 26, 1946|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ramey_Commendation_for_Jesse_Marcel.gif|title=Letter of Commendation|recipient=Jesse Marcel}} via NICAP The following month, Marcel received an additional letter of commendation from Major General W. E. Kepner for his performance in the operation.{{rp|page=125}}{{Cite letter|last=Kepner|first=William Ellsworth|date=August 16, 1946|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kepner_Commendation_for_Jesse_Marcel.gif|title=Letter of Commendation|recipient=Jesse Marcel}} via NICAP

Marcel was the first military officer tasked with investigating a balloon crash near Roswell, New Mexico—an event that occurred amid the flying saucer craze of 1947, and which would subsequently become known as the Roswell incident.{{cite book |last1=Weaver |first1=Colonel Richard L. |last2=McAndrew |first2=((1st Lt. James)) |title=The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert |date=1995 |publisher=Headquarters United States Air Force |location=Washington DC |url=https://www.dafhistory.af.mil/Portals/16/documents/AFD-101201-038.pdf |access-date=December 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190625220736/https://www.afhra.af.mil/Portals/16/documents/AFD-101201-038.pdf |archive-date=June 25, 2019 |url-status=live}}{{rp|12}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D5tTAAAAMAAJ |title=Report on the UFO Wave of 1947 |first=Ted |last=Bloecher |date=April 29, 1967 |via=Google Books |access-date=April 28, 2021 |archive-date=April 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428172931/https://books.google.com/books?id=D5tTAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }} On June 26, media nationwide had reported civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold's story of seeing what became known as "flying saucers". Historians would later chronicle over 800 "copycat" sightings reported after the Arnold story.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eHo2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT238 |title=Why Statues Weep: The Best of the "Skeptic" |first1=Wendy M. |last1=Grossman |first2=Christopher C. |last2=French |date= 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1134962525 |via=Google Books |access-date=April 28, 2021 |archive-date=April 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428172932/https://books.google.com/books?id=eHo2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT238 |url-status=live }}

On Monday, July 7, Roswell Army Air Field was contacted by Sheriff George Wilcox, who reported that a local rancher had recovered a crashed "flying disc".{{cite book |last=Goldberg |first=Robert Alan |author-link=Robert Alan Goldberg |date=2001 |title=Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8e5YELGGFAC |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8e5YELGGFAC&pg=PA189 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, Connecticut |isbn=978-0300132946 |chapter=Chapter 6: The Roswell Incident |page=192}}{{rp|page=12}} Marcel and Lieutenant Colonel Sheridan Cavitt met with rancher Mac Brazel and followed him back to the ranch outside Corona.{{rp|pages=23-34}} With Marcel in a jeep while Brazel and Cavitt rode horses, the trio visited the debris field where they loaded debris into the vehicle.{{rp|page=51}}{{rp|page=144}}

File:Marcel-roswell-debris 0.jpg

Upon his return to base, Marcel reported the recovery to base commander William H. Blanchard.{{rp|page=26}} Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release announcing the recovery of a 'flying disc' and naming Marcel as the responsible officer.{{cite news |title=Flying Disc Found; In Army Possession |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-bakersfield-californian/2223242/ |work=The Bakersfield Californian |date=July 8, 1947 |access-date=April 18, 2023 |archive-date=April 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418172940/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-bakersfield-californian/2223242/ |url-status=live }}* {{Cite book |last=Gulyas |date=2014 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0sW6BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT93 |title=The Chaos Conundrum: Essays on UFOs, Ghosts & Other High Strangeness in Our Non-Rational and Atemporal World |first=Aaron John |publisher=Andrews UK Limited |location=Luton, United Kingdom |isbn=9780991697588 |chapter=The Crashed Saucer Syndrome}} The debris was loaded onto a plane, and Marcel accompanied it from Roswell to Fort Worth.{{rp|page=23}} After his arrival, Marcel participated in a press conference in Texas where the debris was identified as pieces of a weather balloon kite. Marcel was quoted as saying, "[We] spent a couple of hours Monday afternoon [July 7] looking for any more parts of the weather device, [and] we found a few more patches of tinfoil and rubber."{{cite news | title=New Mexico Rancher's 'Flying Disk' Proves to be Weather Balloon-Kite | newspaper=Fort Worth Star-Telegram | date=July 9, 1947 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-worth-star-telegram/116328767/ | access-date=April 14, 2023 | archive-date=April 14, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414093450/https://www.newspapers.com/article/fort-worth-star-telegram/116328767/ | url-status=live }}

The event at Roswell was largely forgotten until 1978. That year, the sensationalist tabloid National Enquirer reprinted the original, uncorrected article from July 8, 1947.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kGFEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT209|title=Conspiracies Declassified: The Skeptoid Guide to the Truth Behind the Theories|first=Brian|last=Dunning|date=June 5, 2018|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781507207000|via=Google Books|access-date=April 18, 2023|archive-date=April 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421020407/https://books.google.com/books?id=kGFEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT209|url-status=live}} In February 1978, Marcel, then a retired lieutenant colonel, was interviewed by ufologist Stanton Friedman. In that interview, Marcel said he believed the Roswell debris was extraterrestrial.{{cite web|last1=Rothman|first1=Lily|title=How the Roswell UFO Theory Got Started|url=https://time.com/3916193/roswell-history/|magazine=Time|date=July 7, 2015|access-date=October 26, 2021|archive-date=July 9, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709023732/https://time.com/3916193/roswell-history/|url-status=live}}

{{External media|

|video1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv590ONs_J4&t=1514s Interviews with Jesse Marcel Sr. and Jr.] included in an Unsolved Mysteries episode

|video2=[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roswell_Reports,_Volume_6.webm Interview with Jesse Marcel Jr.]

}}

On December 19, 1979, Marcel was interviewed by Bob Pratt of the National Enquirer, and on February 28, 1980, the tabloid brought large-scale attention to the Marcel story.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnkjYCTOunoC&pg=PA225|title=Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe|first=Karl T.|last=Pflock|date=June 18, 2001|publisher=Prometheus Books|isbn=9781615925018|via=Google Books|access-date=April 18, 2023|archive-date=April 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421020353/https://books.google.com/books?id=KnkjYCTOunoC&pg=PA225|url-status=live}} On September 20, 1980, the TV series In Search of... aired an interview where Marcel described his participation in the 1947 press conference:{{Cite web |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Primetime/story?id=528860&page=1 |title=Aliens Changed Roswell, Even Without Proof |website=ABC News |access-date=April 18, 2021 |archive-date=April 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418000236/https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Primetime/story?id=528860&page=1 |url-status=live }}

{{block quote|They wanted some comments from me, but I wasn't at liberty to do that. So, all I could do is keep my mouth shut. And General Ramey is the one who discussed – told the newspapers, I mean the newsmen, what it was, and to forget about it. It is nothing more than a weather observation balloon. Of course, we both knew differently.{{cite episode| series = In Search Of... | series-link = In Search of... (TV series) | date = September 20, 1980 | season = 5 | number = 1 | title = UFO Coverups}}}}

Marcel's son, Jesse A. Marcel Jr., spent 35 years stating that in 1947, when he was 10 years old, his father had shown him alien debris recovered from the Roswell crash site, including "a small beam with purple-hued hieroglyphics on it".{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/28/roswell-jesse-marcel-dies|title=Roswell author who said he handled UFO crash debris dies at 76|publisher=Associated Press|via=The Guardian|date=August 8, 2013|access-date=April 4, 2023|quote=|archive-date=January 16, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116062542/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/28/roswell-jesse-marcel-dies|url-status=live}} In 1991, retired US Air Force Brigadier General Thomas DuBose, who had posed with debris for press photographs in 1947, acknowledged the "weather balloon explanation for the material was a cover story to divert the attention of the press."{{harvnb|Pflock|2001|p=33}}

According to a 1994 Air Force report, produced in response to a Congressional inquiry into the Roswell Incident, the material recovered by Marcel was likely debris from Project Mogul—a "then-sensitive, classified project, whose purpose was to determine the state of Soviet nuclear weapons research" using high-altitude balloons.{{rp|page=iii}}{{cite journal |last1=Frazier |first1=Kendrick |author-link1=Kendrick Frazier |title=The Roswell Incident at 70: Facts, Not Myths |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |date=2017 |volume=41 |issue=6 |pages=12–15 |url=https://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_roswell_incident_at_70_facts_not_myths |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720182643/https://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_roswell_incident_at_70_facts_not_myths |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 20, 2018 |access-date=July 20, 2018 |ref=none}}{{rp|page=25}} During June and July 1947, Mogul balloons had been test-launched at Alamogordo Army Air Field (now Holloman AFB) and White Sands Missile Range. Air Force declassification officer Lieutenant James McAndrew concluded:

{{block quote|When the civilians and personnel from Roswell AAF ... 'stumbled' upon the highly classified project and collected the debris, no one at Roswell had a 'need to know' about information concerning MOGUL. This fact, along with the initial mis-identification and subsequent rumors that the 'capture' of a 'flying disc' occurred, ultimately left many people with unanswered questions that have endured to this day.{{rp|page=316}}}}

In December 1947, while still in active duty, Major Marcel received a promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q_fhCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT49|title=The Total Novice's Guide To UFOs: What You Need To Know|first=T. L.|last=Keller|date=November 6, 2015|publisher=2FS, LLC|isbn=9781944242091|via=Google Books|access-date=April 15, 2023|archive-date=April 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415005447/https://books.google.com/books?id=q_fhCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT49|url-status=live}}{{rp|pages=61-65}} Marcel requested the promotion in late October and formally signed the oath of office on December 1, 1947. He retained the active duty rank of major. Years later, Marcel said that he did not find out about the Reserve promotion at the time.{{rp|p=65|quote=Marcel told receptive Roswell investigators [...] 'They kept me so busy I never even looked at my personnel files'}} Marcel remained with the 509th at Walker AFB until August 16, 1948, when he was transferred to Strategic Air Command at Andrews AFB. When SAC HQ transferred to Offutt AFB in Nebraska on November 9, 1948, Marcel transferred with it.

After requesting a hardship discharge to care for his elderly mother, in July 1950, Marcel returned to Houma, Louisiana. In September 1950, Marcel was released from active duty and transferred to the Air Force reserves. He received his final discharge in 1958.

In his final years, Marcel was a self-employed television repairman.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Xgxfto2JzMC&pg=RA5-PA71|title=Air Force Magazine|date=April 15, 2011|publisher=Air Force Association|via=Google Books|access-date=April 14, 2023|archive-date=April 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414084802/https://books.google.com/books?id=0Xgxfto2JzMC&pg=RA5-PA71|url-status=live}} He died on June 23, 1986, in Houma, Louisiana, at the age of 79.{{Cite web |last=Warth |first=Gary |date=September 30, 2007 |title=The truth is out there: Roswell incident recalled by local vet who was there 60 years ago |url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-the-truth-is-out-there-roswell-incident-recalled-2007sep30-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115194411/https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-the-truth-is-out-there-roswell-incident-recalled-2007sep30-story.html |archive-date=November 15, 2020 |access-date=November 9, 2020 |website=San Diego Union-Tribune}}

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Category:1907 births

Category:1986 deaths

Category:Recipients of the Air Medal

Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II

Category:United States Army Air Forces officers

Category:United States Air Force colonels

Category:Personnel of Strategic Air Command

Category:United States Air Force reservists

Category:Military personnel from Louisiana