Aliens in America
When Mrs. Lawson gave us the freedom to pick our topic for this project, I was overwhelmed with the amount of the things i could choose from. I finally decided that I wanted to do something that would both interest me and give me a different look at America's culture, aliens. During my lifetime, aliens have played a huge role in the culture, from movies and t.v shows, to "nonfiction" books and news reports. It seems like aliens are always present in our world, and I want to discover why Americans are so fascinated with them. When I was brainstorming on ways to start my research the first thing I could think of was Roswell, New Mexico.
I started off my research by looking up some background information of the town. The website I found is the official town website of Roswell. Roswell is a small town in New Mexico, home of Walker Air Base. Nobody had really heard of the town, until the events that shocked the Untied States in 1947. On July 2, 1947, many people in the town of Roswell witnessed a flying disc fly over the town. The next day a foreman of a ranch, Mac Brazel, came upon strange, metal debris while riding horseback. The website I found this on is a good website for background information on the Roswell Alien Fiasco. As I began researching more about Roswell, I came across a newspaper in Australia. The newspaper talks about the initial press report issued by the local military. In their press conference they said that they had recovered an unknown flying disc. But they issued another conference later stating that they were wrong, and they had actually recovered a weather balloon.
What I thought was really interesting about this newspaper is what it call "An Astonishing New Twist". It says that Lieutenant Walker Haut, the man who issued the original press conference, claimed before his death that he weather balloon story was a cover up. As I continued to read on, one local town member states that he was approached by the government to provide several child-sized coffins shortly after the Roswell crash. I found this really strange. Many people would assume that this meant the government needed coffins for aliens, that were around the size of children. Why would the government not want to research the aliens if they actually had found them? In my opinion the local town member seems to be lying.
While doing some more research i cam across a documentary where Apollo Astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, spoke about seeing UFOs in space. In the video, it shows the conversation between the astronauts on Apollo 11 talking to Houston control center about the whereabouts of the S-IVB, the part of the rocket which had broken off 2 days prior. The S-IVB was nowhere close to them. Later in the video Buzz Aldrin is interviewed and recorded saying that there was something close to them that was able to be observed. Buzz Aldrin also says that another astronaut looked through a telescope and saw the mysterious object ellipse. One thing that I found interesting is that the astronauts did not want to tell the command center that they had something flying next to them because they did not want to be commanded to turn back.
The next thing i decided to research was the reported UFO sightings. I found a wonderful website called paranormal haze. It had all of the famous reported UFO sightings all on one page. One of the sightings was supposedly the first sighting recorded. Kenneth Arnold, a private pilot, reported that he saw nine UFOs lined up in a fleet while flying over Mount Rainier, Washington. The thing that I found really interesting about this report was that it took place only days before the Roswell crash. Another reported crash was in western Pennsylvania, which is commonly known as the Kecksburg UFO. Reports say that the thing that crashed was about the size of a volkswagen beetle and was covered from head to toe with hieroglyphics. As I continued to search this page I came across a more recent reported sighting of UFOs, the Phoenix Lights of 1997. Unlike the other incidents, there were thousands of people who saw this one. I found a video on Youtube of a witness filming it. I really find the report interesting because it is in the age of technology and was able to be recorded and seen around the world much easier then in the past.
The next thing that I wanted to find out about this topic was its role in the culture of the United States. One thing that came to mind was the role that aliens played in the film industry. Alien was one of the first movies made about extraterrestrial life, and definitely started a cultural explosion. The movie is about futuristic humans on a mining ship that are attacked by hostile Aliens. Another movie that was a huge success was E.T. E.T. showed that not all Aliens could be hostile, but instead friendly. This film put a whole new meaning to the thought of another species not on Earth. The Alien film industry. today, has emerged to several box office hits. The Transformers trilogy has taken control of the modern Alien industry. The three movies take the top three spots for box office grossing for movies about extraterrestrials. One even ranks as the number 4 grossing movie of all time. These movies also shed a new light onto Aliens, that friendly ones are fighting a war on our planet with their enemies. It is no doubt that Aliens have taken a huge role in the culture and history of the United States, all started with the Roswell incident back in 1947. I have no doubt that the idea of Aliens will only get bigger as the state of technology increases and we find out more about the great unknown.
What I thought was really interesting about this newspaper is what it call "An Astonishing New Twist". It says that Lieutenant Walker Haut, the man who issued the original press conference, claimed before his death that he weather balloon story was a cover up. As I continued to read on, one local town member states that he was approached by the government to provide several child-sized coffins shortly after the Roswell crash. I found this really strange. Many people would assume that this meant the government needed coffins for aliens, that were around the size of children. Why would the government not want to research the aliens if they actually had found them? In my opinion the local town member seems to be lying.
While doing some more research i cam across a documentary where Apollo Astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, spoke about seeing UFOs in space. In the video, it shows the conversation between the astronauts on Apollo 11 talking to Houston control center about the whereabouts of the S-IVB, the part of the rocket which had broken off 2 days prior. The S-IVB was nowhere close to them. Later in the video Buzz Aldrin is interviewed and recorded saying that there was something close to them that was able to be observed. Buzz Aldrin also says that another astronaut looked through a telescope and saw the mysterious object ellipse. One thing that I found interesting is that the astronauts did not want to tell the command center that they had something flying next to them because they did not want to be commanded to turn back.
The next thing i decided to research was the reported UFO sightings. I found a wonderful website called paranormal haze. It had all of the famous reported UFO sightings all on one page. One of the sightings was supposedly the first sighting recorded. Kenneth Arnold, a private pilot, reported that he saw nine UFOs lined up in a fleet while flying over Mount Rainier, Washington. The thing that I found really interesting about this report was that it took place only days before the Roswell crash. Another reported crash was in western Pennsylvania, which is commonly known as the Kecksburg UFO. Reports say that the thing that crashed was about the size of a volkswagen beetle and was covered from head to toe with hieroglyphics. As I continued to search this page I came across a more recent reported sighting of UFOs, the Phoenix Lights of 1997. Unlike the other incidents, there were thousands of people who saw this one. I found a video on Youtube of a witness filming it. I really find the report interesting because it is in the age of technology and was able to be recorded and seen around the world much easier then in the past.
The next thing that I wanted to find out about this topic was its role in the culture of the United States. One thing that came to mind was the role that aliens played in the film industry. Alien was one of the first movies made about extraterrestrial life, and definitely started a cultural explosion. The movie is about futuristic humans on a mining ship that are attacked by hostile Aliens. Another movie that was a huge success was E.T. E.T. showed that not all Aliens could be hostile, but instead friendly. This film put a whole new meaning to the thought of another species not on Earth. The Alien film industry. today, has emerged to several box office hits. The Transformers trilogy has taken control of the modern Alien industry. The three movies take the top three spots for box office grossing for movies about extraterrestrials. One even ranks as the number 4 grossing movie of all time. These movies also shed a new light onto Aliens, that friendly ones are fighting a war on our planet with their enemies. It is no doubt that Aliens have taken a huge role in the culture and history of the United States, all started with the Roswell incident back in 1947. I have no doubt that the idea of Aliens will only get bigger as the state of technology increases and we find out more about the great unknown.
