“I PHOTOGRAPHED THE ALIENS AT ROSWELL”
MILITARY CAMERAMAN’S TAPED CONFESSION REVEALED
AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2024
.png)
A military photographer who took pictures of the alien bodies found fallen near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 left a little-known videotape confession about his involvement in the incident. Never widely circulated, the cameraman’s filmed disclosure can now be viewed in this article. In the tape (as well as in other interviews and in a notarized statement left for posterity) the photographer, Sgt. Frederick Benthal, relates that:
-
He received sudden and urgent orders in early July 1947 (shortly after the crash) to immediately fly to Roswell Army Air Field, which was a three hour flight from where he was stationed. He flew in a B-25 bomber, accompanied by a Corporal Al Kirkpatrick.
-
Upon landing, he was driven an hour and a half north of Roswell where he observed covered trucks carrying some type of unusual wreckage.
-
Further on he was taken to a desert site where tents had been erected. He observed other photographers on the scene.
-
He was ordered inside one of the tents to begin taking pictures.
-
He observed four small humanoid bodies, nearly all identical. They had large heads, darkish complexions, and very thinly constructed bodies. They had been placed on the ground, wrapped in rubber tarp material.
-
He also detected a strange odor within the tent.
-
The picture-taking was sharply supervised by an officer who did not want the photographer to make sustained observation of the creatures.
-
His photographs and equipment were then confiscated, and he was debriefed that he was to say nothing of the event as a matter of national security.
-
He was afterwards flown back to his installation in Washington, DC.
-
He was then abruptly “transferred out” of his location and reassigned to Antarctica to document the effects of cold on equipment.
A new review of prior research on the Roswell incident provides stunning confirmation that the story told by Benthal is indeed true.
FREDERICK BENTHAL
.png)
Frederick Benthal was a 26-year-old Sergeant and Photographic Specialist with the Army Air Force, stationed at Anacostia Naval Air Station in Washington, DC in the summer of 1947. Anacostia served several functions including as a major test flight center, an installation for experimental aircraft, and as a research center. Over the years, the Army Air Force, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and National Guard units, as well as DOD and federal agencies found the Anacostia installation to be an ideal place from which to operate. Prior to this assignment, Benthal was given high security clearances and, in 1946, had set up photographic equipment for “Operation Crossroads” nuclear bomb detonations at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
Some of Benthal’s testimony was included in the1992 book Crash at Corona by the late researcher and author Stanton Friedman. Referred to only as “FB” in the book, Freidman had later related to researcher Don Schmitt that “FB” stood for the name “Frederick Benthal.” Friedman was well known for traveling around the country delivering lectures about UFOs and Roswell. It is
believed that either Benthal himself had attended a Friedman lecture, or someone who knew Benthal attended a lecture and brought the two together.
THE TELLING TAPE
In 1996, it was arranged for Benthal to tell his account of Roswell on film. A documentary on the Roswell crash was being made by the late producer Mark Wolf, and a brief segment would feature Frederick Benthal.
Unfortunately, the documentary was never picked up by networks to air for broadcast. Roswell researcher and author Tom Carey was perusing his vast collection of Roswell-related tapes from years past and happened across a copy that he had acquired of this rare and long-forgotten video, which he then sent to this author.
Benthal can be seen and heard recounting his involvement at Roswell here:
.png)
Producer Mark Wolf
MORE OF BENTHAL’S TESTIMONY
Stan Friedman began dialoging with Benthal in 1990. Benthal was a “reluctant witness” who needed coaxing to come forward and commit his testimony to print and to film. On May 5, 1993, Benthal signed a notarized statement (now believed to be amongst the papers kept by the Friedman estate) providing more details of his Roswell involvement. From this statement and further interviews, Friedman relates in Crash at Corona additional information on what Benthal had confessed:
"One morning they came in and they said, 'Pack our bags and we'll have the camera there, ready for you.' We didn't know where we was goin'." [His 4x5 Speed Graphic press camera was on the plane, and after a few hours' flight, they arrived at Roswell.] "We got in a staff car with some of the gear they had brought along with us in trucks, and we headed out...about an hour and a half...we was headin' north.
"We got there and there was a helluva lot of people out there, in a closed tent. You couldn't hardly see anything inside the tent. They said, 'Set your camera up to take a picture fifteen feet away.' Al Kirkpatrick got in a truck and headed out to where they was pickin' up pieces at another site. All kinds of brass runnin' around. And they was tellin' us what to do: Shoot this, shoot that! There was an officer in charge. He met us out there and he'd go into the tent...stand there right besides us and [say], 'OK, take this picture!'
"There were four bodies I could see when the flash went off, but you was almost blind because it was a beautiful day...sunny. You'd go in this tent, which was awful dark. That's all I was takin': bodies. These bodies was under a canvas, and they'd open it up and you'd take a picture, flip out your flashbulb, put another one in [take another picture] and give him the film holder (each holder held two sheets of four-by-five inch cut film) and then you went to the next spot.
"I guess there was ten to twelve officers, and when I got ready to go in, they'd all come out. The tent was about 20 by 30 foot. The bodies looked like they was lyin' on a tarp. One guy did all the instructions. He'd take a flashlight and he'd come down there: 'See this flashlight!' Yes, sir! 'You're in focus with it?' Yes, sir! 'Take a picture of this.' He'd take the flashlight away. We just moved around in a circle, takin' pictures. Seemed to me [the bodies] were all just about identical. Dark complected. I remember they was thin, and it looked like they had too big of a head. I took thirty shots...I think I had about fifteen [film] holders. It smelled funny in there.
"Kirkpatrick came back in a truck that was loaded down with debris. A lot of pieces stick‘n out that wasn't there when they took off. We got debriefed on the way back to the airport [Roswell Army Air Field]. About four the next morning, they woke us up and took us to the mess hall, we ate, we got back on the B-25 and headed back. When we got back to Anacostia we got debriefed some more, by a lieutenant commander."
In further testimony taken in 1993, Benthal indicated that the photographic session took about two hours to complete.
“My camera case, cameras, and all of the film had been confiscated before we left the site. [Back at the base] we were awakened around 4 a.m. the next morning.” He explained that after breakfast, they boarded the B-25 and headed back to Washington. When they got back to Anacostia, they were again debriefed, this time by an officer, a lieutenant colonel by the last name of “Bibbey” who asked them if they knew what they had photographed. Benthal and Kirkpatrick both responded, "Yes, Sir" to which Lt. Col. Bibbey instructed them that they did not know what they had photographed. Then he asked them the question again, to which this time they responded, “No Sir.” Liking this response, Bibbey then loudly, curtly and quickly counter-responded, "You're dismissed!"
Recalling the episode, Benthal observed, "Not long after that, I was assigned to Antarctica to take pictures of pieces of military equipment to study the effects of cold on them."
CORROBORATION FOR BENTHAL’S TESTIMONY
PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM FAR AWAY
WERE USED TO RECORD THE DEBRIS AND BODIES
Corroboration for Benthal comes from the photographers at the Roswell base itself. They were left out of the process of taking and developing photographs of the debris and bodies. Instead, it was thought wiser to use personnel for this work that were not on base, and who had no ties to it. This would minimize the number of Roswell base servicemen who were witness to the crashed craft and occupants, there would be fewer people from the base who could be questioned about it by outsiders, and there would be fewer personnel who would talk among themselves about what they had witnessed. They already had servicemen who were involved in the physical retrieval and temporary storage of the extraterrestrial artifacts and corpses. They did not need or want to expand the circle of base personnel to include those who photographed such things. Several base photographers interviewed by researchers said that they were “shut out” of the event and that others came on base who were unfamiliar to them, including personnel said to have been from DC, where Benthal was stationed.
Jim Remiyac was a 20 year old PFC in the 3rd Photo Unit at Roswell in July of 1947. In 2013, this author had the opportunity to talk with his wife about his time there. She and her husband discussed the crash incident over the decades, including well before all of the books, magazine and shows on
1940s 4x5 Speed Graphic camera
Roswell. She explained that her husband said that he and his unit were “shut out from everything” and that “even though they should have been there as they were many times before for similar things, they were not called out. And they wondered about this after the newspaper accounts too. Why? What was so special?” Remiyac noticed increased flight activity in and out of the base, and he had heard rumors that people from Washington, DC were there for a serious matter. He called them “brass.”
Gene Niedershmidt was similarly attached to the 3rd Photo Unit at Roswell during that time, and possessed Top Secret clearance. Also in 2013, this author spoke directly with Niedershmidt who echoes Remiyac’s recollections. Remiyac and Niederschmidt discussed the incident for decades and kept in touch. Mrs. Remiyac provided me with Gene’s contact information. Though they were normally brought in to photograph and document “any and all kinds of crashes”, Gene remembers that no one was called from his unit to do so when it came to that specific crash at that particular time in July. Gene remains uncomfortable to this day about why this is so.
If it was a highly classified project of any type that had fallen, quick response and visual documentation would be required by base operations policy. If it was a weather balloon, they photographed many of those as well. Any airborne device that comes to grief near or over the base was to be filmed. Asked if this was a rather mundane thing to do, Gene explained that they even took pictures of servicemen after they had been in Friday night fights, or of the crashed jeep of a drunken soldier, and similar “events.”
Again in 2013, this author reached and interviewed another Roswell photographer. Calvin Cox was a PFC of the 3rd Photo Unit at the Roswell base in 1947. Cox confirmed Jim Remiyac and Gene Niederschmidt’s accounts that there was a “blackout” of information and a “shut out” of their participation in documenting the crash. He also recalls unfamiliar faces around the base and his activity areas in the time immediately following the crash. He noted that some of these base visitors were thought to have been brought in from in DC – the location of Sgt. Frederick Benthal.
Earlier corroboration of these three accounts comes from a brief interview that was conducted with the Unit’s Operations Manager, Vernon Zorn. In 1991’s book UFO Crash at Roswell by Kevin Randle and Don Schmidt, Zorn confirmed that “no photos of the crash site were taken by his men.”
BENTHAL’S MENTION OF GENERAL CURTIS LEMAY
Benthal said that he was informed prior to arrival at Roswell that he may see some prominent military men at the field site where he was to be taken. This included General Curtis LeMay, the future head of the Strategic Air Command and USAF Chief of Staff. Although LeMay himself does not appear to have arrived at Roswell after the crash, LeMay did send his Director of R&D, General Laurence Craigie, to the scene. Interestingly, it was Craigie who would later authorize the establishment of the official government UFO study Project Sign (later Project Blue Book). In 2008, this author and reporter Billy Cox interviewed LeMay’s personal pilot, Ben Games. Games held a PhD and the rank of Major. He recorded over 730 hours of flight combat hours, and after retirement from the military, headed several Caribbean airline companies. Games told us that Craigie was dispatched by General Curtis LeMay as his representative to Roswell to investigate the crash. Games said he flew Craigie to Roswell immediately after the crash, ferrying him from Bolling Field in DC to Roswell. It should be noted that Bolling Field was adjacent to, and shared facilities with the Anacostia base where Frederick Benthal was assigned.
That Benthal spoke of LeMay in relation to Roswell is uncanny. Benthal mentioned LeMay 18 years before Ben Games did.
TENTS IN THE DESERT
Benthal mentions that tents had been set up in the desert, one of them being where the bodies were located. “Tents in the desert” at the Roswell UFO crash site is also mentioned by a Roswell MP named Ed Sain. Interviewed by Tom Carey in 2005, Sain said he was taken out to the crash site north of town in an ambulance and guarded the bodies that were held in a field tent in the desert before they were transported to the base. Deadly force was authorized to keep unauthorized people out of the tent. Sain also mentioned fellow MP Cpl. Raymond Van Why as having been with him. Van Why was dead, but his widow Leola confirmed to Carey
that her husband told her in 1954 about guarding the crashed spaceship site. Benthal’s mention of “tents in the desert” at the crash retrieval site was several years before such mention by others.
A MILITARY MAN NAMED BIBBEY
“Bibbey” is an extremely uncommon name in the United States. In fact, according to US Census Bureau data analyzed by mynamestats.com, there are only an estimated 131-178 people with the surname “Bibbey” in the country. But “Bibbey” is the last name given by Frederick Benthal when he named the officer who debriefed him after he returned from Roswell to Anacostia Naval Air Station.
Incredibly, there was in fact a man with the last name of “Bibbey” who was in naval military photography in the 1940s. One of his photos can be seen here, with his name appended at the lower right of the image: 7th Training Company unit photograph, Naval Training Station Newport, 1940 | The Digital Collections of the National WWII Museum : Oral Histories (ww2online.org). It is very likely that this “Bibbey” is the very one to which Benthal referred.
ANACOSTIA’S SPECIAL PURPOSE
Though most known for its aircraft testing and related research, it is less well known that during WWII Anacostia became home to the US Naval Photographic Science Laboratory (NPSL). It was established under the military command of the Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics as the lead division to take, process and analyze photographs, often for highly specialized and classified missions for all branches of the military.
It is not surprising that a highly trained photographer from Anacostia was given the assignment to document the aliens discovered dead in the desert decades ago. That man was Frederick Benthal.
Thanks is extended to Tom Carey for his research assistance.