The “Wreckage” in the
Rear of the Ambulance
The various types of wreckage described in the rear of an ambulance at the Walker AFB hospital also appear to be related to the 1959 balloon accident. Some of this wreckage allegedly had odd inscriptions, touted by UFO theorists as “alien” hieroglyphics.
A requirement of balloon pilot training missions were that they be closely monitored by balloon recovery and medical personnel.[207] Ground crews from Holloman AFB followed the balloon flight from its launch site there to its landing site 10 miles northwest of Roswell.[208] Two of the vehicles that followed the balloon were Dodge M-43 ¾-ton field ambulances and a third was an M-37 ¾-ton utility vehicle or “weapons carrier.”[209] One ambulance was assigned to this mission for its standard use—a medical response vehicle. The other ambulance had been converted by the Holloman AFB Balloon Branch and served as a communications vehicle on balloon recovery missions.[210] The additional communications equipment, mounted in the rear compartment of the ambulance, drastically altered what someone expected to see in an ambulance of this type.
Dennis related that he was walking fast when he observed what he thought was wreckage in the rear of an ambulance.[211] This quick glance apparently resulted in descriptions of two pieces of wreckage leaning against the interior of the rear compartment of the ambulance that “was kind of like the bottom of a canoe ... like stainless steel ... with kind of a bluish-purplish tinge to it.”[212] UFO theorists have suggested that these objects were alien spaceship “escape pods” recovered by the Army Air Forces. However, this appears to be a remarkably accurate description of two steel panels painted Air Force blue on a converted ambulance used by the Balloon Branch for this mission.
Fig. 20. Balloon Branch Communications Technician, A2C Ole Jorgeson, now a retired Master Sergeant, in the rear compartment of an M-43 ambulance. Ambulances of this type were converted by the Balloon Branch to communications vehicles in the late 1950s. It appears the witness described the two panels painted Air Force blue (lower right and left of ambulance) as “bluish-purplish” “wreckage” that looked “kinda like the bottom of a canoe” and the stenciled writing above them as “hieroglyphics”—See figs. 21 and 22 on next page. (photo collection of Ole Jorgeson)
Fig. 21. (Above) Enlargement of stenciled writing from photograph below. This lettering was apparently later described as “hieroglyphics.”
