My piece on Area 51 (on NRO this weekend) produced a response from a reader who recently returned from Roswell, New Mexico, hometown of another UFO myth. He notes that Roswell was, for a while, also the home of Robert Goddard, the father of American rocketry. Apparently, there’s a museum there with a wonderful exhibit dedicated to Goddard. The reader writes that, unlike the UFO museums, it was deserted. What a shame. I fear I’m guilty of this crime too. Years ago (1995) I went to Roswell for NRODT (the piece isn’t online) and the UFO exhibits were all that I visited.
My correspondent’s e-mail also contains this marvelous recollection:
“I once sat at the table with a man who had witnessed the first reconnaissance use of an airplane by the US Army, searching for Pancho Villa after the Columbus, New Mexico raid, while across the table was Jack Schmidt, one of the last two men on the moon.”
That’s a story that’s too good not to share.