Who is Lieutenant Walter Haut?

Lieutenant Walter Haut served at the public information officer for the 509th Bomb Group based at Roswell Army Air Base in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Early on July 8, 1947, Base Commander Colonel William Blanchard ordered Haut to draft a press release to the public, announcing that the United States Army Air Forces had recovered a "flying disk" at a nearby ranch.



Haut had served as a bombardier on thirty-five missions over Japan during World War Two. During Operation Crossroads over the Bikini Atoll during the summer of 1946, Haut was responsible for dropping instrument packages during A-bomb testing.

Haut has been quoted saying that there is "no chance" that senior officers who handled recovered material during the Roswell incident mistook debris from a flying saucer as a weather balloon.

The mystery continues.