Noted Ufologist and author Kevin Randle relates an intriguing story about a pre-1980 mention of Roswell. Randle explains that he did not understand the significance of the story until much later, as at that time, he never had even heard of the Roswell UFO crash.

In 1976 he and researcher Robert Cornett were researching trace landing cases in the Midwest. They both had an opportunity to interview a former Air Force sergeant who told them that he was tasked to "stage a solution" to a UFO sighting. The sergeant had explained to the investigators that he had trucked the debris of a weather balloon into a town, and, according to Randle, "told all who would listen that this is what they had seen, or what their neighbors had seen. The wreckage contained the silvery elements of the rawin radar reflectors, the neoprene balloon envelope, and the balsa sticks that had formed the frame of the reflector." Randle asked him "how often have you done this?" The sergeant replied, "Only once." When Randle asked him where this had taken place, the sergeant replied, "at Roswell, NM." This remarkable story was told in 1976, years before the publication of the first book on the Roswell crash.

LYDIA'S TELETYPE - 1973 and BEFORE

In 1973, author Peter Gutilla was a correspondent with the the now-defunct publication "Saga." Saga was a long-running mens adventure magazine which competed with magazine with titles such as "Argosy" and "True." Gutilla relates that he had a conversation with a Park Ranger that he identified as "G. Sleppy." The Park Ranger was giving Gutilla an account of a UFO sighting that he had experienced in the woods while on duty sometime prior. He then mentioned to Gutilla that his mother Lydia had a far more interesting and unusual UFO story that she had been telling for a very long time.

The now-famous Lydia Sleppy story (published only in part, and without using her name) appeared on page 60 of the Winter 1974 issue of Saga magazine in a special "UFO Report" edition. It read:

"In New Mexico a woman with a responsible position received a call from a station manager. He had been checking out reports of a UFO which had crashed in a field and was trying to track down the rumor that pieces of the object were supposedly stored in a local barn. In his excited call to the newsroom, the station manager verified the UFO crash report, and also claimed to have seen metallic pieces of the UFO being carried away to a waiting Air Force plane destined to Wright Patterson Air Force Base. As the woman was typing the fantastic news item over the teletype to their other two stations, a line appeared in the middle of her text, tapped in from somewhere, with the official order, 'Do not continue this transmission!' "

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