Recently, through working with the US Army Chaplain Corps -and with assistance from the Executive Director of the US Army Chaplain Museum at Ft. Jackson, SC• I have conclusively identified the Base Chaplain at RAAF in July of 1947 as Reverend Elijiah H. Hankerson. Rev. Elijah Hankerson was a Black man and a National Baptist. Hankerson began his military career in 1944 and passed in 1990. However, I have located and contacted his daughter• Esther.

Elijah and his wife Annie lived off-base at 601 E. Summit in Roswell. Though Hankerson is mentioned in the RAAF Yearbook, he is not pictured.

Hankerson was replaced as Base Chaplain of RAAF on July 10, 1947 (just days after the event.) Hankerson was shipped out to a location in the South Pacific after the crash. He was replaced by a Catholic Priest, Captain/Father William B. Benson. Benson spoke five languages. His appointment to the base to replace Hankerson was sudden and not planned. The timing of this is interesting, to say the least. Less than a week after the crash, Hankerson was told he had to leave• and base officials brought in someone new.

THE HANKERSONS-
AND WHY THEIR FATHER WAS REPLACED AT ROSWELL

The late Mrs. Annie Hankerson, wife of Rev. Elijah Hankerson of RAAF

I began an extended dialog with Esther Hankerson (daughter of Annie and Elijah) to see if she or other Hankerson family members could shed light on Elijah's time at Roswell.

This was a problem. She and her brother Tommy were entirely unaware that Annie and Elijah had ever even lived in New Mexico! Her father and mother had never even told her or her brother (both born after the crash) that they were stationed at RAAF in 1947! Esther was astounded to learn of the fact when she was contacted by me. She was uncertain how it was at all possible that this could be! She indicated that "the later '40s was a time my parents never spoke about• it was as if someone had taken an eraser to that time period. I have no photos of them during that time• and I've always wondered why. I know about the rest of their lives, but not about this!" She asked me if I had photos of him during this period. Family records and photos somehow simply "skip" this entire time frame. Esther was hugely overwhelmed by all of this when confronted by me with the evidence that her own father was there at RAAF during the time of the crash. Esther (who says that she and her family had been aware of the Roswell incident since the 1980s) stated: "If I ever had known what I know now, I would have asked him about it!" She adds though, that it may not have mattered. Her father was both a military officer and a Reverend. She indicated that her father (and mother Esther) were the types that could be entrusted to keep secrets. He took his military oath and his Chaplain oath very seriously and her mother Esther also honored this.

Father Benson (who replaced Hankerson directly after the crash) was confirmed by Chaplain Corps records to have been in NJ at Camp Kilmer through July 3, 1947. Records indicate that his first day at RAAF was on July 10, 1947 when he was named the new Base Chaplain. When Father Benson left military service he became pastor of the Sacred Heart Church in Baldwin, LA. His last residence is listes as the Sacred Heart Rectory. The current pastor of the church, Father Gregory Cormier, was also not aware that Father Benson had ever been stationed at RAAF. Like the Hankerson's, Benson seemed to want to keep his assocation with the base during that time period to himself. Father Cormier states, "I do not think that your phone call about this is unusual. I believe that life exists throughout the universe, reflecting God's glory. I am familiar with Roswell and I think I can add to why Father Benson was brought in to replace a Baptist Chaplain. Catholic priests take confessions."

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