For those few people not familiar with the accounts of the so-called "Roswell incident," as the story goes, a crash of an object at a remote sheep ranch in July 1947 resulted in the rancher bringing strange debris into the local county sheriff's office.

The nearby Roswell Army Air Force (RAAF) base was contacted. The base intelligence officer and counter-intelligence personnel investigated and reportedly came the conclusion that a "flying saucer" had crashed there.

The base public affairs officer issued a press release stating this which made worldwide headlines, before a more down-to-Earth explanation (or cover story) about a weather balloon was issued.

Richardson has seemed somewhat strong in the past about advocating the release of information about Roswell and the general topic of UFOs. After the debate, though, he seemed to back off a bit when questioned directly by Matthews.

And Obama made his comments almost exactly one year after a highly unusual incident at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. On Nov. 7, 2006, a gray, metallic, disc-shaped craft was witnessed hovering over O'Hare by many airport and airline employees. The incident made news around the world.

Witnesses reported that the object had no visible lights and it was estimated to be 6 feet to 24 feet in diameter. The object was reportedly in a stationary position and was silent. It hovered just below the cloud deck which was estimated to be 1,900 feet that day.

A SENSITIVE SUBJECT

No matter how you cut it, UFOs and the visitation to Earth of extraterrestrial or other unusual beings are controversial topics. Yet, many people find these subjects thought-provoking and interesting.

Did the U.S. Government become acutely aware of this kind of situation in the summer of 1947 in Roswell? Were extraterrestrial bodies or even a live survivor recovered?

Did we establish communications with other nations about this scenario? Was a special group of scientists and military officers established by President Harry Truman to deal with this development?

Those are some of the claims of researchers who have tried to get insight into the stories, rumors and documentation about UFOs.

How big is your imagination? Some researchers claim that the U.S. established communication and diplomatic relations with these "visitors" and that they provided our government with advanced technology and knowledge.

There is a story that President Dwight Eisenhower met with a different type of extraterrestrials at Edwards Air Force Base in California in 1954.

Yet another story alleges that the U.S. Government trained a small team of military personnel as part of an exchange program in the 1960s with the Roswell type of visitors. This program reportedly sent the U.S. team to another planet, via the visitors' space craft, for over ten years.

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