On July 8, 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field press officer issued a release stating they had recovered a 'flying disc.' Within hours, the story was retracted and replaced with the claim it was a weather balloon. Intelligence officer Major Jesse Marcel, who personally handled the debris, later stated the material was extraordinary — thin metallic sheets that couldn't be dented or burned, I-beams with hieroglyphic-like markings, and memory-metal that returned to shape. In 1994, the Air Force admitted the 'weather balloon' was actually a Project Mogul spy balloon, but Marcel and other witnesses insisted the material was unlike anything terrestrial. The case remains the foundational UFO incident.