WITNESS FRANK KAUFMANN REMEMBERS ROSWELL

Though Controversial, He is Believed by Many

[Frank Kaufmann kept his silence a lot longer than many other alleged witnesses to the Roswell incident. The first time most people heard of him was in the pages of the book "The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell" by Kevin Randle and Don Schmitt, published in 1994. Even in that book, most of Kaufmann's testimony was credited to a fictional character called Steve MacKenzie. Kaufmann appeared on a television program about Roswell later that year, where he pointed out a crash site now known to be located on a ranch owned by Hub Corn, 20 miles north of Roswell. In that program, Kaufmann's face was never shown. More recently, he has gone fully public. Some researchers consider his testimony unreliable, but Randle and Schmitt regard him as a key witness. Likewise, forensic artist William Louis McDonald has relied heavily on Kaufmann's testimony to reconstruct a plausible model of the crashed spacecraft, recently marketed by Testors Corporation. If Kaufmann can be believed, his recollections of Roswell may rival in importance those of Colonel Philip Corso.

The following text is excerpted from an Associated Press story dated June 30, 1997.]

ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) -- An 80-year-old man with bushy eyebrows sits in his tidy brick house and talks about the time he saw the aliens.

Frank Kaufmann doesn't seem crazy. He smiles often and is warmly polite, if a bit grumpy about the recent influx of UFO buffs.

"You've got these guys coming out of the woodwork," Kaufmann says. "There's people who said they've been abducted, there's women claiming they've given birth to alien babies. That's just a bunch of crap, see."

Kaufmann has his own story to tell.

Fifty years ago, Kaufmann says, he and several soldiers and other civilians working at the Roswell Army Air Field were dispatched to check on reports of a tumbling fireball that had crashed northwest of town.

They found the site easily -- even in the afternoon sun, he says, the glow was visible from the shoulder of Highway 285.

"We were 200-300 yards from the impact area and it didn't look like a plane, it wasn't anything like a missile," he says. "It was kind of a strange looking craft, kind of a horseshoe, almost a Stealth bomber-type shape.

"When we saw what it was, this strange craft and the bodies, we were just shocked," he says. "We radioed in to have body bags sent out, and they were carted off to the base hospital. The craft itself was loaded on a flatbed with a tarp on it and driven right down Main Street to the base."

He describes five dead aliens.

"One was thrown out, it was up against the arroyo; one was half-in, half-out, and the other three were inside," he says.

They had neither big eyes nor long, stringy fingers, he says, but were "trim, good-looking people."

"They were hairless and had kind of ash-colored skin. They were maybe 5-foot-3 or 5-foot-4," he says.

Kaufmann says he and his colleagues "for security reasons took a monkey oath" the evening after visiting the site: "We saw nothing, we heard nothing, we will say nothing."

For 47 years, Kaufmann kept the vow.

Three years ago, as alleged witnesses began speaking up, Kaufmann told his story to authors Kevin Randle and Don Schmitt. He insisted, at first, that his name not be revealed. These days, after repeating his tale a number of times, Kaufmann is more candid.

"I'm not going to be around much longer," he says. "Folks might as well know."

Since Frank's death in February, 2001, researchers have gained access to his papers, and found some disturbing documents. Frank, it seems, was wont to forging documents to support the tales he was spinning for Roswell researchers.

For instance, Frank claimed to have special intelligence training, high military rank (Master Sergeant) and military assignments in the 40's that would seem to indicate that his claims of special duties in Roswell were valid. To reinforce his claims to the researchers, Frank produced a photocopy of one of his separation papers (the Separation Qualification Record) that appeared to back up his story.

But he would never allow the researchers more than a glance, and refused to allow them to keep a copy. This in of itself might tend to raise suspicions, but his gift for gab apparently smoothed over any objections the researchers might have had.

After Frank's death, his widow allowed researchers access to his private papers. It was in these papers that that the real forms were found, and the real truth finally came out- he had falsified his records to the researchers.

The conclusions drawn by Randle and the investigators were obvious- Frank Kaufmann had, for the last 10 years, been gulling the Roswell researchers with lies, forgeries, and tall tales.

Frank Kaufmann is a person that Kevin Randle claims is still one of his very few credible witnesses.

He hasnt been caught lying?

In Randle and Donald Schmitts first book, Kaufmann wasnt an active participant but an only an observer. When talking about the interview with Kaufmann, Randle and Schmitt (page 166, UFO Crash at Roswell) stated:

But in Randle and Schmitts second book, Kaufmann was an active participant to the point that he was one of the most pivotal players! Of course, they changed his name from Kaufmann to Steve MacKenzie. Supposedly they made the change of name because "a former CIA employee, who in November 1992, injected himself into the Roswell case."

Karl Pflock, the person Randle and Schmitt are referring to, is retired and did at one time work for the CIA. He is also a UFO researcher and didnt approach Kaufmann at the behest of the CIA. So why did Randle and Schmitt bring in the former employment by Pflock at the CIA? Could it be to make Kaufmanns tale seem more believeable?

In Randle and Schmitts first Roswell book, Kaufmann wouldnt tell them the nature of his work. But he did admit that "I didnt work on radar, I wasnt a mechanic. I wasnt a pilot."

So he didnt work on radar. In fact, Kaufmann wasnt trained on radar.

Yet, in Randle and Schmitts second book, Kaufmann claimed that he "received a call from Brigadier General Martin F. Scalon of the Air Defense Command, ordering him to report to the radar at White Sands. A mysterious UFO had been detected on its radar. "MacKenzie (Kaufmann) was to monitor the objects movements and report them directly to the general. MacKenzie could not leave the scope unattended for even the shortest of times. In fact, once his watch had been established, he set up a system of mirrors so that he could see the screen even when he needed to use the latrine."

So, Kaufmann didnt work on radar, wasnt radar trained, but he claims he was sent to monitor the radar at the direct orders of the general!

MacKenzie/Kaufmann was supposedly told to abandon his watch on the radar and to return to Roswell. According to Randle and Schmitt only nine men "with the highest clearance and real need to know" were allowed full access to the crash site. Mackenzie (Kaufmann) was supposedly one of these men.

Still, Randle claims, "I find Frank Kaufmann to be credible because, to this point no one has demonstrated that he has lied about anything. There are those who don't like his testimony because of what it does to their personal beliefs and agendas, but the fact is, he hasn't been caught lying."
(United Kingdom UFO Network Saturday 11th April 1998 IRC meeting on #UFO)

Kaufmann is not only known as MacKenzie in the Roswell fable. He has also been called elsewhere, Joseph Osborn.

A man of many names and stories is our Frank Kaufmann.

Randle claims that no one has shown that Frank Kaufmann has lied. Yet the stories told by Kaufmann to Randle and Schmitt contradict each other.