Philip Corso
Philip J. Corso (1915–1998) was an American intelligence officer who claimed in his 1997 book The Day After Roswell that he had passed alien technology from the Roswell wreckage to American companies. Critics identified numerous factual errors and impossible chronologies in the book.
Philip J. Corso (1915–1998) was an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army and a retired lieutenant colonel. He served in Italy during World War II and later also worked as an intelligence officer during the Korean War. In the early 1960s, he was briefly deputy chief of the section dealing with foreign technologies (Foreign Technology Division) at the Army's research and development directorate. He left the military in 1963 and became a staff member for Senator Strom Thurmond. He became known for his book The Day After Roswell (1997), which he co-authored with writer William J. Birnes.
What he claims
In the book, Corso claims that in July 1947, at the Fort Riley military base in Kansas, he saw the body of an alien being in a shipping crate. According to him, starting in 1961 he later managed a file cabinet at the foreign technology section that contained wreckage from the Roswell crash. He claims that he passed the alien technology originating from it, including integrated circuits, fiber optics, the laser, night-vision devices and high-strength fibers, to American industrial companies and research institutes so that they could reverse-engineer and further develop it. In the book he also claims that he played a role in the CORONA spy satellite program and influenced the American lunar program.
The foreword to the book was written by Senator Strom Thurmond, who, however, believed he was endorsing a conventional military memoir. When it turned out that the book was about a UFO cover-up, Thurmond publicly expressed his regret and stated that he knew of no cover-up and did not believe there had been one.
Official finding and skeptical position
According to the official finding, the Roswell wreckage most likely came from a balloon train of the secret Project Mogul balloon program, and there is no documented evidence of the technology transfer Corso described. According to skeptics, the development of the technologies he mentioned can be clearly traced and explained by the work of human researchers: the transistor was created in December 1947 at Bell Laboratories, and the laser in 1960 by Theodore Maiman, meaning both predated Corso's 1961 assignment.
The book was criticized for numerous factual errors, in part also by UFO researchers. In the Skeptical Inquirer, Brad Sparks showed that Corso described a 1961 meeting at the CIA's Langley headquarters, which was not yet in operation at the time; that he claimed Frank Wisner, the CIA's head of covert operations, committed suicide in a London hotel in 1961, whereas Wisner died in Maryland in 1965; and also that he claimed to have influenced Kennedy's lunar program through a 1962 meeting, although the president had already announced it in May 1961. No records were found in the archives of the Eisenhower Library showing that Corso worked on the staff of the National Security Council, as the book claims. UFO researcher Karl Pflock called the book completely lacking in credibility, and the British Guardian included it in 2001 on its list of the ten greatest literary hoaxes.
Corso's role in UFO literature is significant mainly because his account spread as what was said to be a firsthand report by a military officer, and it convinced many people, including former Canadian Minister of National Defence Paul Hellyer.