Stanton Friedman has Announced his Retirement

In anyone’s lifetime there will always be certain individuals that have impacted your life or left an impression on you for one reason or another. Such is the case with Stanton Friedman, nuclear physicist and the original civilian researcher of the 1947 Roswell Incident. I moved to Roswell New Mexico in June 1996, after retiring from the Texas Department of Highways and

By Dennis Balthaser www.truthseekeratroswell.com 5-1-18

Transportation with 33 years in civil engineering work, doing QA and QC inspection of materials used to build highways and bridges. My interest in UFOs had started in the 1980s, and shortly after that I began hearing about the Roswell Incident and eventually, the name Stanton Friedman. I became involved with the International UFO Museum in Roswell a short time after relocating to Roswell, as a volunteer, with the unofficial title of Investigator for the museum.

My first acquaintance with Mr. Friedman was a short year later during the 50th anniversary of the Roswell Incident in July 1997, when Stanton was one of main speakers at the UFO Museum for the event. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that first meeting with Stan grew in to a relationship that I have cherished for the past 21 years, so it is with mixed emotions that I heard about his pending retirement in March 2018. I wish him all the best in retirement, although I personally hope, that with his retirement, he will still be active at times. He certainly deserves retirement at the age of 83 after the career(s) he has had for so many years. None in the field of Ufology have come close to accomplishing what he has accomplished in research, lecturing, visiting libraries and archives, and more importantly, dealing with debunkers and critics publicly.

Stan started early as valedictorian of his high school class in New Jersey. He then went on to obtain a BSc and MSc degree in physics from the University of Chicago in 1955 and 1956. His honesty always impressed me when people at lectures would refer to him as Doctor Friedman and he quickly would correct them that he wasn’t a PhD. For 14 years after college he was employed as a nuclear physicist at GE, GM, Westinghouse, TRW Systems, Aerojet General Nucleonics, and McDonnell Douglas, working on highly advanced, classified programs on nuclear aircraft, fission and fusion rockets, and several compact nuclear powerplants for space and other applications. His claim to fame was that they all became cancelled programs.

He became interested in UFOs in 1958, and since 1967 has lectured on the subject at more than 600 colleges and 100 professional groups in 50 U.S. states, 10 Canadian provinces, and 18 other countries. He has published more than 90 UFO papers and been on hundreds of radio and TV programs. Stan has provided written testimony to Congressional Hearings, and has appeared twice at the United Nations, so if he considers it is time to retire, that’s probably justified, however, this is one researcher who will miss him.

He located Major Jesse Marcel, retired in Louisiana in 1978, who happened to be the Intelligence Officer of the elite 509th atomic bomb group stationed in Roswell in 1947 that dropped the bombs on Japan to end WWII, and Stan’s research about Roswell has continued since then, interviewing witnesses and looking for the truth about the incident. He’s written several books about Roswell that have all gone on through multiple printings. To those interested in Roswell and UFO research I still recommend anything written by Mr. Friedman as an excellent source for information on the topic.

Stanton and I have done many lectures at conferences together at such places as Roswell, Aztec and Angel Fire, NM, Presidio Texas and others. We always had time after each day’s conference to have dinner together and discuss the day’s events. At a conference in Aztec, NM several years ago, I had to give this nuclear physicist a hard time when I came out of my room one morning at a bed and breakfast we were staying at, and asked Stan “what he was doing in the hall”, and he replied, “he had locked himself out of his room.” I couldn’t resist giving him a hard time about that.

A few years ago, when I began doing Roswell UFO Tours here in Roswell, Stan (in the center) was among a group I was touring and added tidbits of information to the tour guests about the Incident. Being around Stan always encouraged me to look for more information, and I always came away knowing more after talking with him. Of all the editorials I’ve written over the years, many times I would forward them to Stan for checking my accuracy on information, and he always would correct me where necessary, before I distributed them.

Stan and I were on the radio show, “Coast to Coast” several years ago, and during our interview he told the show host, “Dennis is the researcher in Roswell all other researchers go to for the answers.” I still have that on my web site home page.

Stan has dual citizenship (U.S. and Canadian), living in New Brunswick, Canada, so on a few occasions if he had the name of a new witness he’d call me or email me and ask me to check it out. Such was the case 6 years ago in 2012, when Stan called to inform me that the editor of the other Roswell newspaper in 1947, “The Roswell Morning Dispatch” was still alive. I was surprised to hear that he actually lived in Roswell, so I made arrangements to meet him, had a long interview with him, and wrote a lengthy editorial about that interview.

The wife and I have had Stan over to our house or had a meal at a restaurant with him many times, when he was in town, so he became familiar with my wife Debby’s medical problems, and I never got an email from Stan that didn’t have a closing note asking about her condition, or just a “Best to Deb” message at the end of his email. We always appreciated that concern he showed.

I could go on for many pages about the relationship I was fortunate to have the past 21 years with who I consider the most knowledgeable researcher on the 1947 Roswell Incident in the past 70 years and most likely in the next 70 years. There has always been, and always will be only one Stanton Friedman, and knowing that I had the opportunity to work with him, and most importantly learn from him will be something I’ll always remember. He does have some lectures scheduled this year and plans on being in Roswell in July for the 71st anniversary, and I plan on having the opportunity to visit with him again before he retires.

Stan, enjoy your retirement, and as Bob Hope used to say, “Thanks for the Memories.”

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See Also:

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