By Anthony Bragalia
The UFO Iconoclast(s)
8-16-09
A research study that has recently been obtained through FOIA offers stunning confirmation that Wright-Patterson Air Force base contracted Battelle Memorial Institute to analyze material from a crashed UFO at Roswell in 1947. Remarkably, the co-author of this very metals study is the same scientist who decades ago had confessed that he had examined extraterrestrial metal from a crashed UFO while he was a research scientist at Battelle! This just-received document also reveals that another one of its metallurgist authors reported directly to a Battelle scientist who was conducting secret UFO studies for the USAF. It appears that the study represents first-ever attempts in creating highly novel and advanced Titanium alloys. Some of these alloys were later associated with the development of "memory metal" of the type reported as crash debris at Roswell.
This 1949 Battelle research study had never before been publicly available until earlier this month. Its release was compelled under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA.) It was sought because references to it had been found as footnotes within later military-sponsored studies on shape-memory alloys such as Nitinol. It was previously believed to be "missing" because both Battelle and Wright historians were unable to locate it. Earlier research had revealed a paper trail that led from Roswell to Wright Patterson, to the doors of Battelle- and to this 1949 study.
Once received, investigators were astounded to learn that the sought study was in fact co-authored by none other than Elroy John Center. Center was a Battelle scientist who -in June of 1960- had privately related that he had analyzed metal from a fallen UFO when he was at the Institute. Citations that had been found to this Battelle report had not listed Center as a co-author. When the report was finally received, Center was revealed to be an "et al" or "and others" author of the study. Center's story about examining ET debris was first publicly told in 1992. But it was not known that Center was the co-author of this Battelle study until it was obtained under FOIA in August of 2009!
BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE
It was previously determined that Battelle (which operates six U.S. National Laboratories) was a likely organization to have analyzed such material. Founded in 1929, Battelle remains a major research and defense contracting organization.
THE METALSome of the crash metal at Roswell was reported by several credible witnesses to have had "shape memory" characteristics. When crumpled, this "morphing" metal returned immediately and seamlessly to its original form. Shape recovery metals ("memory metals") are today emerging as a technology with applications for use in everything from eyeglass frames to spacecraft. An intense review of this subject (reported in an earlier three-part series on the UFO Iconoclasts website) proved very revealing:
Nitinol (a lightweight Nickel-Titanium alloy that is the "Cadillac" of memory metals) finds its history in late 1940s metallurgical work at Battelle- in studies that were contracted by Wright Patterson in the months immediately following the Roswell crash.
- A metals expert at Battelle during the time -Dr. Howard C. Cross- was leading a dual life secretly researching UFOs for government agencies while at the same time directing top-secret Titanium alloy studies. It was found that Cross "seeded" Titanium alloy studies to the US Navy Lab- where Nitinol was later "discovered."
- Titanium alloy was named as part of the composition of the Roswell memory metal according to General Arthur Exon, Wright's one-time Base Commander. Exon also referred to the material's unique "processing" and that the "reports" on the metal "were still around." Exon spoke of "chemical analysis, compression tests and flexing." These were the precise tests found to have been conducted on Titanium alloys in the Battelle report received though FOIA.
- General George Schulgen (who led Intelligence at the Pentagon at the time of the crash) issued a formerly secret memo -just weeks after Roswell- informing his officers that the saucers may be made with materials "of composite construction" that used "various combinations of metals" and that were fabricated by "unusual methods" to achieve "extreme lightweight." Schulgen's memo was written just one week prior to the issuance of the Battelle report!
- Major discrepancies in the "official" history of Nitinol were identified. Although Nitinol may not be the "actual" Roswell debris, its development and inspiration was found from material discovered crashed at Roswell in 1947.
- Citations to this 1949 Battelle report were found (as buried footnotes) within four military-sponsored studies. All of these studies related to shape-recovery or "memory metal" development. This includes a report authored by Dr. Fred Wang, the purported "co-inventor" of Nitinol in the 1960s at the US Navy Lab. Nitinol is comprised of Nickel and Titanium, and much of this 1949 report concerns itself with alloying these two metals. Wang was later discovered to have been involved in bizarre "mind over matter" experiments to see if Nitinol could be morphed using the mind's energy.
The Battelle study from 1949 was obtained through a FOIA request placed by Sarasota Herald Tribune reporter Billy Cox. Many of it pages are missing or are not numbered.
THE BATTELLE METAL STUDY
TITLE PAGE OF THE BATTELLE 1949 REPORT
The study's full title is "Second Progress Report Covering the Period September 1 to October 21, 1949 on Research and Development on Titanium Alloys Contract No. 33 (038)-3736." It is authored by "Simmons, C.W.; Greenidge, C.T., Craighead, C.M. and others." The Battelle report was completed for Wright Patterson Air Materiel Command.
The citations to this Second Progress Report were found in later military-sponsored studies on shape-memory metal development. They list the authors of this report as C.M. Craighead, F. Fawn and L.W. Eastwood. However, it was learned from reading the report that the citations to it were actually listing the authors of a subsection of the report- not the authors that are listed above, in the study's main title. This subsection (to which the later shape-memory metal studies refer) relates to a Nickel-Titanium Phase Diagram- that is required to make Nitinol!
Elroy John Center (who confessed to UFO debris analysis) is not listed among the study authors shown in the report title. He is rather, one of the "other" authors- as indicated in the study's title. The report's title identifies the three primary authors- and then follows with the phrase "and others." The technical subsection of the report that Elroy Center authored is very revealing, as are many sections found within the study:
TITLE OF ELROY CENTER'S SECTION OF BATTELLE REPORTCENTER'S SECTION OF THE REPORT DEALS WITH TITANIUM PURITY.
EXCEPTIONALLY PURE TITANIUM IS NEEDED TO MAKE NITINOL MEMORY METALCenter's section in the report (on page 97) is especially telling. General Exon spoke of the Roswell material as having undergone chemical analysis. Center was a Chemical engineer and his section of this report details chemical analysis to detect and quantify metal impurities. It is entitled "Analytical Methods for the Titanium Base Alloy." Titanium must be of ultra-high purity to be used for shape-memory metal applications. Center concentrates on detection of Oxygen in Titanium, a challenge faced when creating the memory metal Nitinol.
ELROY CENTER-WHY HIS CONFESSION TO UFO DEBRIS ANALYSIS HAS TO BE TRUE 
Center was a Senior Research Chemist who worked for Battelle from 1939-1957 in materials sciences. University of Michigan alumni files and other papers that he authored while at Battelle confirm his employment and position. Originally from Hibbing, MN, Center received a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1939.
Dr. Irena Scott (a former employee of both Battelle and the Defense Intelligence Agency) had known of Elroy Center's connection to ET metal analysis years before this Battelle report was released. She had even related Center's confession to MUFON, a civilian UFO research organization, as reported in a 1992 Ohio MUFON journal. But Center's name was not known to be associated with the Battelle 1949 metals report until it was received this month under FOIA.
In May of 1992, Dr. Scott talked to a mutual acquaintance who told her that in June of 1960 Center had privately related to him something very disturbing. Center had told his friend that while he was a Research Chemist at Battelle he was directed by his superiors to provide technical assistance on a strange project. He was to conduct evaluation of an unknown material that he was told was retrieved some time prior from a crashed "flying saucer." He said that the debris -like the Roswell debris- had highly unusual hieroglyphic-like markings. Center then stopped short and said nothing more. Center passed in 1991. Center's family confirms his intense interest in UFO study and in the extraterrestrial, including while at Battelle. Additional information confirming Center's involvement is now being developed and will soon be released.
Although this story was known publicly as early as 1992, no one knew that Elroy Center was a co-author of a Battelle report for Wright Patterson that has long been suspected to be associated with Roswell memory metal debris analysis! The likelihood of a story about Center examining UFO debris when at Battelle- and then 17 years later discovering for the first time that he was the very scientist who had co-authored the suspect 1949 Battelle report- cannot be mere coincidence. Of the thousands of reports and employees that Battelle has had over the years- it could not be coincidence that it would be that very report -and that very scientist- that would be associated with the debris analysis- years later!
THE REPORT WAS PREVIOUSLY "RESTRICTED" TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE -- WHEN RECEIVED UNDER FOIA, IT WAS INCOMPLETE Receipt of the Battelle report was challenging. Historians at both Battelle and Wright Patterson were unable to locate this Second Progress Report- even though they saw the same citations and footnotes to it that we did. This was why the report itself had been previously characterized in past articles by this author as "missing."
It was then decided that a FOIA request must be filed to secure the document. It required filing two FOIA requests, a reminder telephone call and the passage of 10 weeks. The report was subjected to official review for release by the office of the Secretary of the Air Force. It is now known that the document was previously restricted to viewing by authorized DoD (Department of Defense) personnel, despite the passage of over 60 years! According to the Air Force, the report was finally found in archives of the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) of DoD. The report was received through FOIA with portions of it missing. About 30% of the 119 pages are not included. Many are not numbered. The Air Force offers the explanation that this is due to document age, illegibility or the inability to reproduce certain parts of the report.
ONE OF THE STUDY'S AUTHORS WORKED DIRECTLY FOR A SECRET GOVERNMENT UFO RESEARCHER We learn on Page 96 in the subsection of the report, "Investigation of Melting Titanium," that Battelle scientist L.W. Eastwood was examining ways to optimize the melting of Titanium to the greatest efficiencies possible. Effectively melting Titanium is required to make Nitinol memory metal. It appears that Battelle possessed an advanced arc furnace that Wright did not.
Incredibly, this very same scientist -LW Eastwood- reported to Battelle's UFO researcher for the USAF- Dr. Howard C. Cross! Eastwood and Cross were also frequent co-authors of technical treatises. Cross was not only a chief metallurgist at Battelle in the late 1940s and 1950s- he was at the same time a secret US government agency UFO investigator! Cross authored large sections of early Project Blue Book reports and was consulted by many agencies about UFO events. His story is told more completely in an article archived on UFO Iconclasts- "Roswell Metal Scientist: The Curious Dr. Cross." Cross had direct connections to government-sponsored UFO studies with such agencies as the USAF, NACA- the predecessor organization to NASA, the CIA and with U.S. Navy Intelligence. He was also the author of the controversial letter to Wright-Patterson on UFOs known in research circles as the "Pentacle Memo."
A PHASE DIAGRAM OF TITANIUM AND NICKEL IS INCLUDED IN THE STUDY -- TITANIUM AND NICKEL COMPRISE THE MEMORY METAL NITINOL On Page 65 we find the section, "Evaluation of Experimental Titanium-Base Alloys" by C.M. Craighead, F. Fawn and L.W. Eastwood. On the next page we find a Nickel-Titanium (NiTi) Phase Diagram. This is the first military-sponsored study to create a "recipe" for mixing the two metals that comprise Nitinol memory metal. Citations to this are found buried as footnotes in four military-sponsored published later. All of these studies citing this diagram relate to the subject of shape recovery memory metal.
The report reveals an intense and sudden effort to conduct first-ever research on purified Titanium alloyed with other metals. As mentioned earlier, General Exon speaks to "Titanium" and "another metal" and that "the processing was different" when describing the composition of the Roswell debris. General Schulgen's memo (written one week prior to this Battelle metals report) speaks to UFOs whose "items of construction" are specially fabricated composites, using a variety of metals and possessing extreme light weight.
THE REPORT EXAMINES OTHER TITANIUM ALLOYS LATER RESEARCHED BY WRIGHT FOR SHAPE MEMORY POTENTIAL Pages 82-85 of the document reveal an interest in the properties of Titatium-Zirconium or TiZr. In a study contracted by Wright-Patterson in 1965 to NYU, this 1949 Battelle report is cited by footnote. The subject of the NYU report, entitled "On the System Titanium-Zirconium," is on the shape-memory potential of TiZr!
THE REPORT EXAMINES "BENDABILITY" OF NEW ALLOYS On Page 95 the document reveals a technical chart showing first-ever research in such areas as "Elongation," and "Minimum Bend Radius" of various advanced Titanium alloys. This indicates that they were closely examining elasticity, malleability and tensile strengths of newly created, high-purity Titanium alloys, including Nickel-Titanium, required to make Nitinol.
THE SECOND PROGRESS REPORT DOES NOT MENTION THE "FIRST" No reference whatsoever to what must surely exist- a First Progress Report- is made in this 1949 Battelle Second Progress Report for Wright. What does the First Progress Report contain? Why is there no reference to it in the literature- or even within the FOIA-obtained Second Progress Report? Without a title, date or the authors' names, it is proving very difficult to locate this First Report.
A MOON WALKER'S CLUES ABOUT BATTELLE AND UFOS 
The Battelle-Roswell Connection is further established in a telling statement made many years ago by a Man Who Walked on the Moon. Dr. Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man on the Moon, has recently made some very public, supportive statements about the reality of Roswell. But in 1996, Dr. Mitchell provided clues to reporter Billy Cox about who kept the UFO secret:
"The information is now held primarily with a body of semi- or quasi- private organizations that have kind of spun-off from the military intelligence organizations of the past. There have been private groups involved with the issue for a number of years because they have the expertise." Breaking down Dr. Mitchell's sparse statement we can correlate that:
- Battelle is a "semi or quasi private organization"
- Battelle was "spun off from the military intelligence organizations of the past." {In fact, it has recently been learned that Battelle's Director at the time of the Roswell crash was Clyde Williams. Williams was at the same time serving on the government's Research and Development Board- and as Trustee of the Rand Corporation. Williams worked at the R&D Board with Dr. Eric Walker and Dr. Robert Sarbacher- both of whom later indicated their personal knowledge of the crash event! Other documents show that Williams had an intense personal interest in advanced Titanium alloy development.}
- Battelle is shown to have been "involved in the issue for a number of years." It is now acknowledged that Battelle played a significant role as a contractor to Project Blue Book and to other official govenment UFO studies.
- Battelle scientists -like Cross and Center- certainly had the needed "expertise" to analyze such things.
Battelle (like its think-tank cousin RAND Corporation) is an organization that is part of the "military industrial complex" of which a former General, President Eisenhower warned we should make sure remains in check. With this investigation, we have done what the General ordered.
BATTELLE AND ET SCIENCE 
Battelle's historic involvement in applying our science to understanding extraterrestrial science is no longer hidden. The truth is now revealed. Battelle Memorial Institute analyzed the materials of construction of a crashed craft from another world.
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