Claim:
Marcel claimed he was an aid to Gen. Hap Arnold and that it was Hap Arnold who decided he should go to intelligence school.  (Pratt)

Reality:
Marcel applied for an appointment as a second lieutenant when he was still working for Shell Oil Co. His first assignment in the military was as a student at the Army Air Forces Intelligence School (AAFIS) in Harrisburg, Pa. The decision to send him to intelligence school had been made prior to his entering the service. His records do not show any assignments that might have had him working with or for General Arnold prior to December of 1948.

Claim:
Marcel claimed that he had been awarded five Air Medals.

Reality:
Marcel was awarded two Air Medals. There is nothing in the wording of the medal citations that

Claim:
He shot down five enemy airplanes.

Reality:
There is absolutely no evidence in his personnel file (almost 200 pages) which supports him shooting down even one enemy airplane.

Claim:
Marcel claimed that he didn't find out about his promotion to Lt. Col in the Reserves until after he left the service because "They kept me so busy I never looked at my personnel files."

Reality:
Marcel applied for the promotion of Lt. Col. in a letter from him to the commanding officer of the 509th bomb group on 29 Oct 47. By letter dated 20 Nov 47, Marcel was informed that his REQUESTED promotion in the reserves was approved but that it would be canceled unless he accepted it by signing the oath "within a reasonable time".

Marcel signed the oath on 1 Dec 47 thereby accepting the appointment officially!

Claim:
Marcel claimed that he had a bachelor's degree in physics from George Washington University and had attended universities LSU, NYU, and OSU.

Reality:
Marcel initially claimed on forms in his personnel file that he had attended LSU for one year as a non-credit student. This later grew to one and a half years.

LSU has no records of Marcel, although they do have records of his son.

GWU has no record of his ever attending let alone graduating with a degree in physics. At the request of Robert Todd, they conducted a second search with the same results.

Claim:
Marcel claimed he was transferred to Washington during the latter part of 1947. This statement is frequently used, along with the promotion in the reserves, by some people as back up for the claim that his superiors were giving him extra responsibility right after the Roswell incident.

Reality:
Marcel was transferred to SAC Hq on 16 Aug 48.

Claim:
Marcel claimed that "I wrote the very report President Truman read on the air declaring that Russia had exploded an atomic device."

Reality:
Truman didn't read any report on radio about this.

Further, Top Secret records from AFOAT-1 do not include Marcel's name anywhere in the records reporting the Soviet A-Bomb explosion. The copy of the White House statement shows no evidence that Marcel had anything to do with it either.

Claim:
Marcel claimed in the movie "UFOs Are Real" that the newsmen in General Ramey's office wanted him to tell them about it but "I couldn't say anything. And, when the General came in, he told me not to say anything - that he would handle it."

(Friedman came on next and claimed that "We have verified every statement by Jesse Marcel.")

Reality:
J. Bond Johnson, the reporter for the Fort Worth Morning Star wrote "...according to Maj. Jesse A. Marcel, Houma, La..." and "...Maj Jesse Marcel related..."

The article contains info which would have had to come from Marcel.

Claim:
"General Ramey allowed some members of the press in to take a picture of the stuff. They took one picture of me on the floor holding up some of the less-interesting metallic debris. The press was allowed to photograph this, but were not allowed far enough into the room to touch it. The stuff in that photo was pieces of the actual stuff we found. It was not a staged photo. Later, they cleared out our wreckage and substituted some of their own. They they allowed more photos. Those photos were taken while the actual wreckage was already on its way to Wright Field. I was not in these. I believe these were taken with the general and one of his aids."

Reality:
The photo of Jesse Marcel is taken with a radar target and all the photos show the same debris!

Further, there was no way for General Ramey to have gotten a non-pigmented weather balloon that had been out in the sun for three weeks in that short of a time. Further, the Fort Worth AAF and Roswell AAF weren't using those weather balloons or targets so where did he get one from anyway? They didn't even have the radars to use the targets with if they had managed to get one.

The debris in the photo of Jesse Marcel shows debris that matches what was described by Mac Brazel in the RDR.

"The newsmen saw very little of the real material, very small portion of it. And none of the really important things like these members that had these hieroglyphics on them. They (the newsmen) wanted me to tell them about it and I couldn't say anything. And when the General came in, he told me not to to say anything - that he would handle it." (UFOs are Real, May 1979)

Statement Marcel made that was cut from the flick: "As far as newspeople, I never talked to any of them." (See comment about J. Bond Johnson's articles)