In a July, 1990 video-taped interview with Haut conducted by Fred Whiting for the Fund for UFO Research, Whiting asked Haut if he could remember Col. Blanchard ever mentioning the "flying saucer" matter after the official weather balloon line was established. Haut replied that he did, at a staff meeting a week or two later. He recalled Blanchard opening the meeting with a comment something like this: "Well, we sure shot ourselves in the foot with that balloon fiasco. It was just something from a project at Alamogordo, and some of the guys were here on our base later, too. Anyway, it's done and over with."

(This is several years before the Project MOGUL explanation was found by UFOlogists and  the AF. So we have Haut saying this before it was known that it was a NYU Project balloon Alamogordo!)

"Before my trip to Wright-Patterson, I tracked down Walter Haut, the retired base public information officer who wrote the infamous press release, and asked him if he ever actually saw the wreckage. 'No, and I feel like an idiot every time somebody asks me that,' he said ruefully. 'I got a call from the base commander, who basically dictated what was in the press release.' "

But now compare that statement to the Roswell Daily News of July 8, 1947 which disagreed with about who released the info:

"According to information released by the department, over authority of Maj. J. A. Marcel, intelligence officer, the disk was recovered on a ranch in the Roswell vicinity, after an unidentified rancher had notified Sheriff Geo. Wilcox here, that he had found the instrument on his premises."

Then we have this 1993 affidavit signed by Haut for the International UFO Museum:

AFFIDAVIT

1. My name is Walter Haut.
2. My address is: [-------BLACKED OUT-------]
3. I am retired.
4. In July 1947, I was stationed at the Roswell Army Air base, serving as the base Public Information Officer. At approximately 9:30 AM on July 8, I received a call from Col. William Blanchard, the base commander, who said he had in his possession a flying saucer or parts thereof. He said it came from a ranch northwest of Roswell, and that the base Intelligence Officer, Major Jesse Marcel, was going to fly the material to Fort Worth.
5. Col. Blanchard told me to write a news release about the operation and to deliver it to both newspapers and the two radio stations in Roswell. He felt that he wanted the local media to have the first opportunity to have the story. I went first to KGFL, then to KSWS, then to the *Daily Record* and finally to the *Morning Dispatch*.
6. The next day, I read in the newspaper that General Roger Ramey in Fort Worth has said the object was a weather balloon.
7. I believe Col. Blanchard saw the material, because he sounded positive about what the material was. There is no chance that he would have mistaken it for a weather balloon. Neither is there any chance that Major Marcel would have been mistaken.
8. In 1980, Jesse Marcel told me that the material photographed in Gen. Ramey's office was not the material he had recovered.
9. I am convinced that the material recovered was some type of craft from outer space.
10. I have not been paid nor given anything of value to make this statement, and it is the truth to the best of my recollection.

/s/ Walter G. Haut
Signature witnessed by: 5-14-93 Max Littell. /s/ (Date)

Now we have the OMNI article, "The Truth About Roswell", where Dave Sobel questioned Walter Haut about who wrote the article:

"When Blanchard talked to you about what to say, did he use the words 'flying saucer?"' I asked. "Did he seem to be frightened?"

[...]

"I do not remember the minute details," Haut told me. "I feel that I've had a pretty full life, and how the colonel passed that information on to me I cannot honestly tell you. I don't know whether he called me on the phone and said, `Haut, I want you to put out a press release and hand deliver it to the local news media. Here's what I want in it. "Or," Haut continued, "the adjutant might have called and said, `Haut, the old man's got a press release he wants you to pick up and take it around town."'

"Well, there were quite a few reports of flying saucers at that time," Haut reminded me. "I had a multitude of hats I wore. I had all kinds of things to do. I asked my wife, when all this [the renewed interest in Roswell in the mid 1980s] started, `Do you remember me coming home and saying anything about it?"' Her reply, he recalled, was simply no."

Then we have this little tidbit which certainly seems to indicate that #9 in the affidavit (above) isn't quite correct.

[...]

Also noted in the KTVU story (April 23, 1997) is the fact that Walter Haut, former press officer for the 509th Bomb Wing at Roswell AAF who issued the famous July 8, 1947 press release claiming recovery of a flying disc, now says he had learned a few days after the announcement that "it was a screw up." Though widely quoted in recent years as believing an unusual craft had been recovered, the FOX news story showed Haut saying he thinks it was just a balloon.

Haut was one of the original founders of the International UFO Museum in Roswell, New Mexico, but has now cut all ties with the museum. Current museum director Deon Crosby told CNI News that Haut has referred to the UFO claims as "just a bunch of hooey."

(May, '97 issue of CNI News (Vol 3 #4)

 

As with much of Roswell, it seems to depend on what week you ask the questions.