Dr Jesse Marcel Jr who claimed to have handled alien debris from Roswell crash dies reading a book

hey were told to keep it quiet and they did for years and years and years,' Linda Marcel said. Interest in the case was revived, however, when physicist and UFO researcher Stanton Friedman spoke with Jesse Marcel Sr. in the late 1970s. Friedman wrote the foreword to Marcel Jr.'s 2007 book The Roswell Legacy, and described him as a courageous man who 'set a standard for honesty and decency and telling the truth.' 'His legacy is that he had the courage to speak out when he didn't have to about handling wreckage that his Dad brought home,' Friedman said Tuesday. 'He worked with artists to come up with what the symbols on the wreckage looked like. He didn't have to do that. He could have kept his mouth shut. A lot of people did.' On his last trip to Roswell in early July, UFO researcher and Earth science professor Frank Kimbler arranged for Marcel to visit his childhood home and the debris site. 'I remember my dad did say that he loved the ride up to the site that day because he was able to discuss science with Frank,' Denice Marcel said in an email to The Associated Press. 'One thing about my Dad, he was always reading something on astronomy or some kind of scientific journal. He loved astronomy with a passion.' ROSWELL: CONSPIRACY THEORY CAPITAL OF THE WORLD Roswell, New Mexico sprang to international fame on July 8, 1947, when the local newspaper reported the capture of a 'flying saucer' by government officials in the town. Over the decades since the discovery, conspiracy theorists have insisted that the debris came from an alien spacecraft, and that the fact was covered up by the military. The continuing belief of alien activity in the area led the Air Force to launch an investigation into the crash in 1995. Officials concluded that the 'UFO' was part of a balloon launched into the atmosphere as part of a secret government surveillance programme aimed at the USSR. However, many have refused to accept that explanation, alleging a conspiracy to hide the existence of extra-terrestrial life. On her Facebook page, Miss Marcel eulogized her father in a touching message announcing his passing 'I am so proud to be his daughter,' she wrote on Sunday. 'He had taught me so many things in life and one of the more important things I learned from my Dad was to never back down in the face of adversity.' She concluded her online tribute with the words: 'although my Dad and Grandpa are no longer with us.... The Roswell Legacy will live on FOREVER!' Marcel Jr. graduated from medical school at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in 1961 and joined the U.S. Navy in 1962. He retired after nine years and later joined the Montana Army National Guard and became a flight surgeon in 1981. He was called back to active duty in October 2004 and served as a flight surgeon in Iraq for just over a year. He reached the rank of colonel. Marcel Jr. worked as an ear, nose and throat doctor and retired from the Veterans Administration Hospital at Fort Harrison, west of Helena, all of which lent credibility to his story.