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91 about. And then when they said "Crash!," and then when I fi- nally saw it, when I realized what I was looking at ... then it crossed my mind that it was a dirigible, a blimp that had crashed. I don't know why, I think it was one airship I was familiar with, because back in that era they were quite large and quite awe- some. I kinda had a "thing" about blimps. We headed straight toward it, and there was one point when we got up close to it, my Dad told me to stay back. Fifty to sixty feet: we were practically on top of it. There was a big gouge mark where it had cut a big furrow across the arroyo from another hill on the other side. It tore up a lot of the sagebrush and there was small fires smoldering here and there. That's when my brother said, "That's a goddamn spaceship! Them's Martians!" Then everyone was runnin' around in circles. I didn't stay put—I think I was scared—I went over there with 'em. And there were three of these crewmembers laid out on the ground, under the edge of this thing, in a shaded area, and there was one sitting upright. The ones that were laying on the ground, two of 'em weren't moving at all, they were just laying there. They looked like they had some sort of bandages on 'em. One of them had it over his arm. The one that I touched had it around his midsection and partially over his shoulder. It ap- peared to be, as I think back on it now, the one that was still alive and moving had given first aid to the others. And the one next to him was breathing very erratically and its chest was heaving in an unnatural way. He was obviously in distress . . . very badly so. The other two didn't move at all. The only one that really moved was the one that was sitting up, and it obviously was scared to death of us. It was scooting backward against the under- side of the saucer. It was obviously terrified of us. At first [the adults] just kind of oohed and ahhed around. My cousin Victor, as usual, was into everything, in everybody's way. My brother, Glenn, was looking over the saucer-shaped. object. He pulled Victor off it; Victor was up on the rim where the gash was, and he grabbed him by his legs and pulled him off and told him to stay out of there because he could cause it to explode. And Glenn went on up there and was hanging half-in, half-out of that gash in the side, and I was standing there watching him. CIVILIANS FIND THE WRECKAGE