Intelligence Officer Jesse Marcel with Roswell Debris, July 9, 1947, Allegedly Mistaken for a Disc. Roswell Army Air Base was located 150 air miles from Sandia Base, south of Albuquerque, the lab where nuclear weapons were being developed and assembled. In July 1947, as the two key nuclear installations conducted joint operations, a startling event occurred halfway between them. Near the village of Corona, a rancher reported wreckage from a strange crashed aircraft.