He says that he actually saw the body of a dead alien recovered from the Roswell wreckage of 1947. For more than 50 years now, the world has been captivated by the Roswell incident, and Colonel Philip J. Corso, retired American Army officer, now deceased, has left us details of what he saw in 1947 at Fort Riley in Kansas. He is the highest ranking officer to come forward with details about the famous New Mexico crash.