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Black Vault compilation, pp. 91-93

The Black Vault · 134 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Black Vault compilation contains a September 1997 reply from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense to John Greenewald's FOIA request, enclosing its UFO records. The enclosures include a Navy information sheet dismissing the Philadelphia Experiment and an Air Force UFO fact sheet listing 12,618 Project Blue Book sightings, 701 of them unidentified. They also include the National Academy of Sciences review endorsing the University of Colorado report and the concluding pages of a 1994 Air Force Roswell report attributing the wreckage to Project MOGUL.

  • p. 107 …Additionally, many claims of a flying saucer crash at Roswell rest on the description of debris…
  • p. 108 …not compare the descriptions of the suspect debris with that of the components of a Project…
  • p. 111 …Prior to that, the incident was dismissed because the AAF originally identified the debris recovered as…
  • p. 114 …When the debris was gathered up the tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks made a bundle about…
  • p. 115 …Marcel, claimed that he had recovered UFO debris near Roswell in 1947. Also in 1978, a…
  • p. 116 example, it was originally reported that there was only recovery· of debris from one site. This…
  • p. 118 …the exact location(s) of the purported debris, and the extent of the wreckage. Such discrepancies…
  • p. 121 …forth as a possible explanation for the debris recovered near Roswell. Since much of this testing…
  • p. 124 …There were three categories of debris: a thick, foil like metallic gray substance; a brittle, brownish…
  • p. 125 …The debris looked like pieces of a large balloon which had burst. The pieces were .small…
  • p. 126 accompanied Major Marcel to the ranch to recover the debris, sometimes along with his Counter Intelligence…
  • p. 129 …Lt Col Cavitt described a small area of debris which appeared, "to resemble bamboo type square…
  • p. 130 …Pflock concluded from his research that the Brazel Ranch debris originally reported as a "flying disc…
  • p. 132 …This organiza- tion was able to obtain measurements from the "sticks" visible in the debris after…
  • p. 134 …Photos of ML-307C/ AP Device, With Vintage Neoprene Balloon and Debris 32. Synopsis of Balloon…
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figures on the sticks, lavender or pink in color, appeared to be weather faded
markings, with no rhyme or reason lsicJ. He did not convince me that these were
alien writings." Newton concluded his statement by relating that '' . .. During the
ensuing years I have been interviewed by many authors, I have been quoted and
misquoted. The facts rentain as indicated above. I was not influenced during the
original interview, nor today, to provide anything but what I know to be true,
that is, the material I saw in General Ramey's office was the remains of a balloon
and a RAWIN target."
Balloon Research
The original tasking from GAO noted that the search for information included
"weather balloons." Comments about balloons and safety reports have already
been made; however the SAF I AAZ research efforts also focused on reviewing
historical records involving balloons, since, among other reasons, that was what
was officially claimed by the AAF to have been found and recovered in 1947.
As early as February 28, 1994, the AAZD research team found references to
balloon tests taking place at Alamogordo Army Air Field (now Hollontan AFB)
and White Sands during June and July 1947, testing ''constant level balloons" and
a New York University (NYU) /Watson Labs effort that used " ... meteorological
devices . . . suspected for detecting shock waves generated by Soviet nuclear
explosions"-··a possible indication of a cover story associated with the NYU
balloon project. Subsequently, a 1946 HQ AMC memorandum surfaced, describ-
ing the constant altitude balloon project and specified that the scientific data be
classified Top Secret Priority lA. Its name was Project MOGUL (Atch 19).
Project MOGUL was a then-sensitive, classified project, whose pwpose was to
determine the state of Soviet nuclear weapons research. This was the early Cold
War period and there was serious concern within the US government about the
Soviets' developing a weaponized atomic device. Because the Soviet Union's
borders were closed, the US Government sought to develop a long range nuclear
explosion detection capability. Long range, balloon-borne, low frequency acoustic
detection was posed to General Spaatz in 1945 by Dr. Maurice Ewing of Columbia
University as a potential solution (atmospheric ducting of low frequency pressure
waves had been studied as early as 1900). '
As part of the research into this matter, AAZD personnel located and obtained
the original study papers and reports of the New York University project. Their
efforts also revealed that some of the individuals involved in Project MOGUL were
still living. These persons included the NYU constant altitude balloon Director of
Research, Dr. Athelstan F. Spilhaus; the Project Engineer, Professor Charles B.
Moore; and the military Project Officer, Colonel Albert C. Trakowski.
All of these persons were subsequently interviewed and signed sworn statements
about their activities. A copy of theses statements are appended at Atchs 20-22.
Additionally, transcripts of the interview with Moore and Trakowski are also
included (equipment malfunctioned during the interview of Spilhaus) (Atchs
25

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