Documents / FOIA release

rosswe1

Office of the Secretary of Defense · 31 pages · text from the file's own layer

This July 1994 Department of the Air Force package, from SAF/AAZ to the Secretary of the Air Force, covers a report written to support a General Accounting Office audit requested by Congressman Steven Schiff. The Air Force searched its offices, archives and records centers and interviewed witnesses, including Sheridan Cavitt. It found no evidence of an extraterrestrial event, alien bodies or a cover-up. It concludes that the debris recovered near Roswell in 1947 most likely came from a Project MOGUL balloon.

  • p. 1 …Nevertheless, the attached report is a good faith effort and the first time any agency of…
  • p. 3 …until the 1978-1980 time frame. Prior to that, the incident was dismissed because the AAF…
  • p. 5 …times, most research- ers will not dispute that anything in UFO history can compare with the…
  • p. 6 …the "Roswell Incident" was not considered one of these 1947 events until the 1978-1980 time…
  • p. 7 …weather balloons on the ranch, but_that what he found this time did not in any…
  • p. 8 …the persons interviewed were, in fact, stationed at, or lived near Roswell during the time in…
  • p. 9 …Collectively, the above represent the "pro" UFO writers who allege that the government is engaged in…
  • p. 12 …at Roswell Army Air Field during the period of time in question. It is anticipated that…
  • p. 13 …Since much of this testing done at nearby White Sands was secret at the time, it…
  • p. 14 …the 509th Bomb Group was the only military unit in the world at the time that…
  • p. 15 …If such a system had been in effect at the time, it would 21
  • p. 16 …Marcel, MD (son of the late Major Jesse Marcel; .11 years old at the time of…
  • p. 17 …Brazel; 14 years old at the time of the incident). Affidavit dated September 22, 1993. " ... The…
  • p. 18 …He thought at the time, and continued to do so today, that what he found was…
  • p. 20 …of the project, but they did not know of the project nickname at the time. They…
  • p. 21 …Additionally, a copy of a professional journal maintained at the time by A.P. Crary, provided…
  • p. 23 …first generation) prints of the photographs taken at the time by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram…
  • p. 24 …Although that project was Top Secret at the time, there was also no specific indication found…
  • p. 25 …good faith but in the "fog of time," misinterpreted past events. The review of Air Force…
  • p. 27 …the Roswell Incident, this event has become the most celebrated UFO encounter of all time and…
  • p. 29 …such amusing events as the one reported by the New York Times in which a secret…
  • p. 30 …such amusing events as the one reported by the New York Times in which a secret…
the supposed first ever recovery of extraterre~trial materials. (Detractors claim
Blanchard did this as a ploy to elude the press and go to the scene to direct the
recovery operations.) The history and the morning reports also showed that the
subsequent activities at Roswell during the month _were mostly mundane and not
indicative of ~y unusual high-level activity, expenditure of manpower, resources
or security.
Likewise, the researchers found no indication of heightened activity anywhere
else in the military hierarchy in the July, 1947, message traffic or orders (to
include classified traffic). There were no indications and warnings, notice of alerts,
or a higher tempo of operational activity reported that would be logically
generated if an alien craft, whose intentions were unknown, entered US territory.
To believe that such operational and high-level security activity could be
conducted solely by relying on unsecured telecommunications or personal contact
without creating any records of such activity certainly stretches the imagination
of those who have served in the military who know that paperwork of some kind
is necessary to accomplish even emergency, highly classified, or sensitive tasks.
An example of activity sometimes cited by pro-UFO writers to illustrate the point
that something unusual was going on was the travel of Lt Gen Nathan Twining,
Commander of the Air Materiel Command, to New Mexico in July, 1947.
Actually, records were located indicating that Twining went to the Bomb
Commanders' Course on July 8, along with a number of other general officers,
and requested orders to do so a month before, on June 5, 1947 (Atch 14).
Similarly, it has also been alleged that General Hoyt Vandenberg, Deputy Chief
of Staff at the time, had been involved directing activity regarding events at
Roswell. Activity reports (Atch 15), located in General Vandenberg's personal
papers stored in the Library of Congress, did indicate that on July 7, he was busy
with a "flying disc" incident; however this particular incident involved Ellington
Field, Texas and the Spokane (Washington) Depot. After much discussion and
information gathering on this incident, it was learned to be a hoax. There is no
similar mention of his personal interest or involvement in Roswell events except
in the newspapers.
The above are but two small examples that indicate that if some event happened
that was one of the "watershed happenings" in human history, the US military
certainly reacted in an unconcerned and cavalier manner. In an actual case, the
military would have had to order thousands of soldiers and airman, not only at
Roswell but throughout the US, to act nonchalantly, pretend to conduct and
report business as usual, and generate absolutely no paperwork of a suspicious
nature, while simultaneously anticipating that twenty years or more into the
future people would have available a comprehensive Freedom of Information Act
that would give them great leeway to review and explore government documents.
The records indicate that none of this happened (or if it did, it was controlled by
a security system so efficient and tight that no one, US or otherwise, has been
able to duplicate it since. If such a system had been in effect at the time, it would
21

Cases discussed

About this file

FOIA release, from the osd collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 31 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.