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…
have also been used to protect our atomic secrets from the Soviets, which history
has showed obviously was not the case). The records reViewed confirmed that no
such sophisticated and efficient security system existed.
WHAT THE "ROSWELL INCIDENT" WAS
As previously discussed, what was originally reported to have been recovered
was a balloon of some sort, usually described as a "weather balloon," although
the majority of the wreckage that was ultimately displayed by General Ramey
and Major Marcel in the famous photos (Atch 16) in Fort Worth was that of a
radar target normally suspended from balloons. This radar target, discussed in
more detail later, was certainly consistent with the desCription of July 9 newspa-
per article which discussed "tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks." Additionally, the
description of the "flying disc" was consistent with a document routinely used
by most pro-UFO writers to indicate a conspiracy in progress-the telegram from
the Dallas FBI office of July 8,1947. This document quoted in part states:" ... The
disc is hexagonal in shape and was suspended from a balloon by a cable, which
balloon was approximately twenty feet in diameter.... the object found resem-
bles a high altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector.... disc and balloon
being transported . . . ."
Similarly, while conducting the popular literature review, one of the documents
reviewed was a paper entitled "The Roswell Events" edited by Fred Whiting and
sponsored by the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR). Although it was not the
original intention to comment on what commercial authors interpreted or claimed
that other persons supposedly said, this particular document was different
because it contained actual copies of apparently authentic sworn affidavits
received from a number of persons who claimed to have some knowledge of the
Roswell event. Although many of the persons who provided these affidavits to
the FUFOR researchers also expressed opinions that they thought there was
something extraterrestrial about this incident, a number of them actually
described materials that sounded suspiciously like wreckage frop1 balloons. These
included the following:
Jesse A. Marcel, MD (son of the late Major Jesse Marcel; .11 years old at the time
of the incident). Affidavit dated May 6, 1991. " ... There were three categories of
debris: a thick, foil like metallic gray substance; a brittle, brownish-black plastic-
like material, like Bakelite; and there were fragments of what appeared to be 1-
beams. On the inner surface of the I-beam, there appeared to be a type of writing.
This writing was a purple-violet hue, and it had an embossed appearance. The
figures were composed of curved, geometric shapes. It had no resemblance to
Russian, Japanese or any other foreign language. It resembled hieroglyphics, but
it had no animal-like characters.... "
Loretta Proctor (former neighbor of rancher W.W. Brazel). Affidavit dated May
5, 1991. " ... Brazel came to my ranch and showed my husband and me a piece
of material he said came from a large pile of debris on the property he managed.
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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.