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shrouded in secrecy, some of its operations obviously could not. The deployment of giant
trains of balloons--over thirty research balloons and experimental sensors strung together
and stretching more than 600 feet-could be neither disguised nor hidden from the public.
Moreover, operational necessity required that these balloons be launched during daylight
hours. It was therefore not surprising that these balloons were often mistaken for UFOs.
In fact, MOGUL recovery crews often listened to broadcasts of UFO reports to assist them
in their tracking operations. Additionally, the balloons were unsteerable, leading to such
amusing events as the one reported by the New York Times in which a secret MOGUL
balloon "floated ·blithely over the rooftops of Flatbush . . . causing general public
excitement ... before it came to rest on top of a [Brooklyn] tavem."2 In another episode,
MOGUL balloon recovery technicians directed a B-17 bomber, which was tracking one
of the tests, to buzz and scare off a curious oil rig crew that was about to "capture" a
balloon train that had fallen near Roswell. The ruse worked. However, too much activity
was going on for the project to remain completely hidden. A MOGUL project officer later
noted, "It was like having an elephant in your backyard . . . and hoping no one would
notice." 3 These occurrences were typical, leading the recovery crews to describe
themselves as Balloonatics, due to the predicaments in which the wandering balloons
sometimes placed them, but the information the balloons were attempting to obtain was
vital.
To attempt to limit unauthorized disclosure, the Air Force employed a security mechanism
known as compartmentation. Compartmentation controlled access to classified information
by dispersing portions of the research among several facilities and institutions. Each
participating entity received only enough information necessary to accomplish its assigned
tasks. In the case of MOGUL, only a small circle of Air Force officers received the
intimate details that linked together these unrelated research projects. The use of
compartmentation along with strict enforcement of the need to know enabled MOGUL to
remain a secret-despite its obvious security difficulties-and to remain unevaluated for
many years as the cause of the Roswell Incident.
The issue of compartmentation was significant because some UFO researchers assert that
the persons who recovered the MOGUL equipment, members of the 509th Bombardment
Group stationed at Roswell Army Airfield, should have been able to recognize the debris
collected at the crash site as that of a research balloon. Although members of the 509th
possessed high-level clearances, they were not privy to the existence of MOGUL; their job
was to deliver nuclear weapons, not to detect them. The unusual combination of
experimental equipment did not encourage easy identification that undoubtedly left some
members of the 509th with unanswered questions. Some UFO enthusiasts have
manipulated these unanswered questions to support their flying'isaucer recovery scenario,
while eagerly supplying unfounded explanations of extraterrest'rial visitation and cosmic
conspiracy. Additionally, many claims of a flying saucer crash at Roswell rest on the
description of debris collected at the Foster ranch site. UFO researchers, including those
2. New York Times, "Balloon Staggers Down to Brooklyn Tavern, Hooks Itself to Roof and Upsets
Decorum," Oct 1, 1948.
3. New York Times, "Wreckage of a 'Spaceship': Of This Earth (and U.S.)," Sep 18, 1994.
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