“Project Mogul”60+ pages
- p. 3 …The importance of attachment 32, Lieutenant McAndrew's synopsis, derives from his
description of Project MOGUL…
- p. 13 …Photographs, Project MOGUL Balloon Trains
27. Table No.7, Summary of NYU Constant-Level Balloon Flights…
- p. 14 …Crane as Project Officer for MOGUL and TORRID, June 18,
1946
9. Memo, Maj Gen Curtis…
- p. 15 …Army GR-3 Sound Ranging Set, TNT Detonation, and Project MOGUL PT Boat
Project MOGUL Neoprene…
- p. 18 …Project MOGUL resulted from two important post-World War II priorities set by the
Commanding General…
- p. 19 …However, too much activity
was going on for the project to remain completely hidden. A MOGUL…
- p. 25 …balloon project, designed to
attempt to monitor Soviet nuclear tests, known as Project MOGUL. Additionally,
several…
- p. 41 …Its name was Project MOGUL (Atch 19).
Project MOGUL was a then-sensitive, classified project, whose…
- p. 42 …These interviews confirmed that Project MOGUL was a compartmented,
sensitive effort. The NYU group was responsible…
- p. 43 …so because
he was either aware of Project MOGUL and was trying to deflect interest from…
- p. 44 …Trakowski provided specific details on Project MOGUL and described
how the security for the program was…
- p. 45 In order to provide a more detailed discussion of the specifics of Project MOGUL
and how…
- p. 46 …First, the
recovered wreckage was from a Project MOGUL balloon. There were no "alien"
passengers therein…
- p. 48 …Illustration of Project MOGUL "Balloon Trains"
26. Two Photos of Project MOGUL "Balloon Trains"
27. Log…
- p. 183 …It was called Project Mogul.
SC: Never heard of it.
RW: Mogul was designed to run…
- p. 195 …Equipments used in
project "Mogul" are common to other systems or sets that are now class…
- p. 201 …secrecy agreements for various projects, and I understand that this activity
(Mogul, etc. is now declassified…
- p. 205 …I was not
aware that the project had the name MOGUL until1992 when I was contacted…
- p. 206 …The Watson Lab gear was the microphone equipment specifically for MOGUL.
The idea was proposed in…
- p. 213 …I have also been contacted by several researchers and writers and discussed project Mogul
and provided…
- p. 217 …We have gone through many of the various technical
documents related to Project Mogul and some…
- p. 218 …Project Mogul was probably involved in this incident. The
materials that were being used in Mogul…
- p. 220 …it
was offered and was the project officer on Mogul. I have some
paperwork here from…
- p. 226 …proving ground across the Tulerosa Valley; and Project
Mogul.
I joined the NYU group in January…
- p. 237 …So you were the project engineer?
A: I was the project engineer, and Schneider was the…
- p. 241 …I
interpreted that as saying someone was covering up on Mogul.
That was my interpretation when…
- p. 242 …so you went, moving into Mogul, you did go on the June
and July field trips…
- p. 244 …The balloons that you did launch for Project Mogul and
some of the other test balloons…
- p. 246 …Mogul was classified,
and he said it had the same classification as the Manhattan
Project had…
- p. 255 …But the
aircraft operation here was entirely to support Project Mogul.
We didn't consider ourselves…
- p. 273 …The balloon was not a weather balloon, but was then a classified project, Project
MOGUL, which…
- p. 274 …I came into being as
the project officer on Project MOGUL about November of 1946. I…
- p. 275 …I remained project officer of Project MOGUL through our move of the
laboratory from Watson Laboratories…
- p. 278 …But we were
aware of the sensitivity and of the weakness of security in Project MOGUL…
- p. 281 …At some point in Project MOGUL did you utilize equipment based at Roswell Army Air
Field…
- p. 289 26
Photographs
Project MOGUL Balloon Trains
- p. 299 …60's; we have no reference to Project MOGUL"
Ms Betsy xxxxxxxxxx
d) Sperry Hagley Museum…
- p. 300 …Archivist (202) 504-5416
"no records of Project Mogul; recommend checking with DOE historian or the…
- p. 318 …The project's classified code name was MOGUL.
The current investigation discovered that an experimental ba1loon…
- p. 319 PROJECT MOGUL
Project MOGUL was first conceived by Dr. Maurice Ewing of Columbia University,
NY, and…
- p. 320 …Over the course of the project, MOGUL
had three military project officers, or "chiefs": Maj Robert…
- p. 321 Air Forces, in conjunction with Project MOGUL. 10 The NYU "balloon group" was
to develop and…
- p. 322 …advance team made the first launch for Project MOGUL from Alamogordo
(NYU flight no. 3). The…
- p. 323 …Radiosondes, along with aircraft, were to be
the primary method to track the Project MOGUL balloons…
- p. 326 …Over the course of Project MoGUL,
several balloons had landed and been recovered from that area…
- p. 327 …There, it was identified
by Colonel Duffy, under whose purview Project MOGUL operated. Colonel Duffy,
a…
- p. 328 …briefing bf the
projects, including constant-level balloons, that made up Project MOGUL.40 While
crashed…
- p. 329 …Pritchard, a Watson Laboratory Project Officer (not assigned to MOGUL)
stationed at Alamogordo AAF. This article…
- p. 330 …One instance, on April 7, 1947, Crary gave Pritchard
a "progress report for MOGUL project to…
- p. 331 …Project MoGUL Classification Letter
10. Drawing of "Hieroglyphics" by Prof. C.B. Moore
11. Alamogordo Daily…
- p. 411 …Crane as
Project Officer for MOGUL and
TORRID
June 18, 1946
- p. 810 …Gave him memo of progress report
for MOGUL project to date, talked to Lt Dyer of…
- p. 975 …a strong influence on the high-
priority Project MoGUL (see Apps 8 and 9 ). He also…
- p. 979 …Crary (left) and technician
Phil Chantz taking a break during
Project MOGUL operations at White
Sands…
- p. 980 …received and
resulted in the initiation
of Project MOGUL (see
App 6 ). Photo Courtesy of
Woods…
- p. 981 …Marcellus Duffy, a highly capable scientific
research officer, was a MOGUL project officer. Maj. Gen.
Curtis…
- p. 982 MOGUL Project Scientist Dr.
James Peoples. Peoples's deci-
sion not to bring the radiosonde
tracking…
- p. 984 …This modified PT boat that was assigned to Project MOGUL is
shown here off Block Island…
- p. 985 Launch of Project MOGUL neoprene balloons, Alamogordo AAF,
NM, June 1947. While awaiting the experimental polyethylene…
- p. 986 …Moore (right and reaching down) prepares
experimental Project MOGUL microphones for launch (Holloman AFB, Alamogor-
do…
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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