“The Times”60+ pages
- p. 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This report and publication would not have been possible without the expert assistance
and outstanding…
- p. 6 balloon files; Neal Stark and Jack Griffin, of the Geophysical Directorate's Aerospace
Engineering Group, whose…
- p. 17 …the Roswell Incident,
this event has become the most celebrated UFO encounter of all time and…
- p. 19 …such
amusing events as the one reported by the New York Times in which a secret…
- p. 21 …Nevertheless, the attached report is a good faith effort and the first time
any agency of…
- p. 25 …until the 1978-1980 time frame. Prior to that, the incident was dismissed
because the AAF…
- p. 27 …times, most research-
ers will not dispute that anything in UFO history can compare with the…
- p. 28 …the "Roswell Incident" was not considered one of these
1947 events until the 1978-1980 time…
- p. 29 …weather balloons on the ranch, but _that what he found this time did
not in any…
- p. 30 …the persons interviewed were, in fact, stationed at, or lived
near Roswell during the time in…
- p. 31 …Collectively,
the above represent the "pro" UFO writers who allege that the government is
engaged in…
- p. 34 …at Roswell Army Air Field during the period of time in
question. It is anticipated that…
- p. 35 …Since much of this testing done at nearby White Sands
was secret at the time, it…
- p. 36 …the 509th
Bomb Group was the only military unit in the world at the time that…
- p. 37 …If such a system had been in effect at the time, it would
21
- p. 38 …Marcel, MD (son of the late Major Jesse Marcel; 11 years old at the time
of…
- p. 39 …Brazel; 14 years old at the time of the
incident). Affidavit dated September 22, 1993. " ... The…
- p. 40 …He thought at the time, and continued to do so today, that what he found was…
- p. 42 …of the project, but they did not know of the project
nickname at the time. They…
- p. 43 …Additionally, a copy of a professional journal maintained at the time by A.P.
Crary, provided…
- p. 45 …first generation) prints of the
photographs taken at the time by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram…
- p. 46 …Although that project was Top Secret at the time, there was
also no specific indication found…
- p. 47 …good faith but in the
"fog of time," misinterpreted past events. The review of Air Force…
- p. 56 …time
periods (1947 to present) to determine whether proper procedures
were followed.
{3) For the incidents…
- p. 73 …Why have I decided to write at this time This is the 45th
year anniversary of…
- p. 77 …Also, the Blue Book records and the Condon report do not mention the
Roswell incident, though…
- p. 81 …of time, but in some cases, it is advantageous to
do while in others the wreckage…
- p. 82 …Please note that mishaps involving unmanned air vehicles (which during the
1940s included remotely piloted aircraft…
- p. 94 …for the 1947 time frame in
their holdinqs. They noted that the histories for the 509th…
- p. 99 …the crash of a weather balloon near the base
in the June/July 1947 time frame…
- p. 113 …held in the Southwest U.S. concerning subject (atch 2).
At that time, District 17, Kirtland…
- p. 143 …that time make a deciaicn as to approval of
KeMey's orgar.izatian and howr extensive…
- p. 149 …Amerson tlla t he
was definitely againSt his l.eating Washingtan at the present
time and…
- p. 159 …What Marcel did with this material at the time was unknown to me.
although I know…
- p. 163 …the Counter
Intelligence Corps (CIC) (at that time ofthe US Army) in 1947?
SC: Yes ... the…
- p. 164 …Well, there again I couldn't swear to the dates, but in that time, which must…
- p. 165 …Were you familiar with weather balloons at the time?
SC: I had seen them. I had…
- p. 166 …t think at that time we might not even
been taking the paper. We heard no…
- p. 167 …Do you remember
at the time the article or the photo of General Ramey and Marcel…
- p. 168 …incident occurred until the time
he left? Or, anywhere up until the time he died?
SW…
- p. 169 …He use to be a mechanic at
one time, Rick did, in the Air Force; the…
- p. 170 …I assume .. .! assume when I read this thing
for the first time that they sent me…
- p. 172 …Which at one time was on the Plains of San Augustin and now it has apparently…
- p. 175 …No, .. .I didn't spend any extended
time down there at the site.
RW: O.K…
- p. 176 …In the mean
time, the CIC man would head back to the crash sit with some…
- p. 177 …at that time, just like in OSI, you did not wear uniforms for the most part…
- p. 178 …derivatives of the
V-2, that we were playing with at that time). Schmitt asked if…
- p. 179 …He said the ranks ofCIC agents were all
classified at the time" (I know that's…
- p. 181 …royalties for a long time.
RW: Oh, this wu out of the Global Reliance. I don…
- p. 183 …But at the time a portion of it was Top Secret. It
bas since then be…
- p. 184 …At the time I thought this was sort of stupid. They
had a list back at…
- p. 185 …When did all of this first surface, in your life? After you picked up the original…
- p. 187 …Apparently at that time, as near u we can tell, one of the baBoon manufactures did…
- p. 188 …Haut? The public affairs guy at the time?
SC: Just vaguely. What was he, base information…
- p. 191 …period of time and all of a sudden they change the period of time.
MC: Well…
- p. 201 …At one time I was sent by the US government to assist the South Africa meterological…
- p. 202 …The radar reflectors were sheets of
reflective material and they changed over time but I don…
- p. 205 …GeNII was the Project Engineer for the NYU balloon project during the 1947 time frame. I…
- p. 206 …of the 1883 Krakatoa explosion where the
pressure waves circled the earth seven times. Dr Cracy…
- p. 217 …One of the individuals,
Sheridan Cavitt, who at that time was a Counter-Intelligence
Corps officer…
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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