ST ATEl\1E'N1 OF WITh'ESS
Date: 3 Jun 94 Place: VA
~I Athelstan F Spilhaus, hereby state that Jeffrey Butler, was identified as a Colone~ USAF and Jim
McAndrew, was identified as a Lieutenant. USAF on this date at my home and do hereby,
voluntarily and of my own free will make the following statement. This is done without having
been subjected to any coercion, unlawful influence or unlawful inducement. ~~
-.A~ ~ I was the Director of the NYU Balloon Project and also involved with many other sensitive
'V~'{' activities. Until these discussions, I had no indication of what the "RosweU incident" was. I was
invoJ:ved in numerous unusual activities such as reconstruction of captured Gcnnan rockets,
development of drone planes and the like-such as long range baUoons. The Army Air Force had
seen what the Japanese had done with long range balloons; although not effective as weapons, they
did initiate the long-range balloon research which led to use of balloons for the detection and
collection of debris from atomic explosion. Although I was involved in sensitive classified
programs, I completed secrecy agreements for various projects, and I understand that this activity
(Mogul, etc. is now declassified) and I did enforce "need to know". In part, I left Nl'U because
the administration wanted to know too much about the various projects I was involved in (the
Bikini test). At one time I was sent by the US government to assist the South Africa meterological
efforts and I worked numerous other special missions. Even though the war was over the Cold
War had just started and certain things were sensitive. I recaD that it was Col Duffy who brought
me from the Reserves to active duty. It was during this period that I did become involved in a
"UFO case". Some bush pilot had found some pock marks in dty snow in Alaska in 1950. So we
flew up and saw peculiar rowtd holes in the snow. We landed and took dog sleds to the site and
found craters with a hole in the center. We cored one out of the snow and found a center of
frozen conical ice. I began to think of something I had seen in the desert where glass had been
formed similarly after a lightening strike (the "furnoroles"). I took one back to the university in dty
ice and wrote a classified report. We even simulated a small lightning strike over dry snow (just
from the snow blowing over the swface) and carne up with conical ice formations. This was the
Stony River Incident and it wasn't a UFO. On the December 1947 baUoon project reports the
"service flights" probably refer to the then Top Security project AFOAT 1 (related to MOGUL)
which was to produce a report to the President when the Russians exploded an atomic device and
were ready to produce a droppable atomic bomb. We coordinated aD the listening posts to
determine what stage the Russians were at. Concerning the Watson Laboratory gear, I don't
remember the specifics of what that gear was. I recommend you check with Charlie Moore for
those details. Many of the projects I just new about in general-these were sensitive times-it was
sometimes better not to know too much-I knew about the collection of debris with special planes
daily from Eilson AFB to the North Pole and back, PTARMIGAN flights, that lasted through the
SO's. Concerning the Japanese baUoons, I don't recaU any specifics. ~or do I recaU whether we
had REWARD tags on aU the baUoons. I went many times to Alamogordo AAF and White
Sands--not necessarily for baUoon flights. I worked on naval activity such as the thermal affects on
SONAR. Concerning actual baUoon construction, Winzen ofSt Paul Minnesota, in association
with General :Mills, did most of the baUoons. General Mills also did some baUoon projects. I) 0 A
Winzen made the first polyethelene (non-stretchable balloons). Flight rr5, I really did not get into I:..V1.)
the details of the individual flights or experiments. The polyethelene material was very durable-it
was designed not to burst--you could push a sharp thing through it but it would be difficult to tear