Documents / FOIA release

roswell

Office of the Secretary of Defense · 993 pages · text from the file's own layer

The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert was published in 1995 by Headquarters United States Air Force. It was written in response to Representative Steven H. Schiff's request and a General Accounting Office audit, and it contains Col. Richard L. Weaver's report and 1st Lt. James McAndrew's synopsis, along with attachments, appendices and photographs. The report says researchers found no evidence of an extraterrestrial craft or crew. It concludes that the 1947 debris came from a Project MOGUL balloon train.

  • 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…
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

Cases discussed

About this file

FOIA release, from the osd collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 993 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.