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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…
C/3.#/
model I think that flight #4 was the flight that was launched out of Alamogordo on June 4, 1947.
This is based on Dr. Crary's actual diary of the launch and other events. This is also one of those
events where we went to multiple radar targets because we were not having good success with
single targets. This flight was with multiple balloons and targets and may have had a sonobouy
(black box?). The Watson Lab gear was the microphone equipment specifically for MOGUL.
The idea was proposed in a 1945 letter from Dr Ewing (Woods Hole and Columbia) to Gen
Spaatz that we might be able to detect nuclear blasts via pressure waves and low frequency
microphones. This was developed from a study of the 1883 Krakatoa explosion where the
pressure waves circled the earth seven times. Dr Cracy was sent to Ascension island (the
antipodal) to attempt to detect the Crossroads shot for Operation Crossroads on Kilohuea or
Bikini. He didn't get anything. In December, 1946, Dr Crazy was sent to Alamogordo to run the
field stations for MOGUL. There were several ground microphone sites for detecting blasts
(bombs) detonated off the New Jersey coast. He also initiated activities offBennuda and Panama.
Dr Crazy and Dr Peoples were the advance people and scientific monitors for our project Dr
Peoples told us to use the cover story of meteorology and to enforce the need-to-know-in fact I
had been reluctant to discuss any of this until only a few years ago. Your letter (SAFI AA) is the
• first official document I've seen that says this is declassified. Concerning the Japanese balloons,
we did not use any of them for MOGUL. We didn't pattern our work after the Japanese balloons.
We were very secretive of our work, but the.cover story was not a detailed developed cover story.
Our new hires were not even aware of the purpose. They thought they were just handling
meteorological equipment Any of the flights that had "tags" would have stated, "Research
Balloon Flight, Request Return to NYU". The "senice flights" for Dr Peoples were specific ones
carrying the microphone gear. The radar test flights were not recorded. There was a lot of
pressure to develop the constant level balloons. The tracking was to be done by the Watson Labs
radar for the V-2launches, etc. Starting in early June, 1947 the 307(B) targets came from NYU.
We also lalUlched TNT on some of the balloons to simulate airbursts for detection. All of these
balloons were accolUlted for. These and the radar test flights had no tags-we did not want these
to be associated with our project and the explosive ones would all be destroyed with pressure
switches. To my knowledge, the NYU group were the only ones using balloons in New Mexico
during this time but others were involved in other activities so debris from rockets, aircraft
dropsondes, etc. may have been folUld throughout this area. Initially we did not coordinate any of
our balloon launches with the Civil Aeronautics Administration. We had no contact with any of
the Roswell personnel- although Cracy or Peoples may have. •There were two July 8th press
releases: in the earlier release, Col J D Ryan stated that radar reflectors were being used to track
balloons for wind information. July 8th is the same day the NYU group returned to NYU, so we
had no contact with the Roswell personnel when the announcement was made concerning having ·
folUld the "discs". When we heard the news back in New York, w.e joked that they probably
found one of our balloons. From that time up until about 1980, no one, officially or otherwise
made any contact with me concerning the possible association between MOGUL and the "Roswell
incident"( it was in about 1980 that William Moore contacted me and asked questions about
balloons making "gouges" in the earth). The July lOth Alomorgodo News article shows a
demonstration of some of our multiple balloons and target trains. We had no one there so it was
surprising to see this. It alrilost appears that there was some type of "umbrella cover story" to
protect our work with MOGUL. C' ;f-?:..1...,1

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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.