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. 43 …to the sun for only a few days. The plasticizers and antioxidants in the neoprene would…
  • p. 205 …ashes after exposure to the sun for only a few days. The balloon material and radar…
  • p. 221 …to the sun. Q: Is this the neoprene type or the ••• A: That's the neoprene…
  • p. 230 …such as the balloon material degraded, and maybe fused in the hot sun? 14 A: I…
  • p. 282 …We worked in the old Sun newspaper building in downtown Baltimore. Q: They had intelligence personnel…
  • p. 465 …the values of superheat ob- tained by the gas when the balloon is in the sun…
  • p. 484 …Superheat and Its Effects The effect of the heatin~ of lifting gas by the sun's…
  • p. 489 …Since the effect of the sun in heating the lifting gas decreases the effect of different…
  • p. 524 …when the ex- ternal temperature was measured, since no adequate protection from the sun was available…
  • p. 525 …Daytime flights had the added advantage or heating from the sun. The temperature of the lifting…
  • p. 541 …in the aneroid val~e as intermittent clouds shut off' the sun, and (3) the overcompensation…
  • p. 547 …stmset, and the balloon took on superheat whioh was lost_when the sun went down. ntis…
  • p. 558 …the transmitter was not insulated, and there was no heat to be gained .from the sun…
  • p. 570 …Since the sun had set between the third and -40-
  • p. 579 during the sunset descent (caused when the superheated helium lost the sun's heating ei'i…
  • p. 591 …that seen earlier with the balloon gas being warmed by the sun to acquire a superheat…
  • p. 666 …the changing buoyancy of the balloon as cloud masses intermittently shielded it from the sun's…
  • p. 736 …the subst;q.uent descent, superheating of the balloons by the nsmg sun would cause the…
  • p. 739 …Flight termination was usually due to deteriora- tion of the balloon caused by the sun. In…
  • p. 740 …the ambient tem- perature after the sun had risen. The automatic ballast valve operates. when the…
  • p. 801 …April 14 Sun. Down to lab this am with Joe looking for G9A files. Jim Peoples…
  • p. 802 …Discussed with Crane possibilities of getting sound through the ground part of the ocean sound channel…
  • p. 803 …Over to Jim and Rowes tonight and to Euzzards Bay bowling, l'ay 5 Sun. L…
  • p. 806 …Stayed at Amarillo - at Clinton Hotel Jan 19 Sun Left Amarillo about 1130 CST IC.ent…
  • p. 808 …Correlated between the ~ower and Dona sites for se·reral sources. 'o!orked total travel times…
  • p. 810 …April 6 Sun. Checked clocks. Cleaned out hanger and emptied trash out at East White Sands…
  • p. 811 …April 20 Sun. Worked on plans for bombing runs and V2 monitoring. April 21 Mon. Alamogordo…
  • p. 812 …All equipment loaded on plane this pm. ~ay J-4 Sat, Sun. Left Alamogordo about 9…
  • p. 815 …29 June (Sun) NYU personnel and some of Watson Lab men working today with equipment in…
  • p. 816 …July 1a Sun. to cabins in Ohio just out of Springfield. July 1 Mon. To cabins…
  • p. 852 …4C.~~~ies• .tJi~J.tl~e ..• a 'telemeteririg ·device to indicate· the rate of ballast flow…
  • p. 861 …a sun- set. (3) By adding altitude control equipment, it is possible to maintain the balloon…
PROFESSOR MOORE - 6/8/94
Q: we have tried to reach Colonel Trakowski, and he has
not returned our calls. We'~e left messages on his answering
machine, and there's been no response.
A: He may be out of town. I did visit him last October,
and he made the point that ..• He was our project officer. He
and I served together under Colonel Duffy in the Air Force
Liaison Office in 1943 to ..• Well, I went overseas in 1 44 but
Trakowski stayed and took a commission in the Air Force when it
was offered and was the project officer on Mogul. I have some
paperwork here from General LeMay's files in which after the war
a number of people were to be sent overseas because they had not
had overseas duty. There is a history of Colonel Trakowski.
Perhaps you have it from the Pentagon files already, from the AG
files.
Q: We have some records, yes.
4
A: Anyway, Albert Trakowski was the Watson Laboratory
project officer on this. When I raised this question to him he
said he had talked to John Peterson, one of Colonel Duffy's
procurement men, and they were joking about these markings on the
tape. I have a letter that I can give you a copy of in which I
quote Trakowski in saying, "What do you expect when you have your
targets made by a toy factory in Manhattan?"
Q: So essentially, the original targets were made by a toy
company?
A: Well, it's either a toy company or a garment
manufacturer in the garment district in Manhattan, or it was by a
novelty company. I talked to Ed Istvan who was another one of
the Air Force liaison office people who stayed in. Istvan lives
in your area. I can give you documentation on these things.
Istvan says that it was some outfit that extruded toothpaste
tubes and he got involved with them because they made radar
chaff. In the early days of this effort, there were a number of
different targets made. I don't have them here, I have them
· downstairs, there were a number of different forms the targets
were made. One idea was just the inside of a meteorological
balloon, to put radar chaff and adhere it with glycerine. Just
wet the inside of the balloon with glycerine and then shake in
dipoles cut to the proper half wave length. When the balloons
were inflated, these would be all on the inside, coating the
inside of the balloon. This didn't give nearly the sort of
target that the corner reflector gave.
But anyway, Istvan initially went to New York hunting for a
source of supply and came across a company.
(Pause)

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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.