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. 42 …The "payload equipment" was expendable, and some carried no "Reward" or "Return to ... " tags because there…
  • p. 43 …the balloon material and radar target material would be scattered after returning to earth depending on…
  • p. 205 …The balloon material and radar target material would be scattered after returning to the earth depending…
  • p. 206 …These and the radar test flights had no tags-we did not want these to be…
  • p. 213 …Concerning a cover story for the project Mogul, there was no planned cover story. I do…
  • p. 220 …returned our calls. We'~e left messages on his answering machine, and there's been no…
  • p. 231 …radar reflectors, that would have been with a neoprene type balloon. A: There were no plastic…
  • p. 259 …And no one mentioned it to you. No one said hey, look, we had to do…
  • p. 323 …Moore and his technicians conducted test flights, attempting to obtain a better radar return by attaching…
  • p. 324 …returns were received by the radar. This procedure, according to Moore, was employe~ on flight nos…
  • p. 325 …This eliminated the need for radar "comer reflectors" on the balloon train since radar was not…
  • p. 326 …It now appears that the debris from MOGUL flight no. 4 had come ·to earth on…
  • p. 327 …Rawin is short for radar wind, a technique in which a single comer reflector is towed…
  • p. 330 …In fad, when the NYU I AMC group returned to Alamogordo in September, their first tdp…
  • p. 841 …On 19 July, a 130 toot balloon carrying no radar reflector was tracked. Radar contact was…
  • p. 842 …During this time, no target was visible at any time and no further radar contact was…
  • p. 986 …to enhance radar returns, contributed to the confusion when Mogul Flight No. 4 returned to earth…
PROFESSOR MOORE - 6/8/94
A: A guy named Sam Kay formed a company and it was called
Kaysam. In fact I have, and you're welcome to them •••
(Pause)
7
A: Kaysam balloons because of the way they were made, and
this jell that had to be inflated had this ring, cardboard ring
put in them. That's the neck of a Kaysam balloon, and here are
more modern Kaysam balloons, the sort that are still being flown.
Q: These are just used for ~he typical meteorological type
balloons.
A: carry radio (inaudible), that's correct.
Dewey & Olney have gone out of the business and Kaysam
bought them out. Here's a Kaysam .balloon that is made by a dip
mold. This is somewhat indicative, I think, of the way one of
those balloons of the type we're using. As you can see on
exposure just to ordinary light, they discolor. But these are
balloons that were made probably in the '70s. As they change
with plasticizer and anti-oxidants for ozone, they certainly
change in appearance. The balloons we •••
I have pictures here, pictures in the hangar. There, as you
can see, these are the ivory colored balloons of the sort we were
flying. This is the balloon you just found the eyelets on in the
hangar. These are pictures from the 1947 era where we're getting
ready to fly the 15 foot H.A. Smith balloon.
Q: The reinforcing tape on these balloons, these
polyethylene balloons, we were told is a type of acetate. It had
none of this symbology, is that correct?
A: None at all.
Q: So the symbology on the tape was only related to the
radar reflectors.
A: That's correct. Here is a later model polyethylene
balloon, and it's a little thinner than the ones we were flying,
but there's a polyethylene balloon.
Q: It looks like polyethylene sheeting that I would use to
cover up •••
Q: I've also heard the early balloons described as carrot
bag quality. Material they would use in a carrot bag. Dry
cleaner bags.
Q: Dry cleaner bags. We think of them as being very
fragile, but materials from this time frame have been described
as durable -- something you couldn't tear with your hands.

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.