roswell

INTRODUCTION
Air Force involvement in the alleged UFO-related incident popularly known as
the "Roswell Incident" began as the result of a January 14, 1994, Washington Post
article (Atch 1) which announced Congressman Steven Schiff's intent to initiate
a GAO effort to resolve this controversial matter. Having previously been
involved in numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Congressional
requests on "unusual aircraft," to include Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), The
Director, Security and Special Program Oversight, Office of the Secretary of the
Air Force (SAF I AAZ), believed the Air Force would become involved in any
GAO effort involving this subject.
Thus, in late January, 1994, SAF I AAZ directed its research/ declassification team,
SAF I AAZD, to attempt to locate any official records relative to this matter. These
initial research efforts focused on records at the Air Force Historical Research
Agency (AFHRA), Maxwell Air Force Base (AFB), AL, the Air Force Safety
Agency (AFSA) at Kirtland AFB, NM, and the National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA).
On February 15, 1994, the GAO officially notified Secretary of Defense William
J. Perry that it was initiating an audit of the Department of Defense (DoD)
policies and procedures for acquiring, classifying, retaining, and disposing of
official government documents dealing with weather balloon, aircraft, and similar
crash incidents (Atch 2). This notification was subsequently passed to the
Department of Defense Inspector General who in tum officially notified the
Secretaries of the Services and other affected parties of the audit in a February 23,
1994, memo (Atch 3). This memorandum indicated that the IIGAO is anxious to
respond to Representative Schiff's request and to dispel any concerns that the
DoD is being unresponsive." These were the first official US Government
documents that indicated that the purpose of the GAO was to review "crash
incidents involving weather balloons and unknown aircraft, such as UFOs and
foreign aircraft, and (2) the facts involving the reported crash of an UFO in 1949
[sic, 1947] at Roswell, New Mexico ... [and an] alleged DoD cover-up."
An entrance meeting of potentially concerned parties was held in the offices of
the DoD Inspector General on February 28, 1994. During this meeting it was
learned that, while the audit officially would be reviewing the records of a
number of DoD (and possibly other Executive Branch entities), the bulk of the
effort would be focused on Air Force records and systems. The audit was
officially given the GAO code 701034 and entitled "Records Management
Procedures Dealing With Weather Balloon, Unknown Aircraft, and Similar Crash
Incidents." Although this official title appeared rather broad, there was no
misunderstanding that the real purpose was to attempt to locate records and/or
information on the "Roswell Incident." This incident, explained later in more
detail, generally dealt with the claim that in July of 1947, the US Army Air Forces
(USAAF) recovered a flying saucer and I or its alien occupants which supposedly
crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. When the USAAF ultimately became the
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