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. 17 …Others remain nonbelievers or at least skeptical of the existence of alien beings and elusive vehicles…
  • p. 19 …Moreover, operational necessity required that these balloons be launched during daylight hours. It was therefore not…
  • p. 30 …This has since grown from a minimal amount of debris recovered from a small area to…
  • p. 35 …This included, for example, a small amount of missing "decimal files" from the 509th Bomb Group…
  • p. 36 …This was a small section of the July Historical Report for the 509th Bomb Group and…
  • p. 37 …To believe that such operational and high-level security activity could be conducted solely by relying…
  • p. 39 …The foil-rubber material could not be tom like ordinary aluminum foil can be tom... " Sally…
  • p. 40 …Although there does not appear to be much dispute that Cavitt was involved in the material…
  • p. 43 …Lt Col Cavitt described a small area of debris which appeared, "to resemble bamboo type square…
  • p. 72 …being per:ormed on these bodies. The bodies were described as the body of a small…
  • p. 99 …It should be noted that the period from approximately 1946 to 1950 is the least well…
  • p. 105 …Several small projects were completed during ~1e mont.~ includine signs on all the·office doors, a…
  • p. 149 …Streett 1s office recaumends against it on the ground that that is a small enterprize down…
  • p. 159 …I do not recall the incident being mentioned again as being any big deal and I…
  • p. 201 …We even simulated a small lightning strike over dry snow (just from the snow blowing over…
  • p. 258 …Big plastic balloon with small auxiliary plastics," etc. "Watson Lab and gear." "Followed" (inaudible) "receiver until…
  • p. 261 …explain bodies or material that can't be folded) by a sledge hammer. Q: Let's…
  • p. 328 …The witnesses have recalled small pink/purple "flowers" that appeared I to be some sort of…
  • p. 401 …b7 how ra* the receiver •7 be re110ve~ .t'rows the pre~er. red height withqut…
  • p. 443 …geostrophic wind (the latter being derived under certain simplifying assumptions) and since the geometry of the…
  • p. 458 …Two designs which compro- mise extreme cost (required for balloons of high internal pressure) with small…
  • p. 479 …This means that several hours might be required to fall through the lanes of aircraft traffic…
  • p. 484 …The change in drag effect may be realized by a decrease of relative size of the…
  • p. 487 (a) Then: (9) or for small temperature differences: (10) : - _L (.AI.)1-B T the nega…
  • p. 490 …gas of a balloon can be lost by: leakage through small holes in the fabric or…
  • p. 491 …for l:n•y small section of altitude is assumed to be constant); and re.J…
  • p. 506 in the preceding, section on diffusion end leakage the appendix opening should be small. It can…
  • p. 521 …is li~ited as indicated above, small variations may be detected with the result that it…
  • p. 555 …being exposed about 10 hours at cold temperature. (:S) During the floating period :many small oscilla…
  • p. 565 …The very usef.ul information about be.llast flow was reported clearly, and the principle of…
  • p. 566 …Since the small external appendix with cardboard stiffeners was not suitable for the large balloon, a…
  • p. 580 …Following the initial activation at about 38,500 feet, small oscillations were introduced into the flight…
  • p. 614 …Figure 4 shows this appendix construction on a General M lls balloon which is being inflated…
  • p. 652 …At high altitudes, a difference of 40°C may be expected in the temperature of the…
  • p. 658 …To facilitate handling of the line segments each length is prepared with a small hook on…
  • p. 672 signals may be arranged so as to consume a very small portion of -transmission time. D…
  • p. 738 …These values may be compared with a diffusion loss of lift of the order of magnitude…
  • p. 742 …The constancy of level will be better the lower the diffusion and the lower, therefore, the…
  • p. 762 …te .::mrcht:.se of small item£. A furth..:r rec:uest ~s been subr:rl tte…
  • p. 783 …be of such a valve that with a large r~diosonde frequency variation for a small…
  • p. 785 …It is expected that this equipment will be flown about 8 l-1ay. A description of…
  • p. 815 …Before gear could be recovered, most of it had be~~tolen. Stations operating at north hanger…
  • p. 842 …Range started to slowly increase as did elevation with azimuth being stationary. The echo remained beyond…
  • p. 862 …By using this stressed tape design, much larger loads may be carried than the thin polyethylene…
  • p. 874 …At this point, two small holes about 18" apart have been made, and the rip line…
  • p. 881 …If thodolite stadia determinations are being made, the banner can be used as one of the…
  • p. 898 …laid out, A small amount of gas at very low pressure Should be valved into the…
  • p. 910 …The motor gears may be cleaned with carbon tetrachloride and a small clean brush. If the…
  • p. 918 …Each combination of dots or dashes may be identified by ear, and with a calibration chart…
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
10

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.