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. 5 …Jacob Neufeld shared with us their wide knowledge of Air Force history. Also, Robert "Gus" Bell…
  • p. 6 …very useful experiences and insights. We are most grateful to the members of Air Force Publishing…
  • p. 9 …The Report of the Air Force Research Regarding the "Roswell Incident" by Col. Richard L. Weaver…
  • p. 18 …balloons still widely used today. Col. Marcellus Duffy, a respected Air Force pilot and scientific administrator…
  • p. 19 …Air Force officers received the intimate details that linked together these unrelated research projects. The use…
  • p. 26 …that in July of 1947, the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) recovered a flying saucer and…
  • p. 28 …General Roger Ramey, Commander of the Eighth Air Force at Forth Worth, Texas, stated that upon…
  • p. 30 …These locations include Fort Worth, Texas, the home of the Eighth Air Force Headquarters; possibly Sandia…
  • p. 31 …Air Force exerted some degree of control. Researchers did not, however, go to the US Army…
  • p. 32 …of the Air Force or the Senior Security Official of the Air Force that would officially…
  • p. 35 …US Army, the subject has also been very well documented over the years within Air Force…
  • p. 36 …There were no ancillary records in Air Force files to indicate the potential existence of such…
  • p. 44 …She provided the Air Force researchers with this material. It is discussed in more detail within…
  • p. 46 …wooden materials used in the radar target previously described. CONCLUSION The Air Force research did not…
  • p. 67 OF"F'1C£ 0~ THE SECRETARY DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE WASHINGTON DC 20330-1000 MEMORANDUM…
  • p. 73 …Serious UFO researchers believe that the Air Force now wishes the American public, to know the…
  • p. 76 …An electronic search of the Air Force Historical Research Agency archives, again, several million pages of…
  • p. 81 …AFR 127-4, Investigating and Reporting US Air Force Mishaps (attached), provides guidance for Air Force…
  • p. 94 AFP 127-1 Volume 1, US Air Force Guide to Mishap Investiqation (AFSA/SEP) AFP 127…
  • p. 101 …microfilm roll33,764 indicates that the Fourth Air Force and its A-2 intelligence section apparently…
  • p. 114 …These records contain documents on investigative policy and Air Force Office of Special Investigation reports of…
  • p. 147 …iz he can use as comin~ !rom him - not an Air Force or General Varxienberg statement…
  • p. 163 …Weaver and I am talking to Lt Col Sheridan Cavitt, US Air Force, Retired. Also present…
  • p. 168 …something like, "I took it to 8th Air Force Headquarters, General Ramey was excited; they were…
  • p. 169 …He use to be a mechanic at one time, Rick did, in the Air Force; the…
  • p. 184 …The Air Force having the .. .I mean we were close knit and it seemed that there…
  • p. 186 …Has anybody in the US Government, the Air Force, or anyone connected with the Government, ever…
  • p. 189 …commander of the Eight Air Force, but be and Blanchard use to have some... (unintelligible). Oh…
  • p. 195 …COITDllal'lding General, Army Air Forces, Washington 25, D.C. THRU& (AC/A5-4) 1. To…
  • p. 201 …The Army Air Force had seen what the Japanese had done with long range balloons; although…
  • p. 202 …mathematically-therefore using it was natural. Ramey's press conference-the Air Force position makes sense…
  • p. 213 …I was provided a background on the Air Force efforts related to the GAO audit and…
  • p. 221 …were assigned under Colonel Duffy in the Air Force liaison office. Istvan's name you'll…
  • p. 224 …There was a great argume·n.t that went on between the Army Air Force and…
  • p. 227 …The pressure from the Air Force was enormous. There was a similar problem, of course, in…
  • p. 229 …cord we used was not strong enough at all to hold the forces that came, so…
  • p. 235 …That caused the Army Air Force to begin this research.
  • p. 236 …These are subsequent documents of people in the Air Force considering the desirability of it. After…
  • p. 244 …By and large, people thought we were flying balloons for the Air Force. Q: As far…
  • p. 246 …reports from the people at later Holloman Air Force Base, Mogul appears in things that are…
  • p. 254 …staff of 8th Air Force said that the Air Force was now using radar targets to…
  • p. 255 …General Ramey, Commander, 8th Air Forces, cleared up the mystery. A: In these pictures here, don…
  • p. 260 …We were strongly encouraged not to mix in the Air Force with what we did. Everything…
  • p. 265 …Alamagordo people or anyone else around 8th Air Force. A: There were some fancy orders that…
  • p. 266 …These are the pictures taken in General Ramey's office, 8th Air Force Headquarters by a…
  • p. 273 …The Air Force position on that is that it was a misidentified balloon. The balloon was…
  • p. 274 …using devices that I had developed in the Signal Corps. I was an Air Force officer…
  • p. 277 …Signal Corps and Army Air Force? A: All the officers that I had on my staff…
  • p. 278 …potential problem that might warrant scrutiny by Air Force intelligence or security people? A: We were…
  • p. 280 …Did you have any interaction with the people at Eighth Air Force such as General Ramey…
  • p. 282 …Baltimore, I spent four years at the Air Force Research and Development Command Office in Brussels…
  • p. 309 …the behest of the Secretary of the Air Force, for the GAO, to leok into facts…
  • p. 317 DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE WASHINGTON OC 20330-1000 OFFICt: OF THE ~ECRETARY JUL 2 7…
  • p. 318 …classified payloads for a Top Secret US Army Air Forces project. The project's classified code…
  • p. 319 …research agency of the US Army Air Forces (USAAF), the Air Materiel Command (AMC), early in…
  • p. 320 …USAAF, as the Army Air Forces Liaison Officer to the US Army Signal Corps, with primary…
  • p. 327 …Andrews AAF was headquarters of the Army Air Forces Weather Service. It is also interesting to…
  • p. 425 …completed to the sponsoring agency for use of Air Force scientific personnel. On 27 February 1948…
  • p. 426 …systems was to be submitted to the Air Force. Modification #9 revised the delivery address for…
  • p. 434 …It was also employed to give tpformation on Neutron intensities 1h another Air Force project(5…
COL TRAKOWSKI - 6/29/94 2
Maybe the best thing to do before plowing over all this old ground would be to consider some
specific questions you may have. In the course of that, the history may come out.
Q: Were there any documents, or were there any directions either from yourself or from
someone else up the chain to develop a cover story for MOGUL?
A: Not to my knowledge, no. I have never seen such a document nor have I ever heard of
any effort to develop a cover story for MOGUL. The security of MOGUL was a great concern of mine from
the very beginning, because it was like trying to hide an elephant in an open farmyard-almost ludicrous.
Q: Both Dr. Spilhaus and Professor Moore have indicated that they did use weather research
as essentially a cover story when asked questions about what they were doing.
A: Correct. That we did. I'm aware of that. But it was not a policy. It was, if anything, a
lash-up idea on the spur of the moment. And indeed, it was obvious. I may have been involved in using
such a story myself, but to the best of my recollection there was no official stimulation [sic] or
documentation of doing that. If you find such a document I,· indeed, would be surprised.
Q: In the course of the research projects you worked on, in that time frame-the postwar
period-would they give you a cover story on any particular project, even other than this one? Would they
say, this is what you do, say this? Or would they kind of leave it to you, that it was a classified project
and you just didn't discuss it and you just avoided questions?
A: The latter. I have no recollection of a cover story being used on any project that I was
involved in, nor that a prefabricated cover story existed. No. I never encountered any such thing. We
simply treated the security classification straight and did all we could to adhere to it.
Q: So you, as the project officer, you knew that MOGUL was a Top Secret...
A: Did I know that? There was no way to avoid it. I was the project officer, succeeding
Colonel Duffy, and all that history is in the tapes that I made for Ruth Liebowitz. I came into being as
the project officer on Project MOGUL about November of 1946. I had considerable background in nuclear
weapons detection, using devices that I had developed in the Signal Corps. I was an Air Force officer
assigned to the Signal Corps as part of Colonel Duffy's office. Much to the chagrin of the Signal Corps
hierarchy, I was appointed a laboratory chief in the Signal Corps for purposes of developing instrumenta-
tion that the Air Force required, and I did that. In connection with that instrumentation, I conceived of an
application of that instrumentation for use in detection of nuclear weapons. We conducted field
experiments which at best were controversial, and at worst showed no positive result.
So my studies took me into the nuclear weapons problem. I had a background in physics-in
nuclear physics and high-energy physics and modern physics-so I had some understanding of what was
going on. I then took over the development of the original weather radar prototypes that the Air Force
required in 1946. I did that in 1946. From that position, I was transferred to Colonel Duffy's new position
as project officer for Project MOGUL in the Air Force, Watson Laboratories. I took up that task, I believe,
around November. Those dates I think are specific in the tapes I made for Ruth Liebowitz- November
of 1946. Colonel Duffy was reassigned to Wright Field, and I was the project officer. I was Top Secret
control officer in addition to other duties, it being the only Top Secret project at Watson Laboratories at

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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.