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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. 12 …Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Photographs of Balloon Debris, July 9, 1947 17. Satement, Lt. Col. Sheridan…
  • p. 13 …Photographs, ML-307C/AP Device with Vintage Neoprene Balloons and Debris 32. Synopsis of Balloon Research…
  • p. 15 …Balloons Project MOGUL Balloon Train Components and Debris Recovered Heights of Familiar Architectural Structures Relative to…
  • p. 19 …Additionally, many claims of a flying saucer crash at Roswell rest on the description of debris…
  • p. 25 …Prior to that, the incident was dismissed because the AAF originally identified the debris recovered as…
  • p. 28 …When the debris was gathered up the tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks made a bundle about…
  • p. 29 …Marcel, claimed that he had recovered UFO debris near Roswell in 1947. Also in 1978, a…
  • p. 30 example, it was originally reported that there was only recovery of debris from one site. This…
  • p. 32 …the exact location(s) of the purported debris, and the extent of the wreckage. Such discrepancies…
  • p. 35 …forth as a possible explanation for the debris recovered near Roswell. Since much of this testing…
  • p. 38 …There were three categories of debris: a thick, foil like metallic gray substance; a brittle, brownish…
  • p. 39 …The debris looked like pieces of a large balloon which had burst. The pieces were small…
  • p. 40 accompanied Major Marcel to the ranch to recover the debris, sometimes along with his Counter Intelligence…
  • p. 43 …Lt Col Cavitt described a small area of debris which appeared, "to resemble bamboo type square…
  • p. 44 …Pflock concluded from his research that the Brazel Ranch debris originally reported as a "flying disc…
  • p. 46 …This organiza- tion was able to obtain measurements from the "sticks" visible in the debris after…
  • p. 48 …Photos of ML-307C/ AP Device, With Vintage Neoprene Balloon and Debris 32. Synopsis of Balloon…
  • p. 67 …reporting air vehicle crashes, investigations, and wreckage/debris retention and disposition; (c) identify~ records (unclassified or…
  • p. 71 …existence of any relevant documents, flying saucer debris, or space aliens on WPAFB. AF/IN's…
  • p. 72 …miles from the rest of the OFO debris. There has been rumors of post-mortem examinations…
  • p. 75 …They discovered a gre:~t deal of lightweight debris which couldn't be cut. burned, or…
  • p. 81 …Normally, the safety investigation is done first, after which the wreckage/debris retention and disposition becomes…
  • p. 85 …reporting air vehicle crashes, investigations, and wreckage/debris retention and disposition. Additionally, we do not possess…
  • p. 151 16 Fort Worth Star-Telegram Photographs of Balloon Debris July 9, 1947
  • p. 159 …When we got to this location we subsequently located some debris which appeared to me to…
  • p. 164 …we heard that someone had found some debris out not too tar &om RosweU and it…
  • p. 172 …the next morning they headed out into a field were Brazel had found the debris." So…
  • p. 175 …type of rocket when you saw the debris in the field? SC: No. No. I never…
  • p. 177 …the senior intelligence officer walked into the debris field, examined the wreckase. Rickett said it looked…
  • p. 182 …through the security phalanx and saw metallic debris scattered in an outer circle with a diameter…
  • p. 187 …It was something that was written or printed on some of the debris, Do you recall…
  • p. 201 …balloons for the detection and collection of debris from atomic explosion. Although I was involved in…
  • p. 202 …There was also debris coUection on sticky paper. Most of the balloon projects were not concerned…
  • p. 206 …others were involved in other activities so debris from rockets, aircraft dropsondes, etc. may have been…
  • p. 213 …someone had come to him with some debris from Ne~ Mexico and he said, "this SW…
  • p. 214 apparatus and materials for the project, so if he said that it was debris from the…
  • p. 219 …When this purplish-pink marking on the debris came up, I immediately remembered this sort of…
  • p. 222 …He indicates in this newspaper article that he actually found the debris in mid-June, however…
  • p. 232 …And left pieces of debris everywhere. Depending on •..
  • p. 252 …But you're quite right, there's debris that was reported to us that ••• Q: ••• some…
  • p. 257 …in the area who could explain this debris that was brought in. There were no experts…
  • p. 261 …a radar to substitute for the real debris. I think there's a very high likelihood…
  • p. 262 …I asked her did he ever talk to her about anything regarding this debris that had…
  • p. 266 …that's been substituted for the real debris, and there are also stories where Marchelle said…
  • p. 270 PROFESSOR MOORE - 6/8/94 54 including that debris, are pictures that he sent to me…
  • p. 275 …Someone came from New Mexico with this debris? A: Yes, I believe that's correct. Q…
  • p. 276 …Why did they bring this debris to Colonel Duffy? Why didn't they bring it to…
  • p. 278 …I knew him only by the path of debris he left behind. I never met him…
  • p. 311 31 Photographs ML-307C/AP Device with Vintage Neoprene Balloons and Debris
  • p. 318 …Meanwhile, Brig Gen Roger Ramey, Eighth Air Force Commander, ordered that the debris be flown to…
  • p. 325 …Descriptions of the debris provided by Brazel, Cavitt, Crary's diary, and the photos of the…
  • p. 326 …It now appears that the debris from MOGUL flight no. 4 had come ·to earth on…
  • p. 327 …Newton positively identified the debris as the remnants of a balloon and RAWIN target. 37 With…
  • p. 328 …Research has revealed that the debris found on the ranch and displayed in General Ramey's…
  • p. 329 …weather balloons and targets, positively identified the debris as a weather device.42 In short, descriptions…
  • p. 331 …4 Photographs of Balloon Debris JAMES McANDREW, 1st Lt, USAFR Declassification and Review Officer SAF/AAZD…
  • p. 333 Fort Worth Star-Telegram Photographs of Balloon Debris July 9, 1947 1
  • p. 379 …When the .debris was :gathered of these. . .· . originally gave tbe'<information of Jesse_. A. Mateel and…
  • p. 975 …In fact, General Ramey displayed the original debris recovered from the ranch, which came from a…
  • p. 978 …They also contend that the debris recovered by the rancher was transported to Andrews AAF, MD…
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.