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. 6 …At National Archives II in College Park, MD, Allen Lewis graciously provided access to their excellent…
  • p. 40 …with his Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) subordinate, Lewis Rickett, who, like Marcel, is deceased. Although there…
  • p. 104 …lie relieved 1st Lt Lewis C. Bohanan who t'l&.s transferred to the 70lst ·AA…
  • p. 106 …station, datod 18 July 1947. 1st Lt. Lewis c. Bohanan. former commanding o£ticer of the…
  • p. 169 …Fort Lewis, I think he ... SC: Was it Lewis or McChord? I don't remember. Anyway…
  • p. 177 …page 61. "According to Lewis Rickett, one of the CIC Agents, he, with the commander of…
  • p. 182 …Eighty two year old Lewis Rickett. 'Cavitt had been there the day before, but he wouldn…
  • p. 318 …Corps Agents, Capt Sheridan Cavitt and MSgt Lewis Rickett, to evaluate the debris. The officers collected…
  • p. 408 …under the direction of Captain Stanley C. Lewis, from the 4149th AFBU, MIDDLETCM'N, PENNSYLVANIA. The…
  • p. 804 …54 and left Newark about 145 pm. Lewis, pilot; Clowry, co- pilot. Arrived Oklahoma City about…
  • p. 808 …Feb 27 Thurs. Arrived)Newark 9 am. Lewis, Duff,Mosher a request? in from Y.iddletown…
  • p. 809 …Worked on Alamogordo plans - Lewis & Clowry over this pm and we went over all future plans…
  • p. 810 …onnel - 41493: Lewis, Wolk, Burnhoff, Adams, Duff • Worked some on instrument calibrations. Lewis, Ball and I…
  • p. 811 …11 and went out to Dona -- 8aptain Lewis and myself at Launching Area site. V-2…
  • p. 814 …All NYU personnel and John Aaden off on B-17 - Lewis, Gallagher. Went over to Alamogordo…
PROJECT MOGUL
Project MOGUL was first conceived by Dr. Maurice Ewing of Columbia University,
NY, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, MA. Dr. Ewing had conducted
considerable research for the Navy during World War II, studying, among other
things, the "sound channel" in the ocean. He proved that explosions could be
heard thousands of miles away with underwater microphones placed at a
predetermined depth within the sound channel. He theorized that since sound
waves generated by explosions could be carried by currents deep within the
ocean, they might be similarly transmitted within a sound channel in the upper
atmosphere. The military application of this theory was the long-range detection
of sound waves generated by Soviet nuclear detonations and the acoustical
signatures of ballistic missiles as they traversed the upper atmosphere. He
presented his theory to General Carl Spaatz, Chief of Staff of the Army Air
Forces, in the fall of 1945.6 The project was approved, and research was begun by
the scientific research agency of the US Army Air Forces (USAAF), the Air
Materiel Command (AMC), early in 1946. The project was assigned to HQ AMC,
Engineering Division, Electronics Subdivision, which in turn assigned the project
to AMC's Watson Laboratories, Engineering Division, Applied Propagation
Subdivision, located in Red Bank, NJ.
SCOPE
Project MOGUL initially focused on three areas of technology: (1) an expendable
microphone, capable of detecting, at long range, low-frequency sound transmis-
sions generated by explosions and missiles; (2) a means of telemetering these
sounds to a ground or airborne receiver; and (3) a system from which to suspend
the microphone and telemetering device in the upper atmosphere for an extended
period of time. To meet these criteria, contracts were awarded by AMC to
Columbia University (AMC contract no. W28-099-ac-82) for the acoustical
equipment, and to New York University (NYU) for the development of constant-
level balloons (AMC contract no. W28-099-ac- 241). After the initial contracts
were awarded, Project MOGUL branched out into many areas related to the
geophysical properties of the upper atmosphere, including radiowave propaga-
tion, radar propagation, ionospheric physics, solar physics, terrestrial magnetism,
meteorological physics, and weather forecasting. Considerable resources were
devoted to Project MOGUL which included numerous bomber and transport
aircraft and two oceangoing vessels. At one point the staff, exclusive of contrac-
tors, numbered over 100 persons. To accommodate this sensitive, high-priority
project, facilities of the secluded Oakhurst Field Station of Watson Laboratories
were used. Balloon operations associated with Project Mogul were conducted at
various locations throughout the United States and the Pacific, the latter in
reference to acoustical detection research associated with the Sandstone atomic
tests at Entiwetok Atoll in April and May 1948.7
6. Rprt, Maurice Ewing for General Carl Spaatz, "Long Range Sound Transmission in the
Atmosphere," n.d.
7. Rprt, HQ Fitzwilliam Fwd, "Sonic Balloon Test Kwajalein," May 17, 1948 (hereafter "Sonic

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.