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 …Also, Robert "Gus" Bell contributed with his attractive art work; Richard Wolf provided invaluable computer expertise…
  • p. 14 …Mensuration Working Paper, with Drawing and Photo xiv
  • p. 19 …The ruse worked. However, too much activity was going on for the project to remain completely…
  • p. 28 …The balloon which held it up, if that is how it worked, must have been about…
  • p. 31 …These works included: The Roswell Incident (1980) by William Moore and Charles Berlitz; "Crashed Saucers: Evidence…
  • p. 34 …specialists, including experienced persons who have continually worked in Army and Air Force records systems since…
  • p. 42 …or classified about their work; they were told only that their work dealt with meteorological equipment…
  • p. 43 …of umbrella cover story to protect our work with MOGUL." Although the Air Force did not…
  • p. 44 …who is married to a staffer who works for Congressman Schiff. Some of these persons provided…
  • p. 48 …Synopsis of Balloon Research Findings by 1st Lt James McAndrew 33. "Mensuration Working Paper," With Drawing…
  • p. 51 …to the case, and that not enough work had been done to report any results to…
  • p. 55 …The work will be performed under GAO code 701034 by staff from our National Security Analysis…
  • p. 56 …Initial work will be performed at the Department of Defense, the Services, specialized defense agencies, and…
  • p. 59 …Secur~ty and Inter.nationa1 Affairs Division (National Security Analysis) is doinq the work. The review…
  • p. 75 …Mary Kathryn Groode, and his friend, John Kromschroeder. • A mortician who worked for the funCr.ll…
  • p. 76 …Conversations with a dozen people who had worked in the Project Blue Book office or with…
  • p. 106 …This has caused a large back log o£ important work to pile up. The following is…
  • p. 145 …civilian, Joe Shipman, who works with Col. Hackett is re~orted to have t~ld the…
  • p. 148 …Harness advised he thought we were getting the Merger Bill worked out pretty fine. 9:35…
  • p. 164 …I had two enJisted agents "working for me" quote end quote. RW: Who were the enlisted…
  • p. 169 …He worked for an insane asylum up in the Washington DC area. I think his wife…
  • p. 170 …He did quite a bit of work for the Air Force, as I found through research…
  • p. 183 …we went to all the different records. Working for me I have a group of reservists…
  • p. 191 …I need two plug ins to make this thing work. SC: You need two? RW: One…
  • p. 196 …the &ranting or clearanc•• to do the work. Both mthods haw bean succesatul.J¥ u.sod…
  • p. 201 …I worked on naval activity such as the thermal affects on SONAR. Concerning actual baUoon construction…
  • p. 205 …Our subsequent work with the balloons and microphones was highly classified and we didn't know…
  • p. 206 …We didn't pattern our work after the Japanese balloons. We were very secretive of our…
  • p. 213 …Charles Ziegler was working on the history of nuclear weapons detection capability. He had some letters…
  • p. 214 …Concerning the name Maj Pritchard, he may have worked for me but I don't recall…
  • p. 217 …Project Mogul and some of the other work that you and Dr. Spilhaus and others have…
  • p. 221 …He and I worked together. He was in Maine, and was not really technically involved. I…
  • p. 227 …With some difficulty we got Otto Winzen who was the entrepreneur cmd promoter, working with Get…
  • p. 228 …So you're doing that work from China? And we over and the entire our A…
  • p. 230 …Schneider and others from NYU, also Irewin, Minton, Olson, NYU men worked on balloons, north hangar."
  • p. 233 …Before you left active duty, while you were still working with Duffy and Spilhaus, did they…
  • p. 234 …While I was at Georgia Tech I began working with a microwave, an anonymous propagation research…
  • p. 236 …The reason I got into balloons is that while I was working on this manual there…
  • p. 237 …At that point you were working at New York University under the direction .•. A: Spilhaus was…
  • p. 240 …He worked for a Tracer lab and is just bringing out a book on the early…
  • p. 242 …Just for the record, ·Major Marcel later worked at AFOAT-1. Do you recognize him at…
  • p. 251 …It often didn't work. That was the reason why for Operation Sandstone in April and…
  • p. 253 …We just worked out of motels in Roswell. Q: I thought I saw you had a…
  • p. 258 …When we sent people to Roswell, Hackman worked out of a motel to receive. So the…
  • p. 259 …I do know that I worked carefully with a guy named Larry Dyvad, a pilot, who…
  • p. 260 …You were just saying hey, what's going to work best to get the data, so…
  • p. 269 …Tibbetts, the radar lieutenant working for Fletcher, said that when they got these in '44 there…
  • p. 274 …In the course of the research projects you worked on, in that time frame-the postwar…
  • p. 275 …You were on-site in New Mexico when Charlie Moore was doing most of his work…
  • p. 276 …Did he work for you at Watson Laboratories? A: No. He didn't work for me…
  • p. 279 …Do you recall any of the contractors he may have worked with? A: No, I don…
  • p. 280 …That's where John had his office, and I was there for a time doing work…
  • p. 282 …We worked in the old Sun newspaper building in downtown Baltimore. Q: They had intelligence personnel…
  • p. 283 …I know he worked with the U.S. Geological Survey, a very, very fine organization, and…
  • p. 318 …rest on the ranch on which he worked near the town of Corona, NM. This was…
  • p. 322 …In addition, Crary maintlained a detailed journal of his work throughout his professional career to incluc…
  • p. 323 …25 Balloons most suitable for this type of work were made of polyethylene, a very thin…
  • p. 325 …9 appeared to have been launched on July 3.34 On July 8, their work completed…
  • p. 330 …It was apparent from Crary's diary that he had worked very closely with Major Pritchard…
  • p. 379 …MonOay he came to town to sell worked, must have bt!en about 12 some sort…
no indicators or even hints that a missile was involved in this matter.
A Nuclear Accident
One of the areas considered was that whatever happened near Roswell may have
involved nuclear weapons. This was a logical area of concern since the 509th
Bomb Group was the only military unit in the world at the time that had access
to nuclear weapons. Again, reviews of available records gave no indication that
this was the case. A number of records still classified Top Secret and Secret-
Restricted Data having to do with nuclear weapons were located in the Federal
Records Center in St. Louis, MO. These records, which pertained to the 509th, had
nothing to do with any activities that could have been misinterpreted as the
"Roswell Incident." Also, any records of a nuclear-related incident would have
been inherited by the Department of Energy (DOE), and, had one occurred, it is
likely DOE would have publicly reported it as part of its recent declassification
and public release efforts. There were no ancillary records in Air Force files to
indicate the potential existence of such records within DOE channels, however.
An Extraterrestrial Craft
The Air Force research found absolutely no indication that what happened near
Roswell in 1947, involved any type of extraterrestrial spacecraft. This, of course,
is the crux of this entire matter. "Pro-UFO" persons who obtain a copy of this
report, at this point, most probably begin the "cover-up is still on" claims.
Nevertheless, the research indicated absolutely no evidence of any kind that a
spaceship crashed near Roswell or that any alien occupants were recovered
therefrom, in some secret military operation or otherwise. This does not mean,
however, that the early Air Force was not concerned about UFOs. However, in
the early days, "UFO" meant Unidentified Flying Object, which literally translated
as some object in the air that was not readily identifiable. It did not mean, as the
term has evolved in today' s language, to equate to alien spaceships. Records from
the period reviewed by Air Force researchers, as well as those cited by the
authors mentioned before, do indicate that the USAF was seriously concerned
about the inability to adequately identify unknown flying objects reported in
American airspace. All the records, however, indicated that the focus of concern
was not on aliens, hostile or otherwise, but on the Soviet Union. Many documents
from that period speak to the possibility of developmental secret Soviet aircraft
overflying US airspace. This, of course, was of major concern to the fledgling
USAF, whose job it was to protect these same skies.
The research revealed only one official AAF document that indicated that there
was any activity of any type that pertained to UFOs and Roswell in July, 1947.
This was a small section of the July Historical Report for the 509th Bomb Group
and Roswell Army Air Field that stated: "The Office of Public Information was
quite busy during the month answering inquiries on the 'flying disc,' which was
reported to be in possession of the 509th Bomb Group. The object turned out to
be a radar tracking balloon" (included with Atch 11). Additionally, this history
showed that the 509th Commander, Colonel Blanchard, went on leave on July 8,
1947, which would be a somewhat unusual maneuver for a person involved in
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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.