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…
figures on the sticks, lavender or pink in color, appeared to be weather faded
markings, with no rhyme or reason [sic]. He did not convince me that these were
alien writings." Newton concluded his statement by relating that" ... During the
ensuing years I have been interviewed by many authors, I have been quoted and
misquoted. The facts remain as indicated above. I was not influenced during the
original interview, nor today, to provide anything but what I know to be true,
that is, the material I saw in General Ramey's office was the remains of a balloon
and a RAWIN target."
Balloon Research
The original tasking from GAO noted that the search for information included
"weather balloons." Comments about balloons and safety reports have already
been made; however the SAF I AAZ research efforts also focused on reviewing
historical records involving balloons, since, among other reasons, that was what
was officially claimed by the AAF to have been found and recovered in 1947.
As early as February 28, 1994, the AAZD research team found references to
balloon tests taking place at Alamogordo Army Air Field (now Holloman AFB)
and White Sands during June and July 1947, testing "constant level balloons" and
a New York University (NYU)/Watson Labs effort that used" ... meteorological
devices . . . suspected for detecting shock waves generated by Soviet nuclear
explosions"-a possible indication of a cover story associated with the NYU
balloon project. Subsequently, a 1946 HQ AMC memorandum surfaced, describ-
ing the constant altitude balloon project and specified that the scientific data be
classified Top Secret Priority 1A. Its name was Project MOGUL (Atch 19).
Project MOGUL was a then-sensitive, classified project, whose purpose was to
determine the state of Soviet nuclear weapons research. This was the early Cold
War period and there was serious concern within the US government about the
Soviets' developing a weaponized atomic device. Because the Soviet Union's
borders were closed, the US Government sought to develop a long range nuclear
explosion detection capability. Long range, balloon-borne, low frequency acoustic
detection was posed to General Spaatz in 1945 by Dr. Maurice Ewing of Columbia
University as a potential solution (atmospheric ducting of low frequency pressure
waves had been studied as early as 1900).
As part of the research into this matter, AAZD personnel located and obtained
the original study papers and reports of the New York University project. Their
efforts also revealed that some of the individuals involved in Project MOGUL were
still living. These persons included the NYU constant altitude balloon Director of
Research, Dr. Athelstan F. Spilhaus; the Project Engineer, Professor Charles B.
Moore; and the military Project Officer, Colonel Albert C. Trakowski.
All of these persons were subsequently interviewed and signed sworn statements
about their activities. A copy of theses statements are appended at Atchs 20-22.
Additionally, transcripts of the interview with Moore and Trakowski are also
included (equipment malfunctioned during the interview of Spilhaus) (Atchs
25

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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.