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 …Additionally, historians Alfred Beck, William Heimdahl, Roger Miller, Eduard Mark, and Jacob Neufeld shared with us…
  • p. 10 …Security markings have been deleted from previously classified documents. The reader is advised that blacked-out…
  • p. 35 …covered the years 1945-1949, that were marked on the index as "destroyed." The researchers noted…
  • p. 39 …I do not recall any other types of material or markings, nor do I remember seeing…
  • p. 41 figures on the sticks, lavender or pink in color, appeared to be weather faded markings, with…
  • p. 51 …UFO buffs contend the incident marked the beginning of a government conspiracy to sup- press evidence…
  • p. 99 …Although we cannot be absolutely sure that the histories marked "no holding" in the above list…
  • p. 167 …No marks in the ground, dug up, anything hidden, or anything like that, just out on…
  • p. 201 …Some bush pilot had found some pock marks in dty snow in Alaska in 1950. So…
  • p. 219 …When this purplish-pink marking on the debris came up, I immediately remembered this sort of…
  • p. 220 …men, and they were joking about these markings on the tape. I have a letter that…
  • p. 224 …No, because he said it was balsa sticks and smoky rubber and had those curious markings…
  • p. 230 …White Sands to record Hermes." I've marked the key things here with red, and then…
  • p. 309 …in color, appeared to be weather faded markings, with no rhyme or reason. He did not…
  • p. 329 …the wreckage, also remembers the purple/pink marks. Newton stated that when he was called to…
  • p. 558 …On this flight re- cord, marked oscillations are observed at three points. Despite the presence of…
  • p. 563 …KENT, TEXAS Figure 25 On Flight 71 marked oscillations are seen at the fleeting level and…
  • p. 566 …From the height-t~e curve of this flight (Figure 29) the very marked effect of…
  • p. 567 …Pre- sumably the marked easterly flow then observed above 60.000 feet carried this second flight…
  • p. 667 …Figure 46 shows the train; figure 47 shows the time-altitude curve, Which exhibits a marked…
  • p. 910 …minute, the distance between successive re- ference marks will be 30 to 40 centimeters de- -56-
  • p. 915 …is measurable by the distance be- tween the reference marks. If there is a sudden -61-
  • p. 920 …are reached. (c) Check pressure of the marking pens. Too much pressure of the pens on…
  • p. 923 …This may be done by measuring the horizontal distance be- tween the temperature and pressure marks…
In order to provide a more detailed discussion of the specifics of Project MOGUL
and how it appeared to be directly responsible for the "Roswell Incident," a
SAF I AAZD researcher prepared a more detailed discussion on the balloon project
which is appended to this report as Atch 32.
Other Research
In the attempt to develop additional information that could help explain this
matter, a number of other steps were taken. First, assistance was requested from
various museums and other archives (Atch 28) to obtain information and/ or
examples of the actual balloons and radar targets used in connection with Project
MOGUL and to correlate them with the various descriptions of wreckage and
materials recovered. The blueprints for the "Pilot Balloon Target ML307C/ AP
Assembly" (generically, the radar target assembly) were located at the Army
Signal Corps Museum at Fort Monmouth and were obtained. A copy is appended
as Atch 29. This blueprint provides the specification for the foil material, tape,
wood, eyelets, and string used and the assembly instructions thereto. An actual
device was also obtained for study with the assistance of Professor Moore. (The
example actually procured was a 1953-manufactured model"C" as compared to
the Model B which was in use in 1947. Professor Moore related the differences
were minor.) An examination of this device revealed it to be simply made of
aluminum-colored foil-like material over a stronger paper-like material, attached
to balsa wood sticks, affixed with tape, glue, and twine. When opened, the device
appears as depicted in Atch 31 (contemporary photo) and Atch 25 (1947 photo,
in a "balloon train"). When folded, the device is in a series of triangles, the largest
being 4 feet by 2 feet 10 inches. The smallest triangle section measures 2 feet by
2 feet 10 inches. (Compare with descriptions provided by Lt Col Cavitt and
others, as well as photos of wreckage.)
Additionally, the researchers obtained from the Archives of the University of
Texas-Arlington (UTA), a set of original (i.e., first generation) prints of the
photographs taken at the time by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, that depicted
Ramey and Marcel with the wreckage. A close review of these photos (and a set
of first-generation negatives also subsequently obtained from UTA) revealed
several interesting observations. First, although in some of the literature cited
above, Marcel allegedly stated that he had his photo taken with the "real" UFO
wreckage and then it was subsequently removed and the weather balloon
wreckage substituted for it, a comparison shows that the same wreckage appeared
in the photos of Marcel and Ramey. The photos also depicted that this material
was lying on what appeared to be some sort of wrapping paper (consistent with
affidavit excerpt of crew chief Porter, above). It was also noted that in the two
photos of Ramey he had a piece of paper in his hand. In one, it was folded over
so nothing could be seen. In the second, however, there appears to be text printed
on the paper. In an attempt to read this text to determine if it could shed any
further light on locating documents relating to this matter, the photo was sent to
a national-level organization for digitizing and subsequent photo interpretation
and analysis. This organization was also asked to scrutinize the digitized photos
for any indication of the flowered tape (or "hieroglyphics," depending on the
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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.