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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. 17 …Others remain nonbelievers or at least skeptical of the existence of alien beings and elusive vehicles…
  • p. 19 …Moreover, operational necessity required that these balloons be launched during daylight hours. It was therefore not…
  • p. 30 …This has since grown from a minimal amount of debris recovered from a small area to…
  • p. 35 …This included, for example, a small amount of missing "decimal files" from the 509th Bomb Group…
  • p. 36 …This was a small section of the July Historical Report for the 509th Bomb Group and…
  • p. 37 …To believe that such operational and high-level security activity could be conducted solely by relying…
  • p. 39 …The foil-rubber material could not be tom like ordinary aluminum foil can be tom... " Sally…
  • p. 40 …Although there does not appear to be much dispute that Cavitt was involved in the material…
  • p. 43 …Lt Col Cavitt described a small area of debris which appeared, "to resemble bamboo type square…
  • p. 72 …being per:ormed on these bodies. The bodies were described as the body of a small…
  • p. 99 …It should be noted that the period from approximately 1946 to 1950 is the least well…
  • p. 105 …Several small projects were completed during ~1e mont.~ includine signs on all the·office doors, a…
  • p. 149 …Streett 1s office recaumends against it on the ground that that is a small enterprize down…
  • p. 159 …I do not recall the incident being mentioned again as being any big deal and I…
  • p. 201 …We even simulated a small lightning strike over dry snow (just from the snow blowing over…
  • p. 258 …Big plastic balloon with small auxiliary plastics," etc. "Watson Lab and gear." "Followed" (inaudible) "receiver until…
  • p. 261 …explain bodies or material that can't be folded) by a sledge hammer. Q: Let's…
  • p. 328 …The witnesses have recalled small pink/purple "flowers" that appeared I to be some sort of…
  • p. 401 …b7 how ra* the receiver •7 be re110ve~ .t'rows the pre~er. red height withqut…
  • p. 443 …geostrophic wind (the latter being derived under certain simplifying assumptions) and since the geometry of the…
  • p. 458 …Two designs which compro- mise extreme cost (required for balloons of high internal pressure) with small…
  • p. 479 …This means that several hours might be required to fall through the lanes of aircraft traffic…
  • p. 484 …The change in drag effect may be realized by a decrease of relative size of the…
  • p. 487 (a) Then: (9) or for small temperature differences: (10) : - _L (.AI.)1-B T the nega…
  • p. 490 …gas of a balloon can be lost by: leakage through small holes in the fabric or…
  • p. 491 …for l:n•y small section of altitude is assumed to be constant); and re.J…
  • p. 506 in the preceding, section on diffusion end leakage the appendix opening should be small. It can…
  • p. 521 …is li~ited as indicated above, small variations may be detected with the result that it…
  • p. 555 …being exposed about 10 hours at cold temperature. (:S) During the floating period :many small oscilla…
  • p. 565 …The very usef.ul information about be.llast flow was reported clearly, and the principle of…
  • p. 566 …Since the small external appendix with cardboard stiffeners was not suitable for the large balloon, a…
  • p. 580 …Following the initial activation at about 38,500 feet, small oscillations were introduced into the flight…
  • p. 614 …Figure 4 shows this appendix construction on a General M lls balloon which is being inflated…
  • p. 652 …At high altitudes, a difference of 40°C may be expected in the temperature of the…
  • p. 658 …To facilitate handling of the line segments each length is prepared with a small hook on…
  • p. 672 signals may be arranged so as to consume a very small portion of -transmission time. D…
  • p. 738 …These values may be compared with a diffusion loss of lift of the order of magnitude…
  • p. 742 …The constancy of level will be better the lower the diffusion and the lower, therefore, the…
  • p. 762 …te .::mrcht:.se of small item£. A furth..:r rec:uest ~s been subr:rl tte…
  • p. 783 …be of such a valve that with a large r~diosonde frequency variation for a small…
  • p. 785 …It is expected that this equipment will be flown about 8 l-1ay. A description of…
  • p. 815 …Before gear could be recovered, most of it had be~~tolen. Stations operating at north hanger…
  • p. 842 …Range started to slowly increase as did elevation with azimuth being stationary. The echo remained beyond…
  • p. 862 …By using this stressed tape design, much larger loads may be carried than the thin polyethylene…
  • p. 874 …At this point, two small holes about 18" apart have been made, and the rip line…
  • p. 881 …If thodolite stadia determinations are being made, the banner can be used as one of the…
  • p. 898 …laid out, A small amount of gas at very low pressure Should be valved into the…
  • p. 910 …The motor gears may be cleaned with carbon tetrachloride and a small clean brush. If the…
  • p. 918 …Each combination of dots or dashes may be identified by ear, and with a calibration chart…
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.