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…
SYNOPSIS OF ROSWELL INCIDENT
I am writing to request a clarifica-
rion of the U.S. Government's cu~nt position concerning
events which occurred in and around Roswell. New Mex-
ico; in July 1947.
According to newspaper accounts and eyewitness reports.
a local rancher. William W. Brazel. discovered pieces of
d bris from an object which crashed on the property he
managed outside Corona. on or about July 2. 1947. He
brought some of this material to the :mention of Chaves
County Sheriff George Wilcox. who called the Roswell Ar-
my Air Field. The base Intelligence Officer, Jesse A. Marcel.
and a Counter Intelligence Corps Officer, Sheridan Cavitt,
went to the ranch to inspect the material.
They discovered a gre:~t deal of lightweight debris which
couldn't be cut. burned, or even dented with a sledgeham-·
mer. On orders from the base commander, Col. William
Blanchard. the Public Information Officer, Walter G. Haut,
issued a news release that the Amry Air Force had recovered
''lying disc." Some of the debris was flown to Fort Worth,
..as where the Commander of the Eighth Air Force, Gen.
Roger Ramey. identified the m.aterial for the press as the
remains o.f a weather balloon and its r2dar target.
However, subsequent investigation has I'Oiised considei.lble
doubt about the weather balloon explanation. For e:wnple:.
• According to his son arid neighbors, Brazel was held
incommunicado by officials at the Roswell base for nearly
a week, questioned extensively :md ordered not to say
anything about his experience; however, in a newspaper in-
terview, he said that the material he recovered "did not in
any way resemble a weather balloon," many of which he
had recovered on his property.
• Sheriff Wilcox. to whom Brazel initially reported find-
ing the debris. also was .ordered by the military not to say
anyt~ing. but members of his family say that not only did
he see debris at the crash site - he :llso saw four "space"
beings," one of whom was alive. Moreover, his gi.lnd-
daughter, Barbara Dugger, was told by her grandmother, Inez
Wilcox, that the entire family was threatened with death by
the military if they discussed the incident.
• The former manager of KGFL Radio in Roswell, Jud
Roberts, says the station was threatened with loss of its
license by government officials in Washington, DC, if it
broadcast the story about the "flying saucer." In addition,
·rding to Lydia Sleppy, a secretary at KOAT Radio in
Jquerque, a wire transmission of the news story on the
event was interrupted by a message something like: "CEASE
TRANSMISSION. NATIONAL SECURITY ITEM."
• According to Brig.. Gen .. Thomas 1. DuBose .(USAF,.
ret.), who was Gen. Ramey's Chief of Staff, Maj Gen.
Clements McMullen. the Deputy and Acting Commander.
Str.~tegic Air Command, at Andrews ·Army Air .Field,
ordered that some of the debris recovered on the ranch be
brought directly to him in Washington. Gen. DuBose says
officials at the Headquarters of the Eighth Air Force were
directed to tell the press that the material was from a weather
balloon I'Oidar target, and that the weather balloon explana-
tion was a "cover story" to divert the attention of the press.
• The pilot who transpOrted some of the wreckage, Oliver
W. Henderson, said he saw the bodies of alien beings at the
Roswell base, according to his widow, Sappho Henderson,
his daughter. Mary Kathryn Groode, and his friend, John
Kromschroeder.
• A mortician who worked for the funCr.ll home in
Roswell, Glenn Dennis, says an:Arrr.y nurse friend told him
about participating in the autopsies of three alien bodies at
the base.
Therefore, [ am formally requesting that you seek to deter-
mine whether the highly unusual material recovered near
Corona was from a "flying disc," a weather balloon, or
something else.
Please advise me. at your earliest opportunity, of the
United States Government's current position on the nature
of the material recovered outside Roswell, New Me.""tico, in
July 1947, and its current explanation for all official actions
taken with respect to this event.
Sincerely,

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.