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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…
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,

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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.