leaves little doubt that what he described was an anthropomorphic dummy recovery.
Based on testimony attributed to this witness, the confusion could have resulted from the fact that he observed these activities from a distance. If the witness was even a short distance from the odd looking anthropomorphic dummies, it would be logical for him to believe, when interviewed 35 to 40 years after the event, that he “thought they were dummies or bodies or something.” Also, for some of the high altitude drops, the dummies did not separate from the suspension rack and “rode the rack” to the ground without deployment of a parachute.¹⁰⁹ If the parachutes of the dummies or parachutes of the rack assembly did not deploy (a common occurrence during the early dummy drops), then they free-fell from up to 98,000 feet.¹¹⁰ As a result of these malfunctions, the arms and legs of the dummies were often separated from the body on impact.¹¹¹ This may account for the witness’ description of bodies [not] “over four or five foot” tall.
Another portion of his testimony suggesting that the witness observed an Air Force high altitude balloon and dummy recovery was the statement: “The federal government could have been doing something because they didn’t want anyone to know what this was...they was using dummies in those damned things...they could use remote control.” Balloon controllers used remote control to relay commands to the balloon control package to valve gas and drop ballast.¹¹² The dummies themselves were also dropped from the suspension rack by remote control.¹¹³
The witness also described a Balloon Branch procedure that required the area of a balloon or payload landing to be restored to its original condition. It was evident in the statements “They cleaned everything all up” and “They began gathering the stuff up.” Thoroughly cleaning a balloon or dummy landing site and removing any debris
Fig. 71. Numerous vehicles and various types of equipment, were often present at high altitude balloon and anthropomorphic dummy launch and recovery locations. (photo collection of Ole Jorgeson)
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