balloon flights.¹⁵² This testimony also described aircraft that were typically overhead during a recovery and an established procedure of landing on a rural road or in a field to reach isolated balloon launch or recovery locations.¹⁵³
Military Vehicles. Numerous military vehicles, several of which were described by other witnesses as having been at the other crash site north of Roswell, were also described. Witnesses at the two different sites described a “wrecker” and a “six-by-six,” both of the type used for anthropomorphic dummy recoveries.¹⁵⁴ The account also described two vehicles unique to the Balloon Branch that were used for the majority of high altitude balloon recoveries during the mid-to late-1950s.
The witness described a “jeep-like truck that had a bunch of radios in it”…There was a guy sittin’ in there wearin’ earphones and he was talking on the radio.”¹⁵⁵ This is a likely description of a Dodge M-37 3/4-ton utility truck, known as a weapons carrier, that had been specially modified to carry radio equipment for balloon recovery operations. The Holloman AFB Balloon Branch modified these vehicles in 1953, ruling out the possibility that the witness observed them in 1947, when such vehicles were not available to organizations performing balloon operations.¹⁵⁶ The other vehicle described and used by the Balloon Branch were “military ambulances.”¹⁵⁷ During the mid-1950s, the Balloon Branch modified three M-43 3/4-ton ambulances for use as balloon recovery and communications vehicles.¹⁵⁸ These vehicles were used for anthropomorphic dummy launch and recovery missions to relay messages to circling recovery aircraft and the balloon operations center at Holloman AFB.¹⁵⁹ The witness also described “a trailer with a motor on it, like a generator.”¹⁶⁰ This is a likely description of a 1 1/2-ton cargo trailer with an MB-19 15 Kilowatt diesel generator. These generators were used primarily on balloon launch sites during the 1950s and 1960s (see fig. 71).
Balloon Branch Procedures. Descriptions of military personnel “stretching stuff out on the ground, dragging stuff out of trucks”¹⁶¹ is a likely description of a balloon launch procedure that required the fragile
Fig. 79. “Stretching stuff out on the ground, dragging stuff out of trucks”—a likely witness reference to high altitude balloon inflation procedure that required the balloon to be stretched out on a protective ground cloth prior to inflation. (U.S. Air Force photo)
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