Documents / Report
The Roswell Report: Case Closed is a 1997 US Air Force report written by Captain James McAndrew, with a foreword by Secretary of the Air Force Sheila E. Widnall. It follows up the 1994 report, which found that the 1947 debris came from the balloon project MoGUL. It concludes that the reported alien bodies were probably anthropomorphic test dummies dropped from high altitude balloons. It attributes the hospital body claims to a 1956 KC-97 crash and a 1959 manned balloon mishap.
“Patterson”31 pages
The three pilots, Kittinger, Kaufman and Fulgham, flew training missions together. Kaufman and Fulgham alternately flew the balloon while Kittinger instructed. The missions were flown at night to take advantage of light winds and avoid the effects of diurnal heating on the helium (the lifting gas that filled the balloon). Used for these missions were 30-foot diameter polyethylene balloons and an aluminum gondola especially designed for low altitude training. The first training mission scheduled for May 19, 1959 was canceled due to equipment problems. 173 Problems overcome, the next day at 1:30 a.m. the mission launched from White Sands Proving Ground. 174 The objective of this flight was to practice gas valving and ballasting techniques necessary for balloon control and to practice landings. After a five-hour flight, the balloon landed without incident just after sunrise northwest of El Paso, Texas. 175 The second training flight, launched at 2:41a.m. on May 21, 1959, from behind the Balloon Branch building, Bldg. 850 at Holloman AFB. 176 Near the end of another successful training mission with the same objectives as the previous flight, a mishap occurred resulting in injuries to two of the pilots, Fulgham and Kittinger. 177 The Mishap. Just after sunrise on May 21, 1959, following a successful low level training flight east of Holloman AFB over the Sacramento Mountains, Kittinger, the instructor pilot, determined the balloon should be landed in a small field approximately 10 miles northwest of Roswell. 178 This was necessary because of approaching bad weather and the field was the last suitable landing site before overflying the city of Roswell. 179 When the balloon touched down, a higher than normal forward velocity for landing caused the gondola to 106 Fig. 17. In May 1959, Capt. Dan D. Fulgham (left) and Capt. William C. Kaufman, pilots and Aero Medical Research officers from Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio were assigned temporary duty to Holloman AFB, N.M. to train as high altitude balloon pilots. Fulgham and Kaufman were trained by Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr. (photo collection of Dan D. Fulgham)
Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 234 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.