designs on it." $ ^{41} $ Furthermore, the Fort Worth Army Airfield Weather Officer, Irving Newton, who was called in to identify the wreckage, also remembers the purple/pink marks. Newton stated that when he was called to General Ramey's office he remembers meeting Marcel, who attempted to convince him that the wreckage on the floor of the office was a crashed "flying disc." Newton, having seen many weather balloons and targets, positively identified the debris as a weather device. $ ^{42} $ In short, descriptions of the wreckage found on the ranch near Corona and of the wreckage displayed in General Ramey's office are entirely consistent with each other.
THE REAL COVER STORY
On July 10, 1947, a newspaper article appeared in the Alamogordo Daily News displaying for the press the devices, neoprene balloons, and corner reflectors which had been misidentified as the "flying disc" two days earlier at Roswell AAF (Atch 11). The photographs and accompanying article quoted Maj Wilbur D. Pritchard, a Watson Laboratory Project Officer (not assigned to MOGUL) stationed at Alamogordo AAF. This article appeared to have been an attempt to deflect attention from the Top Secret MOGUL project by publicly displaying a portion of the equipment and offering misleading information. If there was a "cover story" involved in this incident, it is this article, not the actions or statements of Ramey.
The article in the Alamogordo Daily News stated that the balloons and radar targets had been used for the last fifteen months for the training of long-range radar personnel and the gathering of meteorological data. The article lists four officers—Maj W.D. Pritchard, Lieut S.W. Seigel, Capt L.H. Dyvad, and Maj C.W. Mangum—as being involved with the balloon project, which was false. Moore and Trakowski could not recall any of the officers in the photograph, with the exception of Dyvad, whom Moore identified as a pilot who coordinated radar activities. $ ^{43} $ Additionally, some of the details discussed (balloon sighting in Colorado, tracking by B-17s, recovery of equipment, launching balloons at 5-6 AM, and balloon altitudes of 30,000-40,000 feet) relate directly to the NYU balloon project, indicating that the four officers had detailed knowledge of MOGUL. $ ^{44} $ Moore's unorthodox technique of employing several balloons and several radar targets was shown in one of the photographs. Other techniques unique to Moore,