Documents / Official release
This is a 28 July 1995 report from the US General Accounting Office to Representative Steven H. Schiff about government records on the July 1947 crash near Roswell, New Mexico. It is filed with a Clinton Library NSC routing record. GAO found only two 1947 records: a 509th Bomb Group and RAAF history and an FBI teletype. Both describe the object as a radar-tracking or weather balloon. The report also notes that some RAAF administrative records and outgoing messages were destroyed without any stated authority.
were ever retired to the National Personnel Records Center or its predecessor depositories. The July 1947 history for the 509th Bomb Group and RAAF stated that the RAAF public information office "was kept quite busy ... answering inquiries on the 'flying disc,' which was reported to be in [the1 possession of the 509th Bomb Group. The object turned out to be a radar tracking balloon." By his signature, the RAAF'S commanding officer certified that the report represented a complete and accurate account of RAAF activities in July 1947. (Excerpts from the report are contained in app. 1.) In addition to unit history reports, we also searched for other government records on the Roswell crash. In this regard, the Chief Archivist for the National Personnel Records Center provided us with documentation indicating that (1) RAAF records such as finance and accounting, supplies, buildings and grounds, and other general administrative matters from March 1945 through December 1949 and (2) RAAF outgoing messages from October 1946 through December 1949 were destroyed. According to this official, the document disposition form did not properly indicate the authority under which the disposal action was taken. The Center's Chief Archivist stated that from his personal experience, many of the Air Force organizational records covering this time period were destroyed without entering a citation for the governing disposition authority. Our review of records control forms shOwing the destruction of other records-including outgoing RAAF messages for 1950-supports the Chief Archivist's viewpoint. During our review ofrec~rds at FBI headquarters, we found a July 8,1947, teletype message from the FBI office in Dallas, Texas, to FBI headquarters and the FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio. An FBI spokesperson confumed the authenticity of the message. According to the message, an Eighth Air Force headquarters official had telephonically informed the FBI'S Dallas office of the recovery near Roswell of a hexagonal-shaped disc suspended from a large balloon by cable. The message further stated that the disc and balloon were being sent to Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio) for examination. According to the Eighth Air Force official, the recovered object resembled a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector. The message stated that no further investigation by the FBI was being conducted. (A copy of the teletype message appears in app. n.) Page 4 GAOINSIAD·95·187 Government Records
Official release, from the nara collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 26 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.