General Accounting Office Report to the Honorable Steven H. Schiff, House of Representatives - Government Records - Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico

B-262046
To follow up on the July 8th message, we re\-iewed microfilm abstracts of
the FBI Dallas and Cincinnati office activities for July 1947. An abstract
prepared by the FBI Dallas office on July 12, 1947, summarized the
particulars of the July 8th message. There was no mention in the
Cincinnati office abstracts of the crash or recovery of an airborne object
near Roswell.
Because the FBI message reported that debris from the Roswell crash was
being transported to Wright Field for examination, we attempted to
determine whether military regulations existed for handling such debris.
We were unable to locate any applicable regulation. As a final step, we
reviewed Air Materiel Command (Wright Field) records from 1947 to 1950
for evidence of command personnel involvement in this matter. We found
no records mentioning the Roswell crash or the examination by Air
Materiel Command personnel of any debris recovered from the crash.
Queries to Federal We sent letters to several federal agencies asking for any government
• . records they might have concerning the Roswell crash. In this regard, we
Agencies Regarding contacted DOD, the National Security Council, the White House Office of
Records on the Crash~ Science and Technology Policy, the CIA, the FBI, and the Department of
Energy.
Federal Bureau of
Investigation
Department of Defense
The National Security Council, the 'White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy, and the Department of Energy responded that they had
no government records relating to the Roswell crash. (Copies of their
responses appear in app. ill, IV, and V.) The FBI, DOD, and the CL~ provided
the following information.
The FBI informed us that all FBI data regarding the crash near Roswell had
been processed under Freedom of Information Act (FOL~) requests
previously received by the Bureau. We re\iewed the FBI's FOIA material and
identified the July 8, 1947, FBI teletype message discussing the recovery
near Roswell of a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector.
(A copy of the FBI's response appears in app. v1.)
DOD informed us that the U.S. Air Force report of July 1994, entitled Report
of Air Force Research Regarding the Roswell Incident, represents the
extent of DOD records or information concerning the Roswell crash. The
Air Force report concluded that there was no dispute that something
Page 5 GAO/XSIAD-95-187 Government Records