Documents / FOIA release

rosswe1

Office of the Secretary of Defense · 31 pages · text from the file's own layer

This July 1994 Department of the Air Force package, from SAF/AAZ to the Secretary of the Air Force, covers a report written to support a General Accounting Office audit requested by Congressman Steven Schiff. The Air Force searched its offices, archives and records centers and interviewed witnesses, including Sheridan Cavitt. It found no evidence of an extraterrestrial event, alien bodies or a cover-up. It concludes that the debris recovered near Roswell in 1947 most likely came from a Project MOGUL balloon.

  • p. 17 …and Maj Jesse Marcel. Capt. William E. Anderson said it was from a flying saucer. After…
In order to provide a more detailed discussion of the specifics of Project MOGUL
d how it appeared to be directly responsible for the "Roswell Incident," a
;~ 1AAZD researcher_ prepared a more detail~ discussion on the balloon project
which is appended to this report as Atch 32.
Other Research
In the attempt to develop additional information that could help explain this
matter, a number of other steps were taken. First, assistance was requested from
various museums and other archives (Atch 28) to obtain information and/or
examples of the actual balloons and radar targets used in connec.tion with Project
MOGUL and to correlate them with the various descriptions of wreckage and
materials recovered. The blueprints for the "Pilot Balloon Target ML307C/ AP
Assembly" (generically, the radar target assembly) were located at the Army
Signal Corps Museum at Fort Monmouth and were obtained. A copy is appended
as Atch 29. This b~ueprint provides the specification for the foil material, tape,
wood, eyelets, and string used and the assembly instructions thereto. An actual
device was also obtained for study with the assistance of Professor Moore. (The
example actually procured was a 1953-manufactured model "C" as compared to
the Model B which was in use in 1947. Professor Moore related the differences
were minor.) An examination of this device revealed it to be simply made of
aluminum-colored foil-like material over a stronger paper-like material, attached
to balsa wood sticks, affixed with tape, glue, and twine. When opened, the device
appears as depicted in Atch 31 (contemporary photo) and Atch 25 (1947 photo,
in a "balloon train"). When folded, the device is in a series of triangles, the largest
being 4 feet by 2 feet 10 inches. The smallest triangle section measures 2 feet by
2 feet 10 inches. (Compare with descriptions provided by Lt Col Cavitt and
others, as well as photos of wreckage.)
Additionally, the researchers obtained from the Archives of the University of
Texas-Arlington (UTA), a set of original (i.e., first generation) prints of the
photographs taken at the time by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, that depicted
Ramey and Marcel with the wreckage. A close review of these photos (and a set
of first-generation negatives also subsequently obtained from UTA) revealed
several interesting observations. First, although in some of the literature cited
above, Marcel allegedly stated that he had his photo taken with the "real" UFO
wreckage and then it was subsequently removed and the weather balloon
wreckage substituted for it, a comparison shows that the same wreckage appeared
in the photos of Marcel and Ramey. The photos also depicted that this material
was lying on what appeared to be some sort of wrapping paper (consistent with
affidavit excerpt of crew chief Porter, above). It was also noted that in the two
photos of Ramey he had a piece of paper in his hand. In one, it was folded over
so nothing could be seen. In the second, however, there appears to be text printed
on the paper. In an attempt to read this text to determine if it could shed any
further light on locating documents relating to this matter, the photo was sent to
a national-level organization for digitizing and subsequent photo interpretation
and analysis. This organization was also asked to scrutinize the digitized photos
for any indication of the flowered tape (or "hieroglyphics," depending on the
29

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About this file

FOIA release, from the osd collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 31 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.