Documents / FOIA release

roswell

Office of the Secretary of Defense · 993 pages · text from the file's own layer

The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert was published in 1995 by Headquarters United States Air Force. It was written in response to Representative Steven H. Schiff's request and a General Accounting Office audit, and it contains Col. Richard L. Weaver's report and 1st Lt. James McAndrew's synopsis, along with attachments, appendices and photographs. The report says researchers found no evidence of an extraterrestrial craft or crew. It concludes that the 1947 debris came from a Project MOGUL balloon train.

  • p. 19 …However, too much activity was going on for the project to remain completely hidden. A MOGUL…
  • p. 73 …of the physicians who participated in this project. I must respect his confidentially and anonymity. He…
  • p. 278 …Not from the people in the project, not disclosure by them, but simply the obvious activity…
PROFESSOR MOORE - 6/8/94 39
A: On the afternoon of the 8th. It may have been
published on the 9th, but ••.
Q: You're right. Evening of the 8th. Examination by the
Army revealed last night, a high altitude weather balloon.
General Ramey, Commander, 8th Air Forces, cleared up the mystery.
A: In these pictures here, don't show these flaps. This,
I think, is my step ladder that I used to reach high targets,
when we have these big balloon trains going way up in the air.
Here again, is an unorthodox use of radar targets. We did that,
and as far as I know, other people didn't.
Q: Did you ever use radar targets with the polyethylene
balloons?
A: Yes, sir. In fact somewhere I have a picture where we
flew a missile, we launched a missile for O&R Special Devices
Center in 1949. I have a picture showing the targets up and down
the balloon train there.
Q: Do you remember trying to pin down some of these
flights that could possibly cause this misunderstanding? You
talk about putting a target with the neoprene balloons, but at
that time you also launched them with the polyethylene?
A: This picture I showed you right here. This is a
polyethylene balloon.
Q: So you used a visual by the aircraft to watch the
balloon? It would circle underneath.
A: The aircraft circling underneath were really to pick up
the microphone signals. That was part of the Watson Lab
operation. our operation, we depended on radiosons and where we
could get radar tracking for tracking air balloons. But the
aircraft operation here was entirely to support Project Mogul.
We didn't consider ourselves Mogul because I didn't even know the
name.
Q: The summary of flights ..•
A: That's one of the flights with the mixed
interpretations because of the radiosondes.
Q: In one column it says "tracking percent." Then
sometimes it will say by aircraft.
A: That's true.
Q: So "aircraft observation", was that a visual
observation or an electronic?

Cases discussed

About this file

FOIA release, from the osd collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 993 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.