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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. 17 …of alien beings and elusive vehicles which never quite seem to manifest themselves. Regardless of one…
  • p. 31 …Conversely, there has never been any previous documentary evidence produced by those who would debunk the…
  • p. 32 …This had never been officially done before, although most of the persons contacted reported that they…
  • p. 40 …Lt Col Cavitt also stated that he had never taken any oath or signed any agreement…
  • p. 77 …Because this conclusion is based on the absence of documentation, the issue can never be definitively…
  • p. 99 …H written, there is good evidence through accessioning and microfilming records that the Agency never received…
  • p. 101 …histories and supporting documents, and it has never routinely received the kind of records which might…
  • p. 159 …I have never been sworn to any form of secrecy by anyone concerning this matter and…
  • p. 165 …It never crossed my mind that it could be anything but a radio sonde. RW: How…
  • p. 168 …as far as I knew, I never heard anyone say, "Don't talk about this and…
  • p. 169 …I never met LaPaz personally, but I knew what he was. RW: Did Rickett go with…
  • p. 170 …I forget since I was there in the Washington area for awhile but I never did…
  • p. 172 …To the best of my recollection, I never met the rancher, Brazel. RW: O.K., because…
  • p. 173 …rve never seen a Geiger counter myseU: but I didn't know if you knew what…
  • p. 174 …ordered Marcel to accompany the rancher back to Corona, •· You said you never saw... and then…
  • p. 175 …I never had any idea that it was anything with the V-2. They told us…
  • p. 177 …You and I never saw this. You don't see any military people or military vehicles…
  • p. 178 …said in a facetious way: "Lets make out like it never existed, because we're wasting…
  • p. 179 …to him the crash and recovery had never happened. There was no investigation on the Foster…
  • p. 182 …No, I never saw this. SC: I don't know what that is from. RW: "But…
  • p. 183 …So, some of there records were TS and still are.) That is because they have never…
  • p. 185 …Cav never told me anything. He said nl never tell you anything then you won't…
  • p. 189 …I am quite sure that we never gave it a thought until that book.
  • p. 190 …Now, we have never found the ftight records to substantiate that, so I don't know…
  • p. 202 …related to this inquicy and I have never been threatened by US Government persons concerning not…
  • p. 207 …related to this inquiry and I have never been threatened by US Government persons concerning refraining…
  • p. 213 …We never considered a ..planneq cover story; we were concerned with security. I was the project…
  • p. 214 …I never obsCJVed any of the balloon "trains" but I did see some of the early…
  • p. 225 …and subsequent models were brand new, had never flown anything like that in this area. A…
  • p. 228 …I'd never heard the name Mogul -- the classification was that high. I knew what we…
  • p. 240 …I just wanted to see if there had been anything stated to you never to discuss…
  • p. 242 …but I never knew Marcel. in my mind, and there are Yeah, I knew that guy…
  • p. 243 …I've never seen a Japanese balloon that I know of, I've never seen the…
  • p. 246 …No, I've never seen this. Trakowski argued that even the name Mogul was classified, and…
  • p. 249 …Out PM with several NYU men by weapons carrier, but we never located it. Rocket postponed…
  • p. 264 …As far as I know we just never interfaced with the military. Q: Where were you…
  • p. 266 …We never saw anybody in security. There was certainly nobody keeping us secure. If anything, we…
  • p. 273 …who was writing a story, and I never quite could determine whether he was on the…
  • p. 274 …I have never seen such a document nor have I ever heard of any effort to…
  • p. 277 …radar reflectors for tracking purposes-but it never comes out talking about MOGUL and the instrumentation…
  • p. 278 …I never met Richard Robert Crane. I knew him only by the path of debris he…
  • p. 282 …They never said it, but I know they did because they left me free to do…
  • p. 318 …Before now, however, a larger portion of the story was never told. Recent research indicates that…
  • p. 320 …and Project MOGUL as first conceived was never put into operational 1use. However, MOGUL did serve…
  • p. 321 …Moore, NYU Constant-Level Balloon Project Engineer, stated that they were never informed of the classified…
  • p. 567 …and this flight 11as never recovered. Pre- sumably the marked easterly flow then observed above 60…
  • p. 591 …ficienoy since on-ot.f' operation was never per- mitted. The temperature data of' these flights…
  • p. 740 …The theodolite lost the balloon in clouds earlier and the airplane observer never succeeded in seeing…
  • p. 815 …Out pm with several NYU by weapon carrier but we never located it. Rocket postponed until…
weather officer, Warrant Officer Irving Newton, to make an identification.
Newton positively identified the debris as the remnants of a balloon and RAWIN
target. 37 With this identification, the incident officially closed.
THE "COVER STORY"
From research, it appears that the wreckage displayed on July 8 consisted of
unclassified components of a MOGUL balloon assembly. Possibly withheld, if it
was indeed recovered, was the AN/CRT-1 Sonabuoy, which could have compro-
mised Project MOGUL. Although the Sonabuoy was not itself classified, its
association with a balloon would have exposed a specific military purpose, an
obvious violation of project classification guidelines (Atch 9). A device described
in 11
crashed disc" publications as II a giant thermos jug" was allegedly transported
from Fort Worth AAF to Wright Field. 38 This description is consistent with the
appearance of an AN/CRT-1 Sonabuoy such as was used on flight no. 4 (Atch
4). At some point General Ramey decided to forward the material to Wright Field,
home of AMC, the appropriate agency to identify one of its own research devices
or a device of unknown origin. If the debris was determined to be from an
unknown source, the AMC, T-2, Intelligence or Analysis Division, would conduct
scientific and/ or intelligence analysis in an attempt to discover its origin. But
since the balloons, reflectors, and Sonabuoy were from an AMC research project,
the debris was forwarded to the appropriate division or subdivision, in this case
the Electronics Subdivision of the Engineering Division. There, it was identified
by Colonel Duffy, under whose purview Project MOGUL operated. Colonel Duffy,
a former project officer of MOGUL with specific directions to "continue to monitor
upper air programs," was the appropriate headquarters officer to make an
identification, which he apparently did. According to Captain (now Colonel)
Trakowski, the officer who succeeded Colonel Duffy as project officer on MOGUL,
after returning from the Alamogordo II field trip, Colonel Duffy contacted him
by phone at Watson Laboratories and informed him that the "stuff you've been
launching at Alamogordo," had been sent to him for identification. He described
the debris to Captain Trakowski, and Trakowski agreed that it was part of his
project (MOGUL). 39
Another occurrence sometimes said to "prove" that General Ramey was part of
a cover story is that portions of the debris were flown to Andrews AAF, MD.
Andrews would have been a probable location to send the debris since it had
components of weather observation equipment. Andrews AAF was headquarters
of the Army Air Forces Weather Service. It is also interesting to note that the
commanding general of the Weather Service, Brig Gen Donald N. Yates, was
quoted in wire service newspaper articles on July 9, providing his opinion of the
37. Rawin is short for radar wind, a technique in which a single comer reflector is towed aloft
by a single neoprene balloon to measure wind speed by radar.
38. Kevin Randall and Donald Schmitt, UFO Crash at Roswell (New York, 1991), p. 103.
39. Intvw, Col Jeffrey Butler and 1st Lt James McAndrew with Col Albert C. Trakowski, USAF
(Ret), Jun 29, 1994, p. 4.

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