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. 29 …Since 1978-1980, other UFO researchers, most notably Donald Schmitt and Kevin Randle, claim to have…
  • p. 31 …Randle and Donald Schmitt; The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell (1994), also by Randle…
  • p. 159 …I have reviewed the pictures in the 1991 Book by Randle and Schmitt on the UFO…
  • p. 168 …It had been alleged in a number ofbooks, including the one by Randle and Schmitt, that…
  • p. 170 …I went through and pulled out wherever, in this book UFO Crash at Roswell by Randle…
  • p. 171 …From the very start, when these clowns started hounding me, Randle and Schmitt, I told they…
  • p. 176 …He makes a number of claims that, at least Randle and Schmitt; and when I say…
  • p. 178 …risk injury to civiliaDs on the ground. Randle asked if he remembered my talk at aD…
  • p. 190 …Well, of course, Randle and Schmitt do claim that those people are out there and that…
  • p. 191 …Well, I got a perfect example of this with Randle and Schmitt. Randle is the outgoing…
  • p. 205 …On review of the photos in the Randle/Schmitt book, the material looks like one of…
designs on it."41 Furthermore, the Fort Worth Army Airfield Weather Officer,
Irving Newton, who was called in to identify the wreckage, also remembers the
purple/pink marks. Newton stated that when he was called to General Ramey's
office he remembers meeting Marcel, who attempted to convince him that the
wreckage on the floor of the office was a crashed "flying disc." Newton, having
seen many weather balloons and targets, positively identified the debris as a
weather device.42 In short, descriptions of the wreckage found on the ranch near
Corona and of the wreckage displayed in General Ramey's office are entirely
consistent with each other. ·
THE REAL COVER STORY
On July 10, 1947, a newspaper article appeared in the Alamogordo Daily News
displaying for the press the devices, neoprene balloons, and comer reflectors
which had been misidentified as the "flying disc" two days earlier at Roswell
AAF (Atch 11). The photographs and accompanying article quoted Maj Wilbur
D. Pritchard, a Watson Laboratory Project Officer (not assigned to MOGUL)
stationed at Alamogordo AAF. This article appeared to have been an attempt to
deflect attention from the Top Secret MOGUL project by publicly displaying a
portion of the equipment and offering misleading information. If there was a
"cover story" involved in this incident, it is this article, not the actions or
statements of Ramey.
The article in the Alamogordo Daily News stated that the balloons and radar targets
had been used for the ·la!)t fifteen months for the training of long-range radar
personnel and the gathering of meteorological data. The article lists four offi-
cers-Maj W.D. Pritchard, Lieut S.W. Seigel, Capt L.H. Dyvad, and Maj C.W.
Mangum-as being involved with the balloon project, which was false. Moore
and Trakowski could not recall any of the officers in the photograph, with the
exception of Dyvad, whom Moore identified as a pilot who coordinated radar
activities.43 Additionally, some of the details discussed (balloon sighting in
Colorado, tracking by B-17s, recovery of equipment, launching balloons at 5-6
AM, and balloon altitudes of 30,000-40,000 feet) relate directly to the NYU balloon
project, indicating that the four officers had detailed knowledge of MOGUL.44
Moore's unorthodox technique of employing several balloons and several radar
targets was shown in one of the photographs. Other techniques unique to Moore,
41. Trakowski intvw, Jun 29, 1994.
42. Newton intvw, Jul21, 1994.
43. Moore intvw, Jun 8, 1994.
44. NYU, Technical Report No. 1, Table VII.

Cases discussed

About this file

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.