Documents / Report

Report of Air Force Research Regarding the Roswell Incident

NSA (declassified documents) · 1994-07 · 22 pages · text from the file's own layer

This July 1994 report from the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (SAF/AAZ) was prepared in response to a General Accounting Office audit that Congressman Steven Schiff requested about the 1947 Roswell Incident. The report describes Air Force searches of records and interviews with people involved, including Sheridan Cavitt. It found no records of a cover-up, alien bodies or extraterrestrial materials. It concludes that the debris found near Roswell most likely came from a Project Mogul balloon that was never recovered.

  • p. 5 …Similarly, two authors, William L. Moore and Charles Berlitz, also engaged in research which led them…
  • p. 7 …The Roswell Incident, (1980) by William Moore and Charles Berlitz; "Crashed Saucers: Evidence in Search of…
illegality of keeping such information from the most
senior Air Force, officials, it would also be illogical,
since these officials are responsible for obtaining
funding for operations, research, development, and
security. Without funding such a program, operation, or
organization could not exist. Even to keep such a fact
"cover-up" in some sort of passive "caretaker status"
would involve money. More importantly, it would involve
people and create paperwork.
The aforementioned March 1, 1994, SAF/AA tasking
generated negative responses (Atch 6-12) from all
recipients; i.e. all offices reported that they had no
information that would explain the incident.
Consequently, these negative responses led to an
increase in the already on-going historical research at
records centers and archives.
The extensive archival and records center search was
systematically carried out at by the SAF/AAZD
Declassification Review Team. This team is composed
entirely of Air Force Reserve personnel who have
extensive training and experience in large scale review
of records. (Previous efforts include the Southeast Asia
Declassification Review, declassification of POW/MIA
records, and the review of the Gulf War Air Power Survey
records) . The team members all had the requisite
security clearances for classified information and had
the authority of the Secretary of the Air Force to
declassify any classified record they found that might
be related to Roswell. SAF/AAZD conducted reviews at a
number of locations, including: the National Archives in
Washington, DC; the National Personnel Records Center,
st. Louis, MO; the National Archives, Suitland, MD, the
National Records Center, Suitland, MD; Naval Research
Laboratory, Washington, DC; Federal Records Center, Ft
worth, TX; the INSCOM Archives, Ft. Meade, MD; National
Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC; Air Force
Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB, AL; Center for
Air Force History, Bolling AFB, DC; Phillips Laboratory,
Hanscom AFB, MA, and Kirtland AFB, NM; Rome Laboratory,
Griffiss AFB, NY; and the Library of Congress,
Washington, DC.
A listing of the specific record areas searched is
appended as Atch 13. The areas included all those
subject areas logically believed to possibly contain any
reference to activities at Roswell AAF during the period
of time in question. It is anticipated that detractors
from this effort will complain that •they did not search
record group x , boxy, or reel z, etc.; that's where
the real records are!" Such complaints are unavoidable
and there is no possible way that the millions of
records under Air Force control could be searched page
by page. The team endeavored to make logical searches in
those places where records would likely be found. They
were assisted in this task by archivists, historians,
and records management specialists, including
experienced persons who have continually worked in Army
and Air Force records systems since.1943. The team also
searched some record areas that were reconunended by
serious private researchers such as Robert Todd, who had
independently obtained almost encyclopedic knowledge of
the complexities of Air Force records systems,
particularly as related to this subject area.

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Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 22 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.