Report of Air Force Research Regarding the Roswell Incident

anything special (only the purpose was.special) and the
recovered debris itself was unclassified. Additionally,
the press dropped its interest in the matter as quickly
as they had jumped on it. Hence, there would be no
particular reason to further document what quickly
became a "non-event."
The interview with Colonel Trakowski (Atch 23-24) also
proved valuable information. Trakowski provided specific
details on Project Mogul and described how the security
for the program was set up, as he was formerly the TOP
SECRET Control Officer for the program. He further
related that many of the original radar targets that
were produced around the end of World War II were
fabricated by toy or novelty companies using a
purplish-pink tape with flower and heart symbols on it.
Trakowski also recounted a conversation that he had with
his friend, and superior military officer in his chain
of command, Colonel Marcellus Duffy, in July, 1947.
Duffy, formerly had Trakowski's position on Mogul, but
had subsequently been transferred to Wright Field. He
stated: ." .• Colonel Duffy called me on the telephone
from Wright Field and gave me a story about a fellow
that had come in from New Mexico, woke him up in the
middle of the night or some such thing with a handful of
debris, and wanted him, Colonel Duffy, to identify it •
... He just said 'it sure looks like some of the stuff
you've been launching at Alamogordo and he described it,
and I said •yes, I think it is.' Certainly Colonel Duffy
knew enough about radar targets, radiosondes,
balloon-borne weather devices. He was intimately
familiar with all that apparatus."
Attempts were made to locate Colonel Duffy but it was
ascertained that he had died. I-Es widow explained that,
although he had amassed a large amount of personal
papers relating to his Air Force activities, she had
recently disposed of these items. Likewise, it was
learned that A.P. Crary was also deceased1 however his
surviving spouse had a number of his papers from his
balloon testing days, including his professional journal
from the period in question. She provided the Air Force
researchers with this material. It is discussed in more
detail within Atch 32. overall, it helps fill in gaps of
the Mogul story.
During the period the Air Force conducted this research,
it was discovered that several others had also
discovered the possibility that the "Roswell Incident"
may have been generated by the recovery of a Project
Mogul balloon device. These persons included Professor
Charles B. Moore, Robert Todd, and coincidentally, Karl
Pflock, a researcher who is married to a staffer who
works for Congressman Schiff. Some of these persons
provided suggestions as to where documentation might be
located in various archives, histories and libraries. A
review of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests
revealed that Robert Todd, particularly, had become
aware of Project Mogul several years ago and had
doggedly obtained from the Air Force, through the FOIA,
a large amount of material pertaining to it; long before
the AAZD researchers independently seized on the same
possibility.
Most interestingly, as this report was being written,
Pflock published his own report of this matter under the