The Roswell Report: Case Closed

security personnel. $ ^{220} $ The security personnel escorted them to the hospital and remained with them until their identities and purpose of their visit were verified. Kaufman, one of the balloon pilots, recalled that their presence at Walker AFB was initially met with skepticism.

"The [helicopter] pilot called the tower and said... having come from an experimental base, it was nothing unusual for him to have a balloon accident. 'We've got an injured pilot on board. There's been a balloon accident and we would like the flight surgeon and an ambulance to meet us at the tower.' The tower established the fact that yes, we were an Air Force chopper and that we seemed to have somebody injured and what had we been doing? We had been shooting touch and go landings in a balloon?...We got clearance to land...right in front of the tower, and we were met by an ambulance and several MPs with machine guns."221

Fig.24. Walker AFB Building 317, hospital dispensary with attached ramp, as it appeared in June 1954. It is in this building that UFO theorists allege that "alien autopsies" were accomplished in July 1947. However, this was the same building that Capt. Fulgham received treatment following the balloon accident on May 21, 1959. Persons apparently observed him and later related the unusual circumstances surrounding the balloon mishap as part of the "Roswell Incident." (U.S. Air Force photo)

Fig. 25. Main gate at Walker AFB, N.M., formerly Roswell AAF, as it appeared in 1954. During the 1950s, the highly secure base was the home of the nuclear capable 509th and 6th Bombardment Wings of Strategic Air Command. (U.S. Air Force photo)