Documents / Report

The Roswell Report: Case Closed

Internet Archive · 232 pages · text by OCR

The Roswell Report: Case Closed was published by Headquarters United States Air Force and written by Captain James McAndrew, with a foreword by Secretary of the Air Force Sheila E. Widnall. It follows the 1994 Air Force report, which tied the 1947 debris to Project MOGUL balloons. This volume concludes that the reported alien bodies were most likely anthropomorphic dummies dropped from high altitude balloons. It attributes the hospital body claims to a 1956 KC-97 crash and a 1959 manned balloon mishap.

  • p. 21 …When former Air Force scientists responded to advise the authors that Air Force projects were most…
  • p. 36 …one of our project's two doctors, from ground control at Holloman Air Force Base: "Three…
  • p. 44 …dummy drop from a balloon at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. 2. The drop was…
  • p. 48 …length motion picture based on Air Force aero medical projects conducted at Holloman AFB, N.M…
  • p. 51 …Air Force Missile Development Center Holloman Air Force Base, N. Mex. 1947-1958, a suspected Holloman…
  • p. 56 …New Mexico by the Holloman Balloon Branch. Today, the Air Force maintains a reduced but still…
  • p. 57 balloon launch facility at Holloman AFB, U.S. Air Force balloon crews have recently launched balloons…
  • p. 124 …Also, based on his experience with project STARGAZER, Hynek was familiar with balloon operations at Holloman…
  • p. 126 …Army Air Forces secretly shipped the alien bodies with large heads to Wright-Patterson AFB for…
  • p. 154 …Development at the Air Force Missile Development Center Holloman Air Force Base, N. Mex. 1947-1958…
  • p. 166 …Air Force in 1957 as a flight surgeon and was assigned to Walker AFB, NM, in…
  • p. 168 …Air Force in 1952 as an aviation cadet. I flew F-84s on 100 combat missions…
  • p. 170 …Following graduation I was hired by the Air Force at Holloman AFB and worked continuously as…
  • p. 174 …the old hangers of the former Air Force base. This project was not classified and was…
  • p. 178 …Air Force in 1949 as an Aviation Cadet. From 1950 to 1953 I flew fighters in…
  • p. 180 …I was also involved in the joint Air Force, Navy, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology astronomical…
# Conclusion

When critically examined, the claims that the U.S. Army Air Forces recovered a flying saucer and alien crew in 1947, were found to be a compilation of many verifiable events. For the most part, the descriptions collected by UFO theorists were of actual operations and tests carried out by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s. Despite the usual unsavory accusations by UFO proponents of cover-up, conspiracy, intimidation, etc., documented research revealed that many of the activities were actually historic scientific achievements of which the Air Force is very proud. However, other descriptions are believed to be distorted references to Air Force members who were killed or injured in the line of duty. The incomplete and inaccurate intermingling of these actual events were grounded in just enough fact to weave a sensational story, but cannot withstand close scrutiny when compared to official records.

To analyze reports of alien bodies that at first appeared to be so offbeat as to not be remotely based in fact, it was necessary to evaluate a wide range of books, interviews, videos, etc., that a less objective review might have rejected out of hand. Only through an inclusive evaluation of these sources were Air Force researchers able to understand the interconnectivity of the widely separated events believed responsible for this "incident." And, in opposition to critics who believe Air Force research involving this subject is anything but objective, this research relied almost exclusively on the descriptions provided by the UFO proponents themselves. When collected and examined, the actual statements of the witnesses—not the extraterrestrial interpretations of UFO proponents—indicated that something was very wrong. When these descriptions were compared to documented Air Force activities, they were much too similar to be a coincidence. Soon, it became apparent that the witnesses or the UFO proponents who liberally interpreted their statements were either 1) confused, or 2) attempting to perpetrate a hoax, believing that no serious efforts would ever be taken to verify their stories.

In preparing this report, attempts were made not to only explain what conclusions were reached, but how they were reached. This undertaking was to try to de-mystify the research process by outlining the simple and logical research techniques that identified the underlying actual events. In regard to statements of witnesses that were clearly descriptions of Air Force activities, such as those that described anthropomorphic dummies, these could be generously viewed as situational misunderstandings or even honest mistakes.

Cited by

Cases discussed

About this file

Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 232 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.