The Roswell Report: Case Closed

# STATEMENT OF WITNESS

Place :

Date: 28 May 95

I, Bernard D. Gildenberg, GS-14, (Ret), hereby state that James McAndrew was identified as a Lieutenant, USAFR on this date at my home and do hereby, voluntarily and of my own free will, make the following statement. This was done without having been subjected to any coercion, unlawful influence or unlawful inducement.

I became involved in high altitude balloon development while an undergraduate student at New York University (NYU). Following graduation I was hired by the Air Force at Holloman AFB and worked continuously as both a meteorologist and aerospace engineer at the Balloon Branch from 1951 until my retirement in 1981. My job responsibilities were to forecast the weather and fly by remote control, high altitude balloons for many different scientific projects. During this time, I became internationally recognized as an authority on high altitude balloon trajectory forecasting. I have published numerous technical reports and articles.

The first project in which I was involved, while still an undergraduate student at NYU, was the acoustical detection of nuclear explosions. The name of the project, Mogul, was classified and I didn't know this name until several years ago. Based on my experience with this project I am certain project Mogul was responsible for some portions of what has become to be known as the "Roswell Incident".

Following project Mogul I was involved in perfecting high altitude balloon technology and made many test flights with large polyethylene balloons from Holloman AFB. I worked extensively on atmospheric sampling projects and biological flights in which the balloons lifted small animals to altitude for cosmic ray experiments. I also worked on the Moby Dick Project that collected meteorological data and the classified Gopher (119L) reconnaissance project.

I was relied upon to forecast the weather, conduct climatological studies, predict balloon trajectories, and to hit with precision, ground targets both on and off the White Sands Missile Range. Balloon trajectories in New Mexico below the tropopause, are predominantly towards the east-northeast, when launched from Holloman AFB with the exception of July and August when balloons remained over the Holloman area. At high altitude, above the tropopause, trajectories are generally westerly during the summer and easterly during the spring, fall, and winter. As a result these winds, the Holloman balloon branch recovered many, probably hundreds, of balloons and scientific payloads from the Roswell, NM area over the years.

During the time of the year when trajectories were to the east I attempted to drop the equipment near accessible non mountainous areas and paved roads. The main target area was the first large north-south road on the other side of the Sacramento Mountains from Holloman AFB, Highway 285. This road goes north and south through Roswell. The