Documents / Report
The Roswell Report: Case Closed was published by Headquarters United States Air Force and written by Capt. James McAndrew. It follows up the July 1994 report, which traced the 1947 debris to Project MOGUL balloon trains. The report says the reported alien bodies were probably anthropomorphic test dummies dropped from high altitude balloons. It also says the accounts of bodies at the Roswell Army Air Field hospital probably merged two separate events: a 1956 KC-97 crash and a 1959 manned balloon mishap.
“Anderson”21 pages
The three pilots, Kittinger, Kaufman and Fulgham, flew training missions together. Kaufman and Fulgham alternately flew the balloon while Kittinger instructed.The missions were flown at night to tie advantageof light winds and avoid the effects of diurnal heating on the helium (the lifting gas that filled the balloon). Used for these missions were 30.foot diameter polyethylene balloons and an aluminum gondola especially designedfor low altitude training. The first training mission scheduledfor May 19, 1959 was canceled due to equipment problems.‘73Problems overcome, the next day at I :30 a.m. the mission launchedfrom White SandsProving Ground.“” The objective of this flight was to practice gas valving and ballasting techniquesnecessaryfor balloon control and to practice landings. After a five-hour flight, the balloon landed without incident just after sunrise northwest of El Paso, Texas.“’ The second training flight, launched at 2:41 a.m. on May 21, 1959, from behind the Balloon Branch building, Bldg. 850 at Holloman AFB.“’ Near the end of another successful training mission with the same objectives as the previous flight, a mishap occurred resulting in injuries to two of the pilots, Fulgham and Kittinger.“’ Fig. 17. In May 1959, Capt. Dan D. Fulgham (left) and Capt. William C. Kaufman, pilots and Aem Medical Research officers from Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio were assigned temporary duty to Holloman AFB, N.M. to train as high altitude balloon pilots. Fulgham and Kaufman were trained by Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr. (phnm collrcrion of Dan D. Fdghom) The Mishap. Just after sunriseon May 21, 1959,following a successfullow level training flight eastof Holloman AFB over the Sacramento Mountains, Kittinger, the instructor pilot, determined the balloon should be landed in a small field approximately IO miles northwest of Roswell.“’ This was necessarybecauseof approachingbad weather and the field was the last suitable landing site before overflying the city of Roswell.‘7” When the balloon touched down, a higher than normal forward velocity for landing causedthe gondola to
Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 246 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.