The Roswell Report: Case Closed

Summary
When the claims offered by UFO theorists to prove that an
extraterrestrial spaceship and crew crashed and were recovered by the U.S.
Air Force are compared to documented Air Force activities, it is reasonable
to conclude, with a high degree of certainty, that the two “crashes” were
actually descriptions of a launch or recovery of a high altitude balloon and
anthropomorphic dummies. This conclusion was based on the remarkable
similarities and independent corroboration between the witnesses who
described both of the “crash sites.” Statements such as “they was using
dummies in those damned things” and a characterization of the crashed
vehicle as, “I thought it was a blimp” are two of the many similarities. The
extensive detailed descriptions provided by the witnesses, too numerous to
be coincidental, were of the equipment, vehicles, procedures, and personnel
of the Air Force research organizations who conducted the scientific
experiments HIGHDIVE and EXCELSIOR.
Though it is clear anthropomorphic dummies were responsible
for these accounts, the specific locations of the events described was
difficult, if not impossible, to determine since the witnesses were not
specific. A witness to the “crash site” north of Roswell, Mr. James Ragsdale,
was not certain of the actual location as evidenced by a change in his sworn
testimony that moved the site many miles from its original location.‘hs
However, since Ragsdale reportedly lived or worked in the
Roswell, Artesia, and Carlsbad, N.M. areasduring the period when the
dummies were used, it is likely he described one or more of the nine
documented dummy recoveries in areas near there.
Reports of the other crash site, allegedly 175 miles northwest of
Roswell on the San Agustin Plains, is likely based on descriptions of more than
one launch and recovery of anthropomorphic dummies. Since one witness,
Gerald Anderson, described proceduresconsistent with the launch cznd
recovery of high altitude balloons, it is likely that he witnessed both of these
activities, with at least one that included an anthropomorphic dummy payload.
The two secondhand witnesses to this “crash,” Vern Maltais and
Alice Knight, could have related descriptions from any of the dummy launch
or landing sites. However, Maltais and Knight repeatedly described the
impact location of the flying saucer as on the San Agustin Plains. One
possible explanation is that the witnesses, in the 30 or more years since they
were told the story by the original eyewitness, Mr. Barney Barnett, a soil
conservation engineer who reportedly traveled extensively throughout New
Mexico, may have confused San Agustin Plains with San Agustin Pass or
San Agustin Peak, an area in the San Agustin Mountains of New Mexico.
These areas are just outside the boundary of the White Sands Missile Range
and the adjacent Jornada Test Range. Numerous anthropomorphic dummy
balloon flights terminated and were recovered in this area. Furthermore, if
the civilians witnessed dummy landings on either the White Sands Missile
Range or the Jornada Test Range, both test areas and restricted U.S.
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