Documents / Report
The Roswell Report: Case Closed is a 1997 US Air Force report written by Captain James McAndrew, with a foreword by Secretary of the Air Force Sheila E. Widnall. It follows up the 1994 report, which found that the 1947 debris came from the balloon project MoGUL. It concludes that the reported alien bodies were probably anthropomorphic test dummies dropped from high altitude balloons. It attributes the hospital body claims to a 1956 KC-97 crash and a 1959 manned balloon mishap.
“Gray”11 pages
balloon flights, none with characteristics similar to the testimony. However, detailed examinations of the records revealed that, in addition to the six high altitude balloon flights, there were also numerous low altitude balloon flights made to train and qualify the high altitude balloon pilots. 164 Records of the training flights indicated that some of these were conducted at Holloman AFB, N.M., and several mishaps occurred resulting in injuries to the pilots. 165 Further research revealed that one accident had taken place just northwest of Roswell. 166 The accident occurred on May 21, 1959, 10 miles northwest of Walker AFB, on a pilot training mission for the upcoming Project ExcELSIOR and STARGAZER flights scheduled to begin that fall. Analysis of the accident revealed actual events that closely resembled the remaining portions of the established profile. ==================~~eF================= U.S. Air Force Manned High Altitude Balloon Projects In addition to unmanned high altitude balloon research flights, from 1957 to 1962 the U.S. Air Force conducted a series of seven manned high altitude flights. These forward-looking projects investigated the upper reaches of the earth's atmosphere and laid the foundation for manned spacefight. Most flights were conducted before rocket booster technology was available to propel a spacecraft into earth's orbit. In this interim period, to "bridge the gap" while awaiting developments in rocket technology, high altitude balloons were the only vehicles capable of reaching the altitudes required. All three of the USAF manned high altitude balloon projects, MAN HIGH, ExcELSIOR, and STARGAZER utilized Holloman AFB balloons to transport men to the very edge of space, above approximately 99 per cent of the earth's atmosphere, a region known as "near space." Project MAN HIGH. In 1955, a combined effort by the U.S. Air Force Aeromedical Field Laboratory, Winzen Research International, and the Holloman Balloon Branch resulted in the first Air Force manned balloon program. Project MAN HIGH, officially known as the Biodynamics of Space Flight, directed by Lt. Col. David Simons (MC), was the first of the three 102 Fig. 11. (Left) Test pilot Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr. just before launch of MAN HIGH I at New Brighton, Minn. on June 2, 1957. Kittinger flew in all three USAF high altitude balloon projects and has accumulated more high altitude balloon flying hours than anyone else in the world. (U.S. Air Force photo) Fig. 12. (Center) Lt.Col. David G. Simons (MC), a physician and pilot of the MAN HIGH II high altitude balloon mission, is shown here boarding the recovery helicopter near Frederick, S.D. following the successful flight on August ·19, 1957. This flight lasted 33 hours and 10 minutes attaining a peak altitude of 101,500 feet. (U.S. Air Force photo) Fig. 13. (Right) Holloman AFB Balloon Branch Meteorologist and Engineer, Bernard D. Gildenberg, instructs high altitude balloon pilot 1st Lt. Clifton McClure, pilot of MAN HIGH III, in the operation of a low altitude training balloon on May 12, 1959 at Holloman AFB, N.M. (U.S. Air Force photo)
Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 234 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.