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The Roswell Report: Case Closed

US Air Force · 1997 · 234 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

  • p. 116 …hospital, even though Project ExcELSIOR was unclassified, Kittinger sought to limit disclosure of negative information and…
Fig. 16. In 1958 while training
for the upcoming U.S.
Air Force Aero Medical
Laboratory high altitude
MAN HIGH III balloon flight,
balloon designer Otto C.
Winzen (right) and space
physiologist Capt. Grover
Schock (left), were seriously
injured in a balloon accident
near Ashland, Wise.
Additionally, two training
flights at Holloman AFB also
resulted in injuries to pilots.
These injuries prompted Air Force
officials to require close medical
supervision during future training
flights. (photo courtesy ofMike
Smith, Raven Industries)
ExcELSIOR project officer, Kittinger was the pilot and project engineer of
STARGAZER which also utilized high altitude balloons.
By 1959, Kittinger was an integral part of both ExcELSIOR and
STARGAZER and one of only three individuals in the Air Force with high altitude
balloon pilot experience. Due to the hazardous nature of these important
projects, Stapp was concerned that an injury to Kittinger might result in the
cancellation of one or both of them. Therefore, Stapp determined there was a
need for backup pilots. Selected as backup pilots were Captains Dan D. Fulgham
and William C. Kaufman. Both men were rated aircraft pilots, parachutists, and
research and development officers assigned to the Aero Medical Laboratory
at Wright-Patterson AFB.
During the third week of May 1959, a series oflow altitude manned
balloon flights were flown to train Fulgham and Kaufman. 170 These flights were
launched by the Holloman AFB Balloon Branch. To satisfy safety requirements,
the flights were closely monitored by medical personnel at all times. A helicopter
with medical personnel followed the flights during day light hours, a C-131
aircraft followed during hours of darkness, and at all times medical personnel
followed in an ambulance. 171 Balloon recovery and communications technicians
also followed the missions on the ground in a communications vehicle and a
balloon recovery vehicle. 172 The safety requirements were a result of several
recent balloon mishaps that resulted in serious injuries to the pilots.
To meet the training schedule, Kittinger, Kaufman and Fulgham were
assigned temporary duty (TDY) from the Aero Medical Laboratory at Wright-
PattersonAFB to the Balloon Branch at HollomanAFB, N.M.
105

Cases discussed

About this file

Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 234 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.