The Roswell Report: Case Closed

deploy and impacted the ground in full view of the ladies at Gen. Ra\vling"s home. I acted
quickly to retrieve the dummy and went to the impact site and recovered it by thro\ving it in
the back of a pickup truck and quickly driving a\vay. I .ater that day I received a call from
Col Stapp \\ho informed me that some of the women at the party believed that the dummy
was a human and they were appalled to see the careless nature in vvhich the obviously dead
or injured ""parachutist· was hauled away.
,\t Holloman AFB recoveries of the dummies were handled by the Balloon Branch but
members of my project team. including myself: often assisted. The standard procedure \Vas
to track the dummy both from the ground and air to attempt to recover the dummies in a
timely manner. <Jn the ground we used an assortment of Air Force vehicles to track and
recover not only the dummies but also other scientific balloon payloa(h;. We used trucks.
communications vans, wnverted field ambulances. cranes. and trailers. In the air we used
helicopters, C --1-7s transports. and L-19 and L-20 light observation aircraft. On occasion
chilians vvould observe our recovery operations. \Ve often attracted a crowd due to the odd
appearance of the baUoon payloads and dummies and also the aircraft that circled overhead
or landed on nearby roads. We also used many of the same procedures and equipment to
launch from off range locations. During the recoveries weapons were not earned because
there \Vas no classified information or equipment. I do not recall any altercations of any
kind. At no time did l or any of the personnel makes threats against civilians. We ahvays
attempted to maintain good relations with the local ci\ilians and explained the purpose of
the project to them if they asked. We were directed to remove as much of the material
dropped by the balloon as possible. Sometimes this was dift1cult because the balloon and
payload \Vould break apart and cover a large area. Vle collected the debris in these cases by
··fanning ouC across a t1eld until we had collected even very small portions of the payload
and balloon. \Ve were pat1icularly careful to recover the large plastic balloons because
cattle would ingest the material and the ranchers would ftlc claims against the government.
Additionally, there \Vere reward notices that oilered t\venty f1ve dollars tor the return of the
equipment attached to each of the balloons. I \Vrote a book. The Long. Lone~v l.eLip (E.P.
Dutton & Co., 1961 ). that completely describes Project Excelsior and my participation.
Also as a part of the high altitude balloon projects, I trained balloon pilots in I\ fay 1959 at
the request of Col Stapp. Col Stapp was concerned that I might be injured as a result of
the hazardous nature of the projects and he \Vanted backup pilots to be trained. The backup
pilots. Capt Dan Fulgham and Capt Bill Kaufman were volunteers from the Aero :\ledical
LaboratOI}' and they were sent to Holloman tfom \\'right-Patterson for training on a
temporary duty basis. On our second training flight, Fulgham, Kaufman and I. tle\v an
overnight mission that \Vas launched at Holloman and ended \Vith a crash northwest of
Roswell, ~.M. \Ve were fo11owed on this mission by an aircraft at night, a helicopter
during the day. and a ground crew· in trucks at all times.
I recall that just after sunrise the \\leather had deteriorated and I directed Fulgham to land
the balloon in a small field. This was the last suitable field before we would overtly the
City of Roswell. I remember approaching the tield just over the trees and I recall our
tonvard velocity was about 10-12 knots, a little fast for landing. 'A'hen \VC touched down
Fulgham cut the balloon a\vay and due to the fonvard velocity the gondola flipped over
spilling all three of us on the ground. While lying on the ground I realized that Fulgham
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