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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. 53 …86 The Drs covERER program had been plagued by failure with 10 unsuccessful missions in 1959…
  • p. 102 …121 A KC-97G aircraft with 11 crewmen on board, while on a refueling training mission…
  • p. 113 The three pilots, Kittinger, Kaufman and Fulgham, flew training missions together. Kaufman and Fulgham alternately flew…
  • p. 129 …Nenninger who died of injuries received in an aircraft crash during a balloon recovery mission on…
  • p. 171 …depending on the mission, a crane, weapons carriers, communications van, and occasionally tanker tmcks to refuel…
  • p. 173 …I recall an overnight balloon training mission that was conducted in .!\1ay, 1959. Capl Joe Kittinger…
  • p. 223 …Gildenberg, Bernard G. "General Philosophy and Techniques of Balloon Control", in Lewis A. Grass, ed., Proceedings…
Fig. 79. "Stretching stuff out
on the ground, dragging stuff
out of trucks"-a likely witness
reference to high altitude
balloon inflation procedure
that required the balloon to be
stretched out on a protective
ground cloth prior to inflation.
(U.S. Air Force photo)
balloon flights. 152 This testimony also described aircraft that were typically
overhead during a recovery and an established procedure of landing on a rural
road or in a field to reach isolated balloon launch or recovery locations. 153
Military Vehicles. Numerous military vehicles, several of which were
described by other witnesses as having been at the other crash site north of Roswell,
were also described. Witnesses at the two different sites described a "wrecker'' and a
"six-by-six;' both of the type used for anthropomorphic dummy recoveries. 154 The
account also described two vehicles unique to the Balloon Branch that were used for
the majority of high altitude balloon recoveries during the mid-to late-1950s.
The witness described a 'jeep-like truck that had a bunch of radios
in it" ... There was a guy sittin' in there wearin' earphones and he was talking on
the radio." 155 This is a likely description of a Dodge M-37 3/4-ton utility truck,
known as a weapons carrier, that had been specially modified to carry radio
equipment for balloon recovery operations. The Holloman AFB Balloon Branch
modified these vehicles in 1953, ruling out the possibility that the witness
observed them in 1947, when such vehicles were not available to organizations
performing balloon operations. 156 The other vehicle described and used by the
Balloon Branch were "military arnbulances." 157 During the mid-1950s, the
Balloon Branch modified three M-43 3/4-ton ambulances for use as balloon
recovery and communications vehicles. 158 These vehicles were used for
anthropomorphic dummy launch and recovery missions to relay messages to
circling recovery aircraft and the balloon operations center at Holloman AFB. 159
The witness also described "a trailer with a motor on it, like a generator."160 This
is a likely description of a 1 1/2-ton cargo trailer with an MB-19 15 Kilowatt
diesel generator. These generators were used primarily on balloon launch sites
during the 1950s and 1960s (see fig. 71).
Balloon Branch Procedures. Descriptions of military personnel
"stretching stuff out on the ground, dragging stuff out of trucks" 161 is a
likely description of a balloon launch procedure that required the fragile
65

Cases discussed

About this file

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.