The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert

# STATEMENT OF WITNESS

Date: 8 Jun 94

Place: NM

CBM

I, Charles B Moore, hereby state that Jeffrey Butler, was identified as a Colonel, USAF and Jim McAndrew, was identified as a Lieutenant, USAF on this date at my home and do hereby, voluntarily and of my own free will, make the following statement. This is done without having been subjected to any coercion, unlawful influence or unlawful inducement.

## CBM

I was the Project Engineer for the NYU balloon project during the 1947 time frame. I was not aware that the project had the name MOGUL until 1992 when I was contacted by an individual who was working on some research related to the "Roswell Incident" and the relationship to the NYU balloon project. Our only purpose for the NYU group was to develop constant level balloons. In the early flights at Alomorgodo, starting in June, 1947, we used radar targets to track the balloons (not all the balloons had targets). Some of the targets were apparently manufactured by a toy or novelty company. Ed Istvan was the procurement officer and he had contacted some company that extruded toothpaste tubes as well as radar chaff. The early balloons were made of neoprene and manufactured primarily by the Dewey Almy company in Cambridge and the Kaysam company. Dewey balloons were dip type and the Kaysam ones were cast in a mold. The neoprene balloons were susceptible to degradation in sunlight turning from a translucent milky white to a dark brown. Some of the material would almost look like dark gray or black flakes or ashes after exposure to the sun for only a few days. The balloon material and radar target material would be scattered after returning to the earth depending on the surface winds. The balloon material also had a peculiar acrid odor due to plasticizers and anti-oxidants. There is a recollection from another procurement person (Peterson) that he had obtained radar reflectors from a toy manufacturer. I have a specific recollection of reinforcing tape applied to the seams of the reflectors that had some symbols such as arcs, flowers, circles and diamonds. These were pinkish in color. To my knowledge, there were no radar reflectors in New Mexico in 1947 like the ones we used until the NYU group arrived. The Columbia group was primarily involved in developing low frequency microphones for long range detection of explosions. There was intense pressure for these developments, the constant altitude balloons and the microphone gear. I was involved in 1945 in China-Burma-India for the installation and maintaining of weather equipment in the war against Japan. Our subsequent work with the balloons and microphones was highly classified and we didn't know that there was a project name until 1992. Concerning the make up of the balloon trains, we used braided or twisted nylon lines—there were no monofilament lines during the 1947 time frame. Some of the balloons in early June carried radar targets for tracking purposes since we did not have radiosonde receivers with us. Some also carried sonobouys for detecting the pressure waves where we didn't have the Watson Lab microphone gear. All the radiosondes were coverend in white painted cardboard; I don't recall the color of the sonobouys but I believe they were covered in metal. On review of the photos in the Randle/Schmitt book, the material looks like one of our balloon and target assemblies. The wooden beams were made of a balsa wood that had been coated in an Elmers-like glue. The targets had eyelets where the various strings were attached. The 307(B) model was more of an aluminum foil material than the 307(C) model, which was more of an aluminized paper. The targets we used appeared more fragile than the later

BM