Documents / Report

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

USAF / The Black Vault · 1995 · 882 pages · text by OCR

The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert was published by Headquarters United States Air Force in 1995. The Black Vault distributes this copy. It reproduces the report by Col. Richard L. Weaver and the synopsis by 1st Lt. James McAndrew, both written after a General Accounting Office inquiry requested by Representative Steven Schiff. The Air Force search found no evidence of an extraterrestrial craft or crew. It concluded that the Roswell debris most likely came from NYU Flight No. 4, a Project MOGUL balloon train.

  • p. 193 …overhead and followed the balloons out to sea. I have no idea about the results that…
  • p. 200 …the regular 334 that we had at sea level. From that they could deduce the temperature…
  • p. 243 …actually located on the jurisdictional lines between Sea Girt and Springlake, New Jersey. It was an…
  • p. 244 …The Sea Girt Inn? A: Exactly. That's where John had his office, and I was…
  • p. 320 …alone is about 24,000 miles at sea level, and about 4500 miles at 45,000…
  • p. 325 …twenty-five (25) feet at their largest sea-level diameter. The sonic unit was a combination…
  • p. 378 …per hour when one-fifth inflated at sea level). One other type of balloon which has…
  • p. 402 …Let us, then, compare the rate of leakage at any given altitude with leakage at sea…
  • p. 404 …The leakage at any altitude may be expressed as a function of leakage at sea level…
  • p. 405 Comparing rate of leakage at 40,000 feet with leakage at sea level: $$ \frac {L _ {4…
  • p. 407 …If a 20-foot diameter balloon $ \frac{1}{1 0} $ full were tested at sea level…
  • p. 408 …At sea level this is equivalent to 5.32 gm/hr. for a 20-foot diameter…
  • p. 414 …Using the rules of subsonic aerodynamics, Picard suggests that air at sea level escaping at 1333…
  • p. 415 …air at sea level (lb./ft. $ ^{3} $ ) 14.7 = pressure of air at sea level (psi…
  • p. 432 …to about 20 millibars and increased to sea-level pressure at different temperatures. The most comprehensive…
  • p. 563 …The height above mean sea level as determined from pressure measurements used in this work with…
  • p. 644 …point at which the radiosonde reaches the sea surface. ## 2. Earlier attempts There have been numerous…
  • p. 645 …The balloons floated between the surface and 30,000 ft above sea level; those which reached…
  • p. 704 …Met Gifford who has 90' sea rescue boat this project is planning to use. Stayed at…
  • p. 719 …Worzel working on gravity at sea. Saw Geo Woollard and the Ryders. Woollard after Guggenheim fellowship…
  • p. 779 …the launching site is markedly different from sea level, a shift in this curve is needed…
  • p. 817 …balloon at all times with respect to sea level. On this curve also it is customary…
  • p. 825 …The height above mean sea level as determined from pressure measurements used in this work with…
apparatus and materials for the project, so if he said that it was debris from the project, I'm sure that's what it was. He was not concerned with a breach of security for the project.

Concerning the name Maj Pritchard, he may have worked for me but I don't recall him. I have no knowledge of any counterintelligence. or intelligence persons on the project or associated with my directorate at Watson or Cambridge Labs. When we took over the project, we were aware of the sensitivity of the project--we were aware that we were working in the open--it was a weakness of security because the activity could be observed. I never observed any of the balloon "trains" but I did see some of the early reflectors. Some of the reflectors were procured from sources out of normal channels. Some of the contractors lined up were not quite in concert with typical Signal Corps practices and procedures. Jack Peterson was very energetic and could make procurement actions take place. Ed Itsvan, who I believe actually arranged for production for some of the reflectors, actually went to a toy manufacturer in New York city to get some. It was kind of a standing joke. I remember that some of the prototype and preproduction targets had this pink or purplish tape holding the material to the balsa beam. This tape had flowers and other designs on it. The reflectors were probably made starting in late 1944 but I do not recall how long the production run was. I do not recall any other specific attributes but they were geometrically and structurally simple.

I am not part of any conspiracy to withhold information from either the US government or American public. There is no classified information that I am withholding related to this inquiry and I have never been threatened by US Government persons concerning refraining from talking about this situation.

SIGNED:

Albert C. Thakovich

WITNESS(s):

Subscribed and sworn to before me, a person authorized to administer oaths this

---

28th day of June 1994 at VA

Butter

JEFFREY C BUTLER, COL, USAF

JAMES MCANDREW, 1LT, USAF

Cited by

Cases discussed

About this file

Report, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 882 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.