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…
not leave any creases. This material looks like it would almost be like aluminum foil, would crease and remain creased.

A: It does have this paper laminate, and the paper, I think, was maybe a bit tougher on the earlier thing. But I have no explanation for the fact that it couldn't be bent with a sledge hammer, as one of the people said, and couldn't be...

## Q: Burned?

A: I think some of the balsa wood was dipped in something like Elmer's glue, and as a result had some sort of a glue coating on it which would make it somewhat resistant to burning.

Q: I know in Colonel Weaver's discussions with Sheridan Cavitt, they talked about the aspect of burning. He did not recall burning anything, but then his wife indicated that there had been one night they'd been out and had a barbecue and had a few beers and that Jesse Marcel just took a piece and stuck it in the barbecue and then pulled it back out. So if that's what they're using to say it wouldn't burn, that's what we consider typically testing a material for burning or not.

A: I need to say here, you need to qualify everything I say with the memory of almost 50 years ago. I will say things that are to the best of my memory, but on the other hand, should other evidence indicate my memory is faulty, I readily accept that. So I'll state things to the best of my memory, but...

I have a memory that there was something like Elmer's glue... There was a problem in attaching this to the paper behind.

Q: Going back to the reinforcing tape and things, there were discussions concerning unusual symbols and almost like hieroglyphics -- purple, pinkish in nature, that sort of thing.

A: I don't know if I sent Colonel Weaver a copy of the sketch.

Q: No, we did not see that.

A: Robert Todd, who has been a person very interested in trying to get to the truth of this, asked me to make a sketch of what I remember. A couple of years ago, or a year or so ago, I made this sketch, and this is my memory of what was there.

I do remember every time I prepared one of these targets for flight, I always wondered why these figures were on the tape. There was always a question of why they were there. When this purplish-pink marking on the debris came up, I immediately remembered this sort of marking. Other people, I have a letter here from one of my technicians, who says oddly he remembers the same marking. You, perhaps, have talked to Albert Trakowski...

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.