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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. 190 …Well, Boford was Navy, that was the Navy... Q: Like taking a Pi Ball reading now…
  • p. 191 …fabricate balloons for us. During that period we heard of the Navy project that was going…
  • p. 207 …But were any of those used as precursors to Mogul or... A: None whatsoever. That was…
  • p. 270 …Ewing had conducted considerable research for the Navy during World War II, studying, among other things…
  • p. 323 …f) Measurements of actual sound channel transmission using a small stratosphere balloon carrying sound receivers and…
  • p. 657 …At the present time this company cannot supply us with balloons until Navy clearance is obtained…
  • p. 693 …for six hours using a non-extensible envelope with the addition of a ballast valve to…
  • p. 704 …Met Gifford who has 90' sea rescue boat this project is planning to use. Stayed at…
  • p. 705 …Wyckoff, Hungerfield, Vaux and myself regarding Navy participation with us in Crossroads. Captain Kellogg of Weather…
  • p. 718 …Schneider up with O'Day to check use as NYU station. Alamoggrdo crew helped get helium…
Q: The early nylon line, would it have degraded, such as the balloon material degraded, and maybe fused in the hot sun?

A: I doubt it. If we had any it would have been white, which would have been a high (inaudible), would not have absorbed a lot of sunlight.

Q: There were discussions about what appeared to be unbraided or unstranded fiber type lines. It's been alluded to that was the precursors to what we use for fiber optics today. The materials that were found. That's why I asked about the monofilament line.

A: A lot of what we used early was a linen cord, not twisted, and it was indeed, a brown, a dull brown color. But because it was designed just for radiosonde balloons, and we rapidly exceeded its strength. So very quickly, and I don't know when, but we very quickly went over to this twisted lobster twine.

To answer your question, there are three flights that are missing here -- two, three, and four. I've identified Flight 4. Flight 4 was a flight we made, and you don't have it there, but Flight 4 we made in Alamagordo something like June 2nd or 3rd of 1947. The reason I have it identified is I have Albert Crary's diary. The scientific end of the group was heavily based from Columbia University. It was Dr. James Peoples who was an employee of Watson Laboratory, and there was an Albert Crary who had been a graduate student under Dr. Ewing.

Q: Who later also was an employee of...

A: Who was then an employee of Watson Laboratory. I have Craary's diary. Here is a translation...

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A: ...Here is the diary starting May 24, '47, and on May 28 he has "B-17 from Watson with Mirs, Hackman, NYU and Alden, they plan to test fly balloons tomorrow. Other gang with recording equipment due to leave Watson Laboratories Saturday. Got everything ready for Hermes Rocket today."

May 29th. "Mirs and Hackman got balloon ascension off at 1:00 p.m. today without plane to follow it. Don and Godby out to Donyo. Bill and I out to E. White Sands to record Hermes."

I've marked the key things here with red, and then I've given you a page without my red if you have any need for that.

June 1st, "C-47 with Moore, Schneider and others from NYU, also Irewin, Minton, Olson, NYU men worked on balloons, north hangar."

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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.