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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. 704 …Saw Bob Foster 731, also on way to NYC April 8 Mon. Arrived NYC 730 am…
  • p. 705 …I caught 550 train out of Penn Station to Red Bank, NJ April 29 Mon. Up…
  • p. 706 …1130 pm Owl to NYC May 6 Mon. Caught 625 train out of Penn Station to…
  • p. 707 Dec 2 Mon. Cakhurst. Cold wave hit about midnight - temperature down to $ 1 5^{\circ} $ - strong…
  • p. 708 …Dec 23 Mon. Oakhurst. Worked on Alamogordo and Flight 13. Had flight # 14 this pm. - 24…
  • p. 709 …Jan 13 Mon. Oakhurst. Working on sky wave curves. Made plans for Alamogordo this Thursday Jan…
  • p. 710 …Arrived AP about 1230 Feb 3 Mon Oakhurst. Peoples in Washington regarding balloon ascention in June…
  • p. 711 …Feb 24 Mon. Alamogordo. Waited for air transportation today but none available and may not be…
  • p. 712 …In Asbury Park 3 pm March 10 Mon Oakhurst. Vivian and I worked on Flight 25…
  • p. 713 …Cleaned out hanger and emptied trash out at East White Sands April 7 Mon Talked to…
  • p. 714 …April 21 Mon. Alamogordo Air Base. Bill Edmonston and I went out to Tularosa Range and…
  • p. 715 …May 19 Mon Reynolds and I left about 0946. May 19 Mon Reynolds and I left…
  • p. 716 …May 26 Mon. Worked on Tests 1 and 2 records today. No signals from Roswell - some…
  • p. 717 …Took Ireland, Mears, Winton, Olsen to Alamogordo to catch train this pm June 9 Mon. Bill…
  • p. 718 …July 7 (Mon) Alamogordo. Balloon Flight 11 A off at 0503. Big plastic with small auxiliary…
  • p. 719 …Aug 4 Mon. Up to Oakhurst. Hunt Aug 4 Mon. Up to Oakhurst. Went over developments…
A: What the wind did.

The description that Brazel gives here that everything would weigh about five pounds when it was all together, is more than you would have gotten from a single balloon.

Q: Those were measured in terms of 300 to 500 grams or something like that?

A: Three hundred and fifty only. At that time we didn't have any bigger balloons than 350 grams, so the balloons would have been 350 grams.

Q: About one pound.

A: Correct. And the targets are nominally maybe a quarter of a pound.

Q: Those targets are only four to five ounces?

A: Here was the specification spelled out for it. Approximate weight, 100 grams. These, as I say, are somewhat heavier than the ones we had.

Q: You indicated that the balsa wood was coated with some sort of glue such as Elmer's glue.

A: That's my memory. It wasn't completely coated. Some of it was and some of it wasn't.

Q: Some of the balsa wood is fairly dense, as far as being durable, and one of the descriptions concerning this "wood-like" material was that you couldn't dent it with your fingernail. So if you have a fairly dense balsa wood coated with a glue, it may be quite possible that a person would not be able to put their fingernail in it.

A: That's correct. It's my memory that the reflective material was more aluminum foil than here. These are second or third iteration targets, as evidenced by this picture, wherever that picture is down in here of the 1948 flight. It certainly looks more aluminum-foil like.

Q: What year were you discharged from active duty?

A: '46.

Q: Before you left active duty, while you were still working with Duffy and Spilhaus, did they invite you to join the staff at New York University, or to continue your studies there?

A: I came back from overseas and was assigned to Colonel Duffy's, he had a little flight detachment assigned to him with a B-29 and a B-25 and some other aircraft. I ended up being the

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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.