Documents / Report

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

USAF / The Black Vault · 1995 · 882 pages · text by GLM-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. 8 …Computer Specialist, Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, Pentagon; George Cully, Historian, 81st Training…
  • p. 20 …FOR THE SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE FROM: SAF/AAZ 1720 Air Force Pentagon Washington, DC…
  • p. 56 …SAF/FMPF, Room 4C228, Pentagon SUBJECT: Central Point of Contact, GAO Code 701034 2. You will…
  • p. 58 # DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE WASHINGTON DC 20330-1000 OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY MEMORANDUM FOR DISTRIBUTION…
  • p. 59 …SAF/AAZ 1720 Air Force Pentagon Washington DC 20330-1720 SUBJECT: GAO Review on Records Management…
  • p. 75 …HQ USAF/XOWP 1490 Air Force Pentagon Washington DC 20330-1490 SUBJECT: GAO Review on Records…
  • p. 77 10 March 1994 SAF/AAIQ 1610 Air Force Pentagon Washington, DC 20330-1610 MEMORANDUM FOR SAF…
  • p. 78 …They noted that the histories for the 509th Bomb Group and Wing for Roswell Army Air…
  • p. 145 …the Pentagon if he had a problem with that he could take it up with the…
  • p. 185 …Perhaps you have it from the Pentagon files already, from the AG files. ## Q: We have…
  • p. 246 …Following that, I spent more than three years on the Air Staff in the Pentagon. Q…
  • p. 268 …Force Pentagon Washington, DC 20330-1720 SUBJECT: Report of Findings on Balloon Research The following report…

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

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

Cited by

Cases discussed

About this file

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