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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. 12 …Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Photographs of Balloon Debris, July 9, 1947 17. Statement, Lt. Col. Sheridan…
  • p. 13 …Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Photographs of Balloon Debris, July 9, 1947 2. Organizational Chart, Watson Laboratories…
  • p. 27 …These locations include Fort Worth, Texas, the home of the Eighth Air Force Headquarters; possibly Sandia…
  • p. 31 …DC; Federal Records Center, Ft Worth, TX; the INSCOM Archives, Fort Meade, MD; National Air and…
  • p. 35 …in the famous photos (Atch 16) in Fort Worth was that of a radar target normally…
  • p. 36 …were told was a flying saucer to Fort Worth. The people on board included...and Maj…
  • p. 37 …Newton was a weather officer assigned to Fort Worth, who was on duty when the Roswell…
  • p. 42 …photographs taken at the time by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, that depicted Ramey and Marcel…
  • p. 43 …the wreckage prior to its getting to Fort Worth. This organization reported on July 20, 1994…
  • p. 47 …After the autopsies, conspiracy theorists said the bodies were flown to Fort Worth and then to…
  • p. 65 …to Fort Worth. "Flying disc." Some of the debris was flown to Fort Worth. as where…
  • p. 84 …Center (WNRC) or the Southwest Regional Depository (Fort Worth, Texas). ## Recommendations Because the records management policy…
  • p. 131 …taken to Eighth Air Force Headquarters in Fort Worth where it was subsequently identified as a…
  • p. 138 …And I obviously...Marcel took it to Fort Worth. Yeah that's the... RW: Yeah. That…
  • p. 139 …into Wright-Pat and Kirtland, or to Fort Worth. Back and forth, loaded up, with very…
  • p. 145 …Then it said: "After Marcel had gone to Fort Worth and came back Marcel challenged the…
  • p. 147 …O.K."Marcel would take some of the sample to Fort Worth to show Ramey. In…
  • p. 150 normal course of his duty was sent to Washington not 8th Air Force in Fort Worth…
  • p. 219 …But the Roswell morning paper clearly showed that there was a knowledgeable person in Fort Worth…
  • p. 231 …Headquarters by a news photographer of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. It's four pictures that…
  • p. 263 …I was the only weather forecaster on duty in the Fort Worth base weather and flight…
  • p. 269 …flown to Eighth Air Force Headquarters at Fort Worth AAF, TX, for his personal inspection. Upon…
  • p. 277 …Before the announcement was made, the "disc" was flown to Fort Worth AAF, at the direction…
  • p. 278 …giant thermos jug" was allegedly transported from Fort Worth AAF to Wright Field. $ ^{38} $ This description…
  • p. 280 designs on it." $ ^{41} $ Furthermore, the Fort Worth Army Airfield Weather Officer, Irving Newton, who was…
  • p. 283 1 Fort Worth Star-Telegram Photographs of Balloon Debris July 9, 1947
  • p. 549 …Similarly, the Fort Worth Sub-Committee established a procedure for flights made within the Fort Worth…
  • p. 616 …Air Coordinating Committee, Fort Worth Regional Airspace Subcommittee. Subject: Obstructions to air navigation...43 5. Memorandum…
  • p. 655 …5/15/47 Office of the Secretary Fort Worth Sub-Committee on Air Space Civil Aeronautics…
  • p. 715 …Arrived in Fort Worth about 9 EDST. Off again to Big Springs, Texas, where forced to…
New York University, in accordance with contractual requirements, produced monthly progress reports, technical reports, and final reports detailing the various aspects of the balloon and telemetering research. In addition, Crary maintained a detailed journal of his work throughout his professional career to include the summer of 1947. The following discussion is based on these two documents and interviews with Moore, who was present on all three of the Alamogordo field trips, and, with Trakowski, who was present at the Alamogordo II and III field trips.

NOTE: Technical Report No. 1, Table VII, "Summary of NYU Constant-Level Balloon Flights," and Technical Report No. 93.02, Constant Level Balloons, Section 3, "Summary of Flights," do not fully account for all balloons flown during the initial stages of the contract to include the Alamogordo I field trip. Absent from the reports are service flight nos. 2, 3, and 4. Flight no. 2 was flown on April 18, 1947, at Bethlehem, PA, in an attempt to obtain acoustical data from the explosion of 5,000 tons of TNT by the British on the German island of Helgoland. $ ^{18} $ NYU flight no. 3 was flown on May 29, followed by NYU flight no. 4 on June 4. Both launched from Alamogordo AAF.

ALAMOGORDO I (May 28, 1947-June 7, 1947)

The first NYU "field trip" departed Olmstead Field, Middletown, PA, by C-47 for Alamogordo AAF on May 31, 1947, arriving on June 1, 1947. $ ^{19} $ Present on this flight was C.B. Moore, NYU Project Engineer, Charles S. Schneider, NYU Project Director, and other supporting staff members from both NYU and Watson Laboratories. A.P. Crary, along with other personnel from Watson Laboratory, were already present in Alamogordo, but they did not conduct any balloon operations. During this time, Crary and several technicians detonated ground explosives, or "shots," for sound-wave generation purposes, on the nearby White Sands Proving Ground. These detonations were monitored by ground-based GR3 and GR8 sound ranging equipment at locations in New Mexico and West Texas. $ ^{20} $ On May 28, the advance party of the balloon group arrived by B-17. $ ^{21} $ On May 29, the advance team made the first launch for Project MOGUL from Alamogordo (NYU flight no. 3). The equipment carried on this flight was identified as essentially the same as that carried on NYU flight no. 2 (Atch 3 ). $ ^{22} $ NYU flight no. 4 was launched on June 4, with a configuration the same as on flight nos. 2 and 3. Crary's diary indicated that flight no. 4 consisted of a "cluster of (meteorological) balloons" and a "regular sonobuoy." $ ^{23} $ Presumably, flight no. 3 was configured the same.

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