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

weather officer, Warrant Officer Irving Newton, to make an identification. Newton positively identified the debris as the remnants of a balloon and RAWIN target. $ ^{37} $ With this identification, the incident officially closed.

## THE "COVER STORY"

From research, it appears that the wreckage displayed on July 8 consisted of unclassified components of a MOGUL balloon assembly. Possibly withheld, if it was indeed recovered, was the AN/CRT-1 Sonabuoy, which could have compromised Project MOGUL. Although the Sonabuoy was not itself classified, its association with a balloon would have exposed a specific military purpose, an obvious violation of project classification guidelines (Atch 9). A device described in "crashed disc" publications as "a giant thermos jug" was allegedly transported from Fort Worth AAF to Wright Field. $ ^{38} $ This description is consistent with the appearance of an AN/CRT-1 Sonabuoy such as was used on flight no. 4 (Atch 4). At some point General Ramey decided to forward the material to Wright Field, home of AMC, the appropriate agency to identify one of its own research devices or a device of unknown origin. If the debris was determined to be from an unknown source, the AMC, T-2, Intelligence or Analysis Division, would conduct scientific and/or intelligence analysis in an attempt to discover its origin. But since the balloons, reflectors, and Sonabuoy were from an AMC research project, the debris was forwarded to the appropriate division or subdivision, in this case the Electronics Subdivision of the Engineering Division. There, it was identified by Colonel Duffy, under whose purview Project MOGUL operated. Colonel Duffy, a former project officer of MOGUL with specific directions to "continue to monitor upper air programs," was the appropriate headquarters officer to make an identification, which he apparently did. According to Captain (now Colonel) Trakowski, the officer who succeeded Colonel Duffy as project officer on MOGUL, after returning from the Alamogordo II field trip, Colonel Duffy contacted him by phone at Watson Laboratories and informed him that the "stuff you've been launching at Alamogordo," had been sent to him for identification. He described the debris to Captain Trakowski, and Trakowski agreed that it was part of his project (MOGUL). $ ^{39} $

Another occurrence sometimes said to "prove" that General Ramey was part of a cover story is that portions of the debris were flown to Andrews AAF, MD. Andrews would have been a probable location to send the debris since it had components of weather observation equipment. Andrews AAF was headquarters of the Army Air Forces Weather Service. It is also interesting to note that the commanding general of the Weather Service, Brig Gen Donald N. Yates, was quoted in wire service newspaper articles on July 9, providing his opinion of the