by Jon E. Lewis
WHAT THE “ROSWELL INCIDENT” WAS
As previously discussed, what was originally reported to have been recovered was a balloon of some sort, usually described as a “weather balloon,” although the majority of the wreckage that was ultimately displayed by General Ramey and Major Marcel in the famous photos [. . .] in Ft Worth, was that of a radar target normally suspended from balloons. This radar target, discussed in more detail later, was certainly consistent with the description of a 9 July newspaper article which discussed “tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks”. Additionally, the description of the “flying disk” was consistent with a document routinely used by most pro-UFO writers to indicate a conspiracy in progress – the telegram from the Dallas FBI office of 8 July 1947. This document quoted in part states: “. . . The disk is hexagonal in shape and was suspended from a balloon by a cable, which balloon was approximately twenty feet [6m] in diameter . . . the object found resembles a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector . . . disk and balloon being transported . . .”
Similarly, while conducting the popular-literature review, one of the documents reviewed was a paper entitled “The Roswell Events” edited by Fred Whiting, and sponsored by the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR). Although it was not the original intention to comment on what commercial authors interpreted or claimed that other persons supposedly said, this particular document was different because it contained actual copies of apparently authentic sworn affidavits received from a number of persons who claimed to have some knowledge of the Roswell event. Although many of the persons who provided these affidavits to the FUFOR researchers also expressed opinions that they thought there was something extraterrestrial about this incident, a number of them actually described materials that sounded suspiciously like wreckage from balloons. These included the following:
Jesse A. Marcel, NM (son of the late Major Jesse Marcel; 11 years old at the time of the incident). Affidavit dated 6 May 1991. “. . . There were three categories of debris: a thick, foil-like metallic-gray substance; a brittle, brownish-black plastic-like material, like Bakelite; and there were fragments of what appeared to be I-beams. On the inner surface of the I-beam, there appeared to be a type of writing. This writing was a purple-violet hue, and it had an embossed appearance. The figures were composed of curved, geometric shapes. It had no resemblance to Russian, Japanese or any other foreign language. It resembled hieroglyphics, but it had no animal-like characters . . .”
Loretta Proctor (former neighbor of rancher W.W. Brazel). Affidavit dated 5 May 1991. “. . . Brazel came to my ranch and showed my husband and me a piece of material he said came from a large pile of debris on the property he managed. The piece he brought was brown in color, similar to plastic . . . ‘Mac’ said the other material on the property looked like aluminum foil. It was very flexible and wouldn’t crush or burn. There was also something he described as tape which had printing on it. The color of the printing was a kind of purple . . .”
Bessie Brazel Schreiber (daughter of W.W. Brazel; 14 years old at the time of the incident). Affidavit dated 22 September 1993. “. . . The debris looked like pieces of a large balloon which had burst. The pieces were small, the largest I remember measuring about the same as the diameter of a basketball. Most of it was a kind of double-sided material, foil-like on one side and rubber-like on the other. Both sides were grayish silver in color, the foil more silvery than the rubber. Sticks, like kite sticks, were attached to some of the pieces with a whitish tape. The tape was about two or three inches [5–8cm] wide and had flowerlike designs on it. The ‘flowers’ were faint, a variety of pastel colors, and reminded me of Japanese paintings in which the flowers are not all connected. I do not recall any other types of material or markings, nor do I remember seeing gouges in the ground or any other signs that anything may have hit the ground hard. The foil-rubber material could not be torn like ordinary aluminum foil can be torn . . .”
Sally Strickland Tadolini (neighbor of W.W. Brazel; nine years old in 1947). Affidavit dated 27 September 1993. “. . . What Bill showed us was a piece of what I still think as fabric. It was something like aluminum foil, something like satin, something like well-tanned leather in its toughness, yet was not precisely like any one of those materials . . . It was about the thickness of very fine kidskin glove leather and a dull metallic grayish silver, one side slightly darker than the other. I do not remember it having any design or embossing on it . . .”
Robert R. Porter (B-29 flight Engineer stationed at Roswell in 1947). Affidavit dated 7 June 1991. “On this occasion, I was a member of the crew which flew parts of what we were told was a flying saucer to Fort Worth. The people on board included [. . .] Maj. Jesse Marcel. Capt. William E. Anderson said it was from a flying saucer. After we arrived, the material was transferred to a B-25. I was told they were going to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. I was involved in loading the B-29 with the material, which was wrapped in packages with wrapping paper. One of the pieces was triangle-shaped, about 2½ feet [75cm] across the bottom. The rest were in small packages, about the size of a shoebox. The brown paper was held with tape. The material was extremely lightweight. When I picked it up, it was just like picking up an empty package. We loaded the triangle-shaped package and three shoebox-sized packages into the plane. All of the packages could have fit into the trunk of a car . . . When we came back from lunch, they told us they had transferred the material to a B-25. They told us the material was a weather balloon, but I’m certain it wasn’t a weather balloon . . .”
In addition to those persons above still living who claim to have seen or examined the original material found on the Brazel Ranch, there is one additional person who was universally acknowledged to have been involved in its recovery, Sheridan Cavitt, Lt.-Col. USAF (Ret.). Cavitt is credited in all claims of having accompanied Major Marcel to the ranch to recover the debris, sometimes along with his Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) subordinate, William Rickett, who, like Marcel, is deceased. Although there does not appear to be much dispute that Cavitt was involved in the material recovery, other claims about him prevail in the popular literature. He is sometimes portrayed as a closed-mouth (or sometimes even sinister) conspirator who was one of the early individuals who kept the “secret of Roswell” from getting out. Other things about him have been alleged, including the claim that he wrote a report of the incident at the time that has never surfaced.
Since Lt.-Col. Cavitt, who had first-hand knowledge, was still alive, a decision was made to interview him and get a signed sworn statement from him about his version of the events. Prior to the interview, the Secretary of the Air Force provided him with a written authorization and waiver to discuss classified information with the interviewer and release him from any security oath he may have taken. Subsequently, Cavitt was interviewed on 24 May 1994, at his home. Cavitt provided a signed, sworn statement [. . .] of his recollections in this matter. He also consented to having the interview tape-recorded. [. . .] In this interview, Cavitt related that he had been contacted on numerous occasions by UFO researchers and had willingly talked with many of them; however, he felt that he had oftentimes been misrepresented or had his comments taken out of context so that their true meaning was changed. He stated unequivocally, however, that the material he recovered consisted of a reflective sort of material like aluminum foil, and some thin, bamboo-like sticks. He thought at the time, and continued to do so today, that what he found was a weather balloon, and has told other private researchers that. He also remembered finding a small “black box” type of instrument, which he thought at the time was probably a radiosonde. Lt.-Col. Cavitt also reviewed the famous Ramey/Marcel photographs [. . .] of the wreckage taken to Ft. Worth (often claimed by LITO researchers to have been switched and the remnants of a balloon substituted for it) and he identified the materials depicted in those photos as consistent with the materials that he recovered from the ranch. Lt.-Col. Cavitt also stated that he had never taken any oath or signed any agreement not to talk about this
incident and had never been threatened by anyone in the government because of it. He did not even know the incident was claimed to be anything unusual until he was interviewed in the early 1980s.
Similarly, Irving Newton, Major, USAF (Ret.) was located and interviewed. Newton was a weather officer assigned to Fort Worth who was on duty when the Roswell debris was sent there in July 1947. He was told that he was to report to General Ramey’s office to view the material. In a signed, sworn statement [. . .] Newton related that “. . . I walked into the General’s office where this supposed flying saucer was lying all over the floor. As soon as I saw it, I giggled and asked if that was the flying saucer . . . I told them that this was a balloon and a RAWIN target . . .” Newton also stated that “. . . while I was examining the debris, Major Marcel was picking up pieces of the target sticks and trying to convince me that some notations on the sticks were alien writings. There were figures on the sticks, lavender or pink in color, appeared to be weather-faded markings, with no rhyme or reason [sic]. He did not convince me that these were alien writings.” Newton concluded his statement by relating that “. . . During the ensuing years I have been interviewed by many authors, I have been quoted and misquoted. The facts remain as indicated above. I was not influenced during the original interview, nor today, to provide anything but what I know to be true, that is, the material I saw in General Ramey’s office was the remains of a balloon and a RAWIN target.”
Balloon Research
The original tasking from GAO noted that the search for information included “weather balloons.” Comments about balloons and safety reports have already been made, however the SAF/AAZ research efforts also focused on reviewing historical records involving balloons, since, among other reasons, that was what was officially claimed by the AAF to have been found and recovered in 1947.
As early as 28 February 1994, the AAZD research team found references to balloon tests taking place at Alamogordo AAF (now Holloman AFB) and White Sands during June and July 1947, testing “constant level balloons” and a New York University (NYU)/Watson Labs effort that used “. . . meteorological devices . . . suspected for detecting shock waves generated by Soviet nuclear explosions” – a possible indication of a cover story associated with the NYU balloon project. Subsequently, a 1946 HQ AMC memorandum surfaced, describing the constant-altitude balloon project and specified that the scientific data be classified TOP SECRET Priority IA. Its name was Project Mogul [. . .]
Project Mogul was a then-sensitive classified project whose purpose was to determine the state of Soviet nuclear weapons research. This was the early Cold War period and there was serious concern within the US government about the Soviets developing a weaponized atomic device. Because the Soviet Union’s borders were closed, the US Government sought to develop a long-range nuclear explosion detection capability. Long-range, balloon-borne, low-frequency acoustic detection was posed to General Spaatz in 1945 by Dr Maurice Ewing of Columbia University as a potential solution (atmospheric ducting of low-frequency pressure waves had been studied as early as 1900).
As part of the research into this matter, AAZD personnel located and obtained the original study papers and reports of the New York University project. Their efforts also revealed that some of the individuals involved in Project Mogul were still living. These persons included the NYU constant-altitude balloon Director of Research, Dr Athelstan F. Spilhaus; the Project Engineer, Professor Charles B. Moore; and the military Project Officer, Colonel Albert C. Trakowski.
All of these persons were subsequently interviewed and signed sworn statements about their activities. [. . .] These interviews confirmed that Project Mogul was a compartmented, sensitive effort. The NYU group was responsible for developing constant-level balloons and telemetering equipment that would remain at specified altitudes (within the acoustic duct) while a group from Columbia was to develop acoustic sensors. Doctor Spilhaus, Professor Moore, and certain others of the group were aware of the actual purpose of the project, but they did not know of the project nickname at the time. They handled casual inquiries and/or scientific inquiries/papers in terms of “unclassified meteorological or balloon research.” Newly hired employees were not made aware that there was anything special or classified about their work; they were told only that their work dealt with meteorological equipment.
An advance ground team, led by Albert P. Crary, preceded the NYU group to Alamogordo AAF, New Mexico, setting up ground sensors and obtaining facilities for the NYU group. Upon their arrival, Professor Moore and his team experimented with various configurations of neoprene balloons; development of balloon “trains” [. . .]; automatic ballast systems, and use of Naval sonobuoys (as the Watson Lab acoustical sensors had not yet arrived). They also launched what they called “service flights.” These “service flights” were not logged nor fully accounted for in the published Technical Reports generated as a result of the contract between NYU and Watson Labs. According to Professor Moore, the “service flights” were composed of balloons, radar reflectors and payloads specifically designed to test acoustic sensors (both early sonobuoys and the later Watson Labs devices). The “payload equipment” was expendable and some carried no “REWARD” or “RETURN TO . . .” tags because there was to be no association between these flights and the logged constant-altitude flights which were fully acknowledged. The NYU balloon flights were listed sequentially in their reports (i.e. A, B, 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 . . .) yet gaps existed for Flights 2–4 and Flight 9. The interview with Professor Moore indicated that these gaps were the unlogged “service flights.”
Professor Moore, the on-scene Project Engineer, gave detailed information concerning his team’s efforts. He recalled that radar targets were used for tracking balloons because they did not have all the necessary equipment when they first arrived in New Mexico. Some of the early, developmental radar targets were manufactured by a toy or novelty company. These targets were made up of aluminum “foil” or foil-backed paper, balsa wood beams that were coated in an “Elmer’s-type” glue to enhance their durability, acetate and/or cloth reinforcing tape, single strand and braided nylon twine, brass eyelets and swivels to form a multi-faced reflector somewhat similar in construction to a box kite [. . .] Some of these targets were also assembled with purplish-pink tape with symbols on it [. . .]
According to the log summary [. . .] of the NYU group, Flight A through Flight 7 (20 November 1946–2 July 1947) were made with neoprene meteorological balloons (as opposed to the later flights made with polyethylene balloons). Professor Moore stated that the neoprene balloons were susceptible to degradation in the sunlight, turning from a milky white to a dark brown. He described finding remains of balloon trains with reflectors and payloads that had landed in the desert: the ruptured and shredded neoprene would “almost look like dark gray or black flakes or ashes after exposure to the sun for only a few days. The plasticizers and antioxidants in the neoprene would emit a peculiar acrid odor and the balloon material and radar target material would be scattered after returning to earth, depending on the surface winds.” Upon review of the local newspaper photographs from General Ramey’s press conference in 1947 and descriptions in popular books by individuals who supposedly handled the debris recovered on the ranch, Professor Moore opined that the material was most likely the shredded remains of a multi-neoprene balloon train with multiple radar reflectors. The material and a “black box” described by Cavitt was, in Moore’s scientific opinion, most probably from Flight 4, a “service flight” that included a cylindrical metal sonobuoy and portions of a weather instrument housed in a box, which was unlike typical weather radiosondes which were made of cardboard. Additionally, a copy of a professional journal maintained at the time by A.P. Crary, provided to the Air Force by his widow, showed that Flight 4 was launched on 4 June 1947 but was not recovered by the NYU group. It is very probable that this TOP SECRET project balloon train (Flight 4), made up of unclassified components, came to rest some miles northwest of Roswell, NM, became shredde
d in the surface winds and was ultimately found by the rancher, Brazel, ten days later. This possibility was supported by the observations of Lt.-Col. Cavitt [. . .], the only living eyewitness to the actual debris field and the material found. Lt.-Col. Cavitt described a small area of debris which appeared “to resemble bamboo type square sticks one quarter to one half inch square, that were very light, as well as some sort of metallic reflecting material that was also very light . . . I remember recognizing this material as being consistent with a weather balloon.”
Concerning the initial announcement, “RAAF Captures Flying Disc,” research failed to locate any documented evidence as to why that statement was made. However, on 10 July 1947, following the Ramey press conference, the Alamogordo News published an article with photographs demonstrating multiple balloons and targets at the same location as the NYU group operated from at Alamogordo AAF. Professor Moore expressed surprise at seeing this since his was the only balloon test group in the area. He stated, “It appears that there was some type of umbrella cover story to protect our work with Mogul.” Although the Air Force did not find documented evidence that Gen. Ramey was directed to espouse a weather balloon in his press conference, he may have done so because either he was aware of Project Mogul and was trying to deflect interest from it, or he readily perceived the material to be a weather balloon based on the identification from his weather officer, Irving Newton. In either case, the materials recovered by the AAF in July 1947 were not readily recognizable as anything special (only the purpose was special) and the recovered debris itself was unclassified. Additionally, the press dropped its interest in the matter as quickly as they had jumped on it. Hence, there would be no particular reason to further document what quickly became a “non-event.”
