In January 1994, Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall tasked the Air Force History Office with preparing an authoritative reconstruction of the July 1947 Roswell incident. The assignment responded to congressional inquiries led by Representative Steven H. Schiff and a parallel General Accounting Office investigation. Colonel Richard L. Weaver served as project director with Captain James McAndrew as principal researcher.
Research Methodology
Investigators compiled more than 23 000 pages of archival material, interviewed surviving personnel from Roswell Army Air Field, consulted weather data, and reviewed flight logs for classified balloon programs active in mid-1947. Particular focus fell on Project MOGUL, a then-secret effort under New York University to loft balloon trains carrying acoustic sensors designed to detect Soviet nuclear detonations.
Evidence Chain
- Diary entries by MOGUL engineer Albert Crary describing a 4 June 1947 multi-balloon test (Flight No. 4) launched from Alamogordo.
- Recovery reports showing debris fields consistent with balloon-borne radar reflectors and neoprene envelopes rather than metallic fuselage components.
- Weather records confirming prevailing winds that would have carried Flight No. 4 toward the Foster ranch where debris was found on 14 June 1947 but reported publicly in early July.
- Lack of contemporaneous military traffic or crash retrieval orders in message collections from Eighth Air Force or Fifteenth Air Force.
Principal Findings
The report concludes that the debris recovered by Major Jesse Marcel and turned over to Roswell Army Air Field intelligence officers originated from Project MOGUL Flight No. 4. No bodies, escape capsules, or exotic alloys were documented. The report attributes post-1978 claims of recovered corpses to conflation with later Project High Dive anthropomorphic dummy drops (addressed in a separate 1997 addendum).
Impact and Reception
Released publicly on 30 September 1994 and printed as United States Air Force report number AFHSO-TR-94-7, the study shifted mainstream attention from extraterrestrial hypotheses toward Cold War balloon programs. Skeptical researchers praised the archival rigor, while proponents of an alien explanation criticized perceived gaps—especially the destruction of Roswell Army Air Field message traffic prior to 1953 and reliance on indirect trajectory reconstructions.