In February 1993, New Mexico Congressman Steven H. Schiff asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to locate any still-classified records about the July 1947 debris recovery near Roswell Army Air Field. He sought to resolve longstanding allegations of a cover-up after the Air Force had denied possessing relevant files.
Congressional Request and Scope
GAO opened assignment code 701034 under the National Security and International Affairs Division. Investigators surveyed archival holdings at the National Archives, Air Force Historical Research Agency, Air Force Safety Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, CIA, and Department of Energy. The objective was limited: determine whether official documents concerning "Roswell weather balloon" activities were missing or improperly withheld and report any evidence contradicting prior explanations.
USAF Internal Review
In parallel, Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall directed Colonel Richard L. Weaver and Captain James McAndrew of Headquarters Air Force to prepare an historical report. Their study, released in September 1994 as The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert, concluded that debris recovered in 1947 came from Project MOGUL flight No. 4 — an acoustic balloon train designed to detect Soviet nuclear tests. Alleged bodies were attributed to later high-altitude anthropomorphic dummy drops conducted under Project High Dive (a follow-on addendum published 1997).
GAO Findings
- No Air Force, Army, Navy, or CIA records indicating recovery of extraterrestrial craft or bodies were located.
- Most records of the Roswell Army Air Field 509th Bomb Group between March 1945 and December 1949, including morning reports and outgoing messages, had been destroyed in accordance with retention schedules by 1953, precluding a complete audit.
- AFOSI headquarters had no investigative file on the incident; the first formal inquiry occurred only after Congressman Schiff's request.
- GAO accepted the Air Force MOGUL explanation as the best available reconstruction but noted that destruction of 509th records prevented full verification.
Impact and Reception
The July 1995 GAO letter to Congressman Schiff and the companion 23-page briefing report became the first U.S. government publications to analyze Roswell at congressional request. Skeptics criticized the reliance on record destruction and classified balloon projects, while proponents argued the inquiry demonstrated ongoing gaps in transparency. Nonetheless, the combined GAO and Air Force documents shaped mainstream understanding of Roswell for the next two decades.