Roswell Investigations

  Origins and Context

In 1992, New Mexico Congressman Steven Schiff requested that the General Accounting Office (GAO) investigate the events surrounding the alleged crash of an extraterrestrial vehicle near Roswell in 1947.¹ This request initiated a series of comprehensive investigations by both the GAO and the U.S. Air Force that would span nearly a decade.²

  Investigation Structure

The GAO investigation focused on determining if the U.S. government possessed any records related to the Roswell incident that had not been publicly released.³ The Air Force conducted two separate investigations - one in 1994 examining the physical debris and initial military response, and another in 1997 addressing claims of recovered alien bodies.⁴

  Key Findings

The investigations produced three major reports that systematically examined the evidence:

• The 1994 Air Force report "The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert" identified the debris as coming from Project Mogul, a classified program using high-altitude balloons to detect Soviet nuclear tests.⁵

• The 1995 GAO report found no evidence that records about the Roswell incident had been illegally destroyed or kept from the public.⁶

• The 1997 Air Force report "The Roswell Report: Case Closed" determined that alleged alien bodies were likely misidentified anthropomorphic dummies used in high altitude research during the 1950s.⁷

  Methods and Procedures

The investigations involved extensive archival research, including:

• Review of classified and unclassified government documents from multiple agencies
• Interviews with surviving witnesses and former military personnel
• Analysis of contemporary news reports and photographs
• Examination of physical evidence and technical reports
• Release of previously classified materials related to Project Mogul

  Historical Impact

These investigations represented the most thorough official examination of the Roswell incident to date.⁸ While the findings did not support claims of extraterrestrial activity, they documented important early Cold War research programs and established a comprehensive historical record.⁹ The investigations also led to the declassification of numerous documents about early U.S. Air Force research activities in New Mexico.¹⁰

  References

1. gao.gov ↩

2. media.defense.gov ↩

3. gao.gov ↩

4. apps.dtic.mil ↩

5. af.mil ↩

6. gao.gov ↩

7. af.mil ↩

8. defense.gov ↩

9. archives.gov ↩

10. af.mil ↩