Case · C-005

Roswell: the ranch debris and the “disc” announced by the base

Roswell, New Mexico (debris collected at a local ranch) · United States · Jul 8, 1947

On land Mixed witness types Physical traces

What happened

On July 8, 1947 the intelligence office of the Roswell air base announced that it had come into possession of a “flying disc”; the same day an FBI teletype from Dallas reported that, according to the Eighth Air Force, the object resembled a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector and was to be sent to Wright Field. In 1995 the GAO, queried by Rep. Steven Schiff, found that the base's administrative records from 1945 to 1949 and outgoing messages from 1946 to 1949 had been destroyed without any record of the authority that permitted it, and that the history of the 509th Bomb Group for July 1947 spoke of a balloon for radar tracking. The Air Force does not dispute that something happened near Roswell, but attributes it to Project Mogul.

Proposed explanation

In 1947 the Eighth Air Force presented the debris as the remains of a weather balloon with a radar reflector. The Air Force reports of 1994–95 attribute it to a Project Mogul balloon train, a secret program to monitor Soviet nuclear activities from a distance, and the 1997 one traces the accounts of “bodies” to dummies used in high-altitude balloon-drop experiments. Proponents of the extraterrestrial origin, including Stanton Friedman, believe that these explanations do not close the case.

Official investigation

Army Air Forces (509th Bomb Group, Eighth Air Force) and FBI in 1947; U.S. Air Force (1994–1997 reports); GAO (1995)

Words of the document

The object turned out to be a radar tracking balloon.

Official documents

1. Government Records: Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico (GAO/NSIAD-95-187) · U.S. General Accounting Office · Jul 28, 1995
2. The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert (scheda ADA326148) · U.S. Air Force (DTIC catalog) · 1995
3. The Roswell Report: Case Closed · Headquarters United States Air Force · 1997

Sources

1. National Archives, The Unwritten Record – “The Roswell Reports: What crashed in the desert?” (2014) (other)
2. The Black Vault – collection of official documents on the Roswell case (other)

On this site

People 6

• Walter Haut
• William H. Blanchard
• Jesse Marcel
• Roger M. Ramey
• Glenn Dennis
• Stanton T. Friedman

Claims 2

• David Grusch: Claims that the “weather balloon” explanation given for Roswell in 1947 was disinformation and that secrecy… Disputed
• Luis Elizondo: Claims that four non-human bodies were actually recovered from the 1947 Roswell crash. Contradicted

Official positions 2

• U.S. Air Force (1994): Responding to the requests of Rep. Steven Schiff and to the GAO investigation, the Air…
• U.S. Air Force (1997): The report “The Roswell Report: Case Closed” traced the accounts of alien bodies at…

Timeline 5

• Jul 8, 1947: Roswell, July 8, 1947: the base announces the retrieval of a “flying disc”
• 1994: The Air Force: the Roswell debris came from Project Mogul
• 1997: “The Day After Roswell”: Corso maintains that the U.S. exploited alien technology
• Jun 24, 1997: “Case Closed”: for the Air Force the Roswell “bodies” were dummies
• Jun 21, 2025: WSJ, part two: the “Roswell” metal bought by TTSA was terrestrial

Open in the interactive archive The whole section: Map of UAP and USO cases

UAPgrade's entries are compiled with artificial intelligence (three verifiers with opposing roles) and checked against the sources listed above: how we work. Have a document that changes this entry? Bring it to the Investigations Unit.