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The debris picked up by Mac Brazel and flown to Fort Worth by Jesse Marcel Sr. appears to be one in the same. For years, the only official word on what was found was that provided at the infamous Fort Worth Press Conference. Despite the efforts of authors to make it appear that the debris had to have originated from an alien spaceship, most of the descriptions are of mundane materials such as wood, tin foil, and tape. It all sounds very ordinary and only years later does the material take on fantastic properties. Jesse Marcel Jr. recalls that his mother felt the debris was so ordinary that she simply swept the debris out the back door once her husband had left! Also, if the debris was so impregnable, how did it shatter into thousands of pieces? By 1994, the Roswell investigators and their supporters had felt they accumulated enough evidence to have congress investigate the matter. It was New Mexico Congressman, Steven Schiff, who asked the General Accounting Office to look into the allegations. This forced the United States Air Force to research the incident. For years, the Air Force had dodged the whole event simply because it was considered a waste of time and not in their interest. Now they were directed by Congress to reveal the truth. Prior to these events, two researchers, Robert Todd and Karl Pflock had begun to uncover what the Air Force was about to determine. The source of the debris was from a TOP SECRET project called "MOGUL". In early 1995, the US Air Force released a lengthy report called The Roswell Report: Fact versus Fiction in the New Mexico Desert. The entire report centers on the efforts of New York University scientists who were developing balloon arrays to fly at constant altitudes in the stratosphere. These balloons were to carry aloft a microphone, which would be used to listen for sounds produced by the explosion of a Soviet nuclear weapon. While the project’s original goals were never achieved, it did advance research into the development of materials for high altitude balloons. The Air Force investigators interviewed several of the key people on the project and, fortunately, several of them were still alive to fill in any missing details. What they revealed was quite extraordinary and bears a striking resemblance to the debris described by a majority of the witnesses in the Roswell Incident. One of the scientists involved in the project, Professor Charles B. Moore had even been consulted in The Roswell Incident. He was asked if any of his balloons could produce gouges in the earth and the amount of debris described by the witnesses. His response was, "There wasn’t a balloon in use back in ‘47, or even today for that matter, that could have produced debris over such a large area or torn up the ground in any way" (Berlitz and Moore 41). The authors even included a photograph of flight 11-A in their book on page 42. Berlitz, Moore, and Friedman did not realize how close they really were to the answer. However, what they failed to do was show Professor Moore the description that Mac Brazel had given to the Roswell Daily Record. When Robert Todd showed Professor Moore the description, he immediately recognized it as the debris from one of his balloon flights. Professor Moore considers his balloons part of the New York University balloon project and not part of MOGUL because his flights were used only develop the balloons that would fly at constant altitude. He never heard of the code name MOGUL until Robert Todd revealed it to him in 1992. The NYU team original started testing in the northeast United States. However, due to wind problems and interference from air traffic, it was decided to move the testing out west to New Mexico. The team arrived in Alamogordo in the end of May and the first launches occurred in early June of 1947. While at Alamogordo, they were to test the microphone system out by monitoring the V-2 flights being launched there. Meanwhile, Professor Moore’s team was to concentrate on getting his balloons to maintain level flight in the stratosphere. They preferred to use the new polyethylene balloons for their tests because the neoprene ones would tend to burst as the sun in the upper atmosphere heated them. Unfortunately, they still had not received these new balloons and Professor Moore was left to use numerous neoprene balloons tied together in a single train. Along with the balloons was the instrumentation and tracking packages. Many of these flights were tracked using a radiosonde. However, the first flight launched did not include one because the radiosonde was too heavy to transport in the first plane flights out to New Mexico. Instead, it was decided to use radar reflectors in the hope that the radar at Alamogordo would be able to follow the balloons. The type of reflector used was a model ML-307B, which looked like a box kite with several triangular sections. Irving Newton was familiar with this type of reflector because he used them in Okinawa and stated they resembled "a child’s jack...with aluminum foil between the legs" (Kolarik). According to Professor Moore, there were three such reflectors attached to the first flight launched in New Mexico. They had used the same configuration two flights earlier from Pennsylvania. The flight had difficulties in launching and it seemed like the configuration would be adequate for their first try. This flight carried no return to tags because, according to Professor Moore, they were "throw away flights" (HQ USAF FACT Attachment 23). The first flight launched from Alamogordo was designated flight #4. All previous flights had been launched in the Northeast. There are no records for flight #4 in the NYU reports. However, there is an entry for flight #5 on June 5, 1947. The reason for no entry into the records is because the radar operators failed to track the radar targets. Their inexperience in tracking such devices resulted in no useful data being obtained from the flight and it was not incorporated in the final report. However, Dr. Crary did record the launching of a balloon flight just before flight #5 in his personal log: Thus there was a balloon flight that day and it fits the chronology of flight #4 as Professor Moore recalls. There is no drawing of the balloon train for flight #4. However, as previously stated Professor Moore states they used the same configuration as Flight #2, which contained three radar reflectors. Professor Moore recalls tracking this balloon configuration all the way to Arabella, New Mexico. Due to the lack of any data, the balloon cluster was left to drift off and the chase plane returned back to Alamogordo. After the failure to track the radar reflectors, the NYU group decided it was best to switch to the raidosondes for tracking. Verifying this is the fact that Flight #5 shows no reflectors and has a radiosonde attached. As for the wayward Flight #4, it was never recovered simply because the NYU group felt that there was no need to do so. All the materials used were considered dispensable but in hindsight, they felt it was better to retrieve the materials on all future flights. This way, any failure of equipment could be evaluated. After flight #4, it was determined that return tags be attached so that the civilian population could call in case an errant balloon cluster would touch down on somebody’s property. The real key to the mystery of the debris are the statements about the tape with the purple figures/pinkish purple alien hieroglyphics. The original ML-307 radar reflector was considered to have too many weak points in it and the foil would not adhere to the wooden struts. So the ML-307B was a modification of the original design, where the manufacturer was directed to use tape to ensure the foil remained attached to the balsa wood. The reflectors used on the NYU flights were war surplus and at the time of the construction, any tape was chosen to perform the modification. In this case, the tape used had purple figures on it. Dr. Moore reproduced these figures and it showed flower-like symbols, diamonds, bows/arcs, and circles. Many of the project people recall the purple tape. According to Colonel Trakowski, it was a Major Jack Peterson who was in charge of procuring the targets: The photographs of the debris in General Ramey’s office happen to show the remains of at least one ML-307 radar target. Professor Moore adds that the debris actually is from several targets and not just one. Again, this indicates the debris is from flight #4 because the NYU project was the only group in New Mexico using balloon trains with multiple targets. After the debris left Ramey’s office, we now discover what happened to it. Recall that General Dubose remembers putting the debris on a plane to Washington, D.C. After this the debris found it’s way to Wright Air Force base where Colonel Marcellus Duffy was asked to identify it. Colonel Duffy told Robert Todd: In a follow-up letter, Colonel Duffy added that he should have stated it was "weather observation equipment" because there was lots of material associated with weather equipment, which included "a corner reflector" (Saler, Ziegler and Moore. 178). Confirming this tale is Colonel Albert Trakowski, who was in charge of security for project MOGUL. He stated that he received a phone call from Duffy in 1947, where he stated "this sure looked like some of the stuff that you (Trakowski) launched from Alamogordo" (HQ USAF FACT Attachment 22). It now appears that the debris recovered is from flight #4 of the NYU balloon project. This was the conclusion of the USAF after their investigations and the conclusions of Robert Todd. Karl Pflock also felt that some of the debris was from project MOGUL but he still held out for a saucer crash because of the testimony of some key witnesses. After further revelations, Pflock has since determined that there was no saucer crash and that flight #4 was the only debris recovered by Mac Brazel and Jesse Marcel Sr. Despite claims that the General Ramey was involved in a cover-up, nothing can be farther from the truth. He did identify the debris as coming from a radar target and weather balloon. While not exactly a weather balloon, the debris in the photographs was from a series of balloons and radar reflectors. While he was not exactly correct, he did not lie about what was found. Needless to say the response from the "Crash" authors was immediate and they began to question the report. For years, they had proposed that the witnesses had handled debris from an actual flying saucer. They rallied the faithful into a chorus of catcalls and trivializing of the report. However, they overlooked many of the obvious answers to their objections in an effort to make it seem that the report was flawed. Today, there are a significant number of UFOlogists, who have decided that the Project MOGUL explanation fits. It seems only the Roswell faithful and those who have invested a significant amount of time writing about the subject are hanging on to the UFO crash scenario. Stanton Friedman did a lot of the initial research for The Roswell Incident. Even though his name did not appear on the book, he was the individual who discovered Jesse Marcel Sr. and his story. He and Don Berlinner wrote a book titled, Crash at Corona on the subject. In the end of their book, they make several claims that need to be addressed. The first claim is that the GAO did not give approval and confirm that Mogul was the cause of the debris. This is a false accusation because, as Philip Klass pointed out in his Skeptic’s UFO Newsletter (SUN) #41, Congressman Schiff had not asked the GAO to evaluate the report. If the GAO had evaluated the report, it is very likely it would have endorsed it as a viable solution to the mystery. Friedman and Berlinner know this but use this as a defense for their crashed UFO scenario. Additionally, When Professor Moore and Dr. Bernard Gildenberg talked to Friedman/Berlinner in 1992 about their projects (Dr. Gildenberg was employed by the Air Force for testing high altitude parachutes by test dummies) being a possible cause, Friedman and Berlinner accused the two of being part of the cover-up. Berlinner and Friedman state in Crash at Corona that these men could not answer key questions about the debris. They then point an accusing finger at them and state, "It was as if both men had been given a simple, two-minute briefing and then pushed out the door with orders to ‘find those guys and tell’em what we've just told you!" (Friedman and Berlinner 196). This is pure arrogance on Friedman/Berlinner’s part. When faced with a possible earthly solution to the problem, they ridicule two men who are well respected in their fields and treat them as if they were criminals. These two authors, who are in search of the truth, are accusing Gildenberg and Moore as mouthpieces for the Government in order to hide what they believe is the truth. Other comments by Friedman and Berlinner are: "There is no evidence that a Project Mogul balloon landed on the Foster Ranch." (Friedman and Berlinner 197)- Correct in only that no one can say with 100% certainty that it was a project Mogul balloon. However, the weather data (which I will discuss shortly), and the descriptions, given by many of the witnesses, closely match the components of Flight #4 making it the prime suspect. One can also state that there is no physical evidence a flying saucer crashed at the Foster Ranch too. "There was no reason for them to carry radar reflectors." (Friedman and Berlinner 197) - This is a bold faced lie by the authors or they just chose to ignore reading the interview and affidavit of Professor Moore among others. Had they read the report, then they would have realized the NYU balloon project had to use the reflectors early on to try and track them. Professor Moore has stated in his affidavit that the reflectors were there. Several other members state the reflectors were also there. "...no one reported seeing hundreds of feet of braided line." (Friedman and Berlinner 197) - Bill Brazel reports finding some string and due to the fact the object laid out on the ground for almost a month, it is highly likely that most of it degraded or blew away. Professor Moore describes the landing method of these balloon trains. As the balloons burst, the train descended but there were still balloons that were inflated. As the train began to come down to earth, the lower portions of the assembly would drag across the ground and catch on vegetation and rocks. These obstacles would pull off the lower portions of the train (which includes the radar reflectors) and the remainder of the train would again ascend now that it was free of the weight and restriction. This train would repeat this evolution several times. It is very likely that the string may have been taken for several miles downwind by a balloon. It was the reflector and sticks that everyone concentrated on. "Maj. Marcel said the debris field was littered with nothing but unrecognizable metallic-looking material, much of it super-light, super-strong foil." (Friedman and Berlinner 198) They also state that Marcel did not report finding any balloons that were degraded by sunlight. This is the same Major Marcel that stated one of the photos showed him holding the real debris. Near his feet are several blackened balloons that according to photographer Johnson were stinking up the office. Mac Brazel also reports picking up lots of "rubber that was smoky gray in color" (Brookesmith 158). As for Marcel’s exotic descriptions of material, Jesse’s ability to exaggerate is well documented and it is highly likely that Marcel Sr. exaggerated again with his "unearthly" properties. Remember that Jesse was somewhat embarrassed by the Fort Worth press conference and needed to add some credibility to his claims. "Maj. Marcel and his then-young son, now Dr Jesse Marcel, have described unrecognizable raised symbols on the webs of slender, lightweight, metallic I-beams... No photos or even manufacturer's drawings of such tape has been shown and so there is no evidence that it ever existed." (Friedman and Berlinner 198) – This is a leap of faith. The tape comment means that the debris found by Marcel never existed because there is no physical proof of it! There is plenty of eyewitness testimony to confirm the tape did exist. Besides, Bessie Brazel and Loretta Proctor talk about the tape. In the Las-Vegas Review-Journal of July 9, 1947, there is more confirmation because it states, "Those men who saw the object said it had a flowered paper tape around it bearing the initials D. P." (Aldrich 35). The fact remains that there WAS tape there with purple flowers/figures on it. Don and Stan conveniently ignore the testimony that bears this out. The story about the I-beams being metallic is only from Jesse Jr. and Stan knows that in original interviews, he did not call them I-beams. Marcel Sr. called them square in shape and stated, "...but it didn’t look like metal. It looked more like wood" (Pflock 123). Also, in the original interviews, the two never stated they were raised symbols at all. Jesse Sr. stated, "They looked like they were painted on" (Berlitz and Moore 73). Jesse Jr. stated, "Imprinted along the edge of some of the beam remnants..." (Berlitz and Moore 79). Marcel Jr. was the only one ever to say the beams were metallic in nature and he did not say this until later. They then proceed to criticize the cover as not depicting a mogul balloon crash! They also state in conclusion, "The General Accounting Office says there is no reason to think it was a Project Mogul Balloon. What does that leave, other than a UFO" (Friedman and Berlinner 199)? This is a direct misrepresentation of what the GAO said. It did not endorse or reject the report on Congressman Schiff's request. In fact the actual GAO report just reads: Another common argument offered by all the authors is that Sheridan Cavitt was incorrect in his recollections of the debris field. According to both Friedman and Randle, Cavitt’s description of the debris field being small would mean that he did not see the actual debris field or was lying about it. However, one only has to look at the fact that the Roswell Daily Record quotes Mac as having picked up all the debris before Cavitt and Marcel even came out to the ranch. This is backed up by the testimony of Bessie and Bill Brazel. Although Bill claims that Mac picked it up by himself. The assertion that the debris field was still in existence comes from Jesse Marcel Sr. many years later. However, when asked by Jay Bond Johnson, in July 1947, Marcel’s version indicated that there were only a few remnants laying about. Even Lewis Rickett claims the debris he saw was in a space "...not any bigger than this apartment" (Pflock 77). Of course, this statement is never mentioned in any of the author’s books or comments concerning Rickett. Rickett’s description is almost identical to Cavitt’s. Although it is questionable that Rickett was ever there, it seems that he does confirm Cavitt’s statement. Cavitt’s story seems to be consistent with the tale told by both Bessie and Bill Brazel, where the debris was mostly picked up by the time Cavitt and Marcel showed up at the site. Marcel’s recollections are probably based on the description that Brazel must have given him when they reached the ranch and impressions he gathered by the scattered bits of debris they picked up. Of course, Friedman’s objection to project MOGUL is obvious. When asked by a radio talk show host if there could be anything that would convince him that the debris was from project MOGUL, Friedman responded in the negative and that "He’s already made up his mind" (Saler, Ziegler and Moore 183). In other words, he has closed his mind to any possible alternative explanations to the debris other than an alien craft. Author/Investigator Kevin Randle has many problems with the Mogul explanation and creates very complex arguments to his readers that sound good but after closer examination fall apart under the weight of facts that exist. Randle, who has benefited greatly from the Roswell story, pitches argument upon argument in each of his books to try and keep his crashed saucer intact. In The Randle Report, Randle makes the argument that Colonel Weaver (who was in charge of the research) did not look at all the witness testimony and that a lot of the members of the military were sworn to secrecy. This is not true concerning the events at Roswell. There is no evidence, other than comments made by a few individuals that anyone had been sworn to secrecy on this specific event. There are no documents that are signed or presented as evidence. It is possible that the General McMullen told Dubose that the materials were from a Top Secret project but it appears that Dubose had any knowledge as to it’s purpose. Randle continuously puts faith in Marcel’s versions of events. However, Marcel, who retrieved the debris, seemed very unconcerned about this security both during the event and years later in his retelling of the events. It seems that Marcel was not included in this group of individuals who were sworn to secrecy. Randle also puts a lot of faith in Marcel’s ability to recognize radar reflectors. This is amazing comment since Irving Newton states in his affidavit that this was the case when old Jesse was arguing with him in Ramey’s office about the identity of the materials! One has to remember that Jesse's expertise was in aerial reconnaissance and assessing bomb damage from the air/aerial photographs. He had no experience with all types of weather equipment and probably never saw these types of radar reflectors before. Randle responds to this criticism by stating that Marcel was at the Bikini Crossroads testing serving as an intelligence officer and MIGHT have seen the reflectors being used by weather balloons. MIGHT and DID are two different words! This is pure supposition on Randle’s part. It is highly unlikely that Marcel would have seen these reflectors because his job did not require him to observe weather balloon launchings. Even more interesting is that Karl Pflock found out that as late as December 12, 1950 people were misidentifying this type of reflector as debris from a "flying saucer". This forced the chief of Air Weather Stations to issue the order that the radar targets need to be marked as such on the targets to prevent someone from misidentifying it AGAIN! Randle then argues with the switch story again. As demonstrated in the chapter concerning the Fort Worth press conference, it seems nobody actually saw any switch occur. Jesse claims there was one but he has also stated that at least some of the debris was in at least one of the photographs. Randle refuses to accept this and informs us that when shown the photographs in the office, Jesse responded, "That is not the stuff I found" (Randle Randle 96). Of course Jesse is going to say this. If he didn’t, then he would look awful silly saying he found some weird debris, which looked normal in the photographs. The point is Randle will believe anything Jesse says in order to defend his position. However, he wants everyone to believe that the statement Jesse made about being photographed with the debris is a falsehood. Kevin does state that Jesse Jr., when confronted with the photographs, says that the material looks like what he saw in a "gross sense"(Randle Randle 97). However, Randle wants an exact match. Jesse Marcel Jr. is speaking about an event that happened over 40 years ago. He was 11-12 years old and awakened from a sound sleep at 2 AM when he saw the debris. I doubt that Jesse Jr. can remember what the debris EXACTLY looked like and therefore it is possible that Jesse Jr. did see debris from flight #4. Randle’s Rebuttal continues onward with the entry in Professor Crary’s journal for the 4th of June. According to Randle, the statement, "Flew up regular sonobuoy mike up in a cluster of balloons...." indicates there was no reflectors in this flight (Randle Conspiracy 227-228). Professor Moore has gone on record as stating the first flights included these reflectors. However, Randle states that Professor Moore’s statements are "pure speculation" (Randle Conspiracy 228). This is simply an amazing statement since Randle spends a majority of his books writing on "pure speculation" and "guesswork"! Professor Moore was there and as one of the individuals, who was deeply involved in the project, can be considered reliable in his recollections. What Randle does not allow the reader to know is that the term "Cluster of balloons’ means the use of multiple balloons in long vertical trains and that the term "cluster" is used continuously in the 1948 NYU reports. A perfect example is a statement in the NYU Report attached to 1995 USAF report. In the NYU report, written in 1948, they describe to drawings of flight's #5(fig 31) and #7(fig 36) "Figures 31 and 36 show the two methods used to group the balloons in CLUSTERS (my emphasis)" (HQ USAF FACT Attachment 32/Appendix 13). Even more interesting is that the flight #2 drawing says at the upper right corner, "Train for CLUSTER (My emphasis) flight #2" (HQ USAF CASE 6). This is supposed to be the same type of arrangement that was used for flight #4. Randle’s reasoning is seriously flawed. As I have demonstrated, it was common practice to call the Mogul balloon trains as clusters as demonstrated in the NYU Reports. The use of the term "cluster’ in the Flight #2 drawing coupled with Crary’s journal only confirms that the June 4th launching was flight #4 and probably included reflectors. The entry does not eliminate the reflectors at all and Randle is attempting to mislead the reader by withholding key information in his argument. Kevin Randle does not stop with this argument. His opposition to the flight #4 theory is clear-cut and he attempts several more clumsy reasons as to why the Mogul explanation is flawed. He researched the weather data for the time period that flight #4 was launched and then stated the winds were not in the correct direction to blow the balloon train to the debris field. However, Randle is not a meteorologist. Dr Moore, who was deeply involved with the project, is much more familiar with the way the earth’s atmosphere works. His analysis of the winds aloft data indicated that there was a baroclinic (multi-layered) system, which produces high level winds at cross directions to those at lower levels (Frazier, Karr, and Nickell ed. 117). What this means is while winds below 20,000 ft were moving in an east to northeast direction, the winds above this were moving to the North and Northwest! As Flight #4 moved into the upper troposphere, it would shift to the North and Northwest and as it descended again, it would resume its east to northeast drift. To check his theory out, he used the data from flights #5 and #6 with the wind data and plotted the suspected course. The actual courses were very close to the calculated ones. He then put the flight #4 candidate into his model and the balloon came down in the same general area of the Foster Ranch. Even more interesting is that the balloon would have been strewn out in a SW to NE pattern. This is the EXACT Pattern described by both Jesse Marcel and Bill Brazel (in his original statements in the 1979 interviews)! When confronted with this, Randle’s only response is that the weather and winds data is insufficient to prove this point and he makes this comment as a footnote in FINE PRINT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE (Randle Conspiracy 232). Even a person with just a small amount of understanding who looks at the report can see that the balloons backed up as they crossed into the upper troposphere. If the balloon operated as expected and as Dr. Moore recalls, the wind data provides convincing evidence that flight #4 was the culprit for the debris on the Foster Ranch. Probably one of the clumsiest efforts by Kevin Randle to convince others that flight #4 could not possibly be the debris recovered occurred in 1997. In the September 1, 1997 issue of Saucer Smear we read Randle saying: Note the term, "high density air traffic areas". Randle is referring to is the notification of the eastern coast airports during the first test flights in Pennsylvania. The flights in New Mexico did not have such restrictions placed upon them in June of 1947. Professor Moore in his affidavit states, "Initially we did not coordinate any of our balloon launches with the Civil Aeronautics Administration. We had no contact with any of the Roswell personnel – although Crary or Peoples may have" (HQ USAF FACT Attachment 21). There is additional proof of this in the AF report from a memo dated August 21, 1947 from the Air Coordinating committee of Fort Worth. The committee first thought the balloons would remain at the confines of White Sands but since some of these balloons were coming down outside of Roswell, the felt that notification was necessary. The date is after the recovery of the Brazel debris no matter which scenario you choose. In the interview with Professor Moore, he expounds on having problems with RAAF. He states they were turned back at the gate and that one of their technicians had to work out of a motel to receive the signals from the MOGUL flights. Professor Moore also comments, "…In fact, we went over and tried to get into the weather station at Roswell and because of the atomic bomb security of the 509th, as I remember, we couldn’t even get on the base…" (HQ USAF FACT Attachment 21). When Robert Todd pointed out the problem with the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) messages that were required after the meeting with the CAA to Randle, Kevin replied, These men at Roswell who knew about balloon launchings would not have included Jesse Marcel. This was not Marcel’s responsibility (since he was not a weather officer). Also, since RADAR was a new item and there was no radar at RAAF, they would have never seen a radar reflector attached to a balloon for tracking purposes. Sure, the equipment was not classified but nobody seemed to have any training or experience with the ML-307 radar reflector. As Newton explained, these types of reflectors were anything but "common". Also, Moore had dispensed with using the radar targets for tracking after flight #4. If he was no longer using them with his flights, he would not bother telling anybody about using them. Even if he did describe these to the pilots/command staff at RAAF, it seems they did not care to listen because, according to Randle, Moore stated that "… the officers had no time for a bunch of ‘college boys’..." (Randle Online June 9, 1998). The officers at RAAF were not interested when approached and there is no reason to believe that any of them were exposed to the equipment used by flight #4 or what the gear looked like. This probably goes double for Marcel and Blanchard. As a Commanding Officer, it is doubtful that Blanchard bothered himself with nonsense such as radar reflectors for weather balloons. He was a pilot, not some geeky weather officer. Marcel, who was not a pilot, had no experience dealing with weather equipment. The ability for them to recognize a ML-307B reflector or to link it to the NYU project was not there. Another "investigator", named David Rudiak, has posted several comments on the Internet on why he feels MOGUL is an unsatisfactory answer. David, from his writings, seems to be a big supporter of the crashed spaceship theory. However, his conclusions are flawed due to inadequate research. David states the following on an Internet posting concerning Flight #5 (the follow-up flight to flight #4) and tries to lend credence to Randle's belief that RAAF was well informed of the flights by NYU: There are several problems here. The first one is that RAAF had no Radar. In an Email discussion with Robert Todd, he sent me the copy of a letter that is dated 3 June 1947 from 8th AF to White Sands. It reads, in part, The entire context of the letter is about how the aircraft at these could practice flying against radar at White Sands. They had no radar of their own on June 3, 1947. Radar, being relatively new, would not be installed at RAAF for some time. Rudiak obviously did not even investigate this before he made his statement. Rudiak’s line of reasoning also fails in that ground based observers do not report the overflight of any aircraft or balloons during the early part of June. It appears that RAAF is oblivious to an incursion into their airspace. However, Rudiak is incorrect in his claim that flight #5 even flew over RAAF. The map in the AF report indicates that it passed south of Roswell by about 5-6 miles, which equates to the location of RAAF. However, looking at Professor Moore's maps in his book, UFO Crash at Roswell: Genesis of a Modern Myth, we find the balloons passing south of downtown Roswell by about 10 miles or south of the airbase 4-5 miles. So, which is it? The answer lies in the NYU maps and their polar coordinate system. A bearing of 71-72 degrees from Alamogordo air base passes south of downtown Roswell by about 5 miles (the location of the RAAF base). On this bearing, we find the mark Roswell. Rudiak confuses this with downtown Roswell but in actuality it is the location of RAAF! The flight passed south of Roswell on a 74 degree bearing from Alamogordo, which equates to the flight passing south of the town of Roswell by a little over 10 miles. Professor Moore’s maps in his book are accurate and there was no "incursion" into RAAF airspace at all. The pro-crashed saucer advocates have taken their best shot. Unfortunately, they can not stand up to the documentation concerning NYU project. Their strong desire to grasp any minor point and inflate it to make it appear that the NYU balloon train could not fit the descriptions is a smoke screen designed to help the faithful maintain their conviction and not jump ship. However, the coincidences associated with the NYU flights and the events described by many of the witnesses are too close to ignore. Is it mere coincidence that the general description of the debris given by many witnesses is similar to the materials that Dr. Moore used in his flight #4? Is it mere coincidence that flight #4 was never recovered and that it was last seen in the area near the debris field? Is it mere coincidence that the alien hieroglyphics were purple/pink, the same color as the figures on the tape used by the reflectors? Is it mere coincidence that the NYU project was active in the New Mexico area at the correct time? Is it mere coincidence that the photographs of the debris in Ramey’s office show the same type of radar reflectors used by the NYU project? In the words of Professor Moore, It is clear that the author’s will never accept the flight #4 answer because they claim that they have overwhelming evidence to support their claim that an actual alien spaceship crashed near Roswell. With the 50th anniversary of Roswell fast approaching, investigator Kent Jeffrey launched an initiative designed to release all information concerning the Roswell Incident from government files. However, Kent also chose to duplicate the efforts of the authors and the US Air Force and see if he could find new information to shed more light onto the mystery that is Roswell. What Kent found out was unexpected and created even more controversy in the UFO community. Aldrich, Jan L. Project 1947:A Preliminary Report on the 1947 UFO Sighting Wave. UFO Research Coalition, 1997 Berlitz, Charles and William Moore. The Roswell Incident. New York: Berkley, 1988 Brookesmith, Peter. UFO: The Government Files. New York: Barnes & Nobles, 1996 Frazier, Kendrick ,Barry Karr, and Joe Nickell ed. UFO Invasion. Amherst: Prometheus, 1997 Friedman, Stanton. Top Secret: MAJIC. New York: Marlowe & Company, 1997 Friedman, Stanton and Don Berlinner. Crash at Corona. New York: Marlowe & Company, 1997 HQ USAF. The Roswell Report: Case Closed. Washington: D.C., US Government, 1997 HQ USAF, The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert. Washington D.C.: US Government, 1995 Klass, Philip. "GAO Revised Roswell Report at Rep Schiff's Request." Skeptics UFO Newsletter, September 1996 Kolarik, Robert. "The Roswell Incident: 50 Years of Controversy", San Antonio Express Online. Internet. Available WWW: http://www.expressnews.com/roswell/roshistory.html Moseley, James. Saucer Smear magazine Online. Internet. Available WWW: http://www.martiansgohome.com/smear/ Pflock, Karl. Roswell in Perspective. Mt. Rainier: Fund for UFO Research, 1995 "UFO REPORTS 1947". Project 1947. Online. Internet. Available WWW: http://www.project1947.com/fig/1947f.htm Randle, Kevin. Conspiracy of Silence. New York: Avon Books, 1997 -----. The Randle Report: UFOs in the 90s. New York: M. Evans and Company inc., 1997 -----. 9 June 1998. Online posting. UFOMIND mailing list archive. 9 June 1998. Online. Internet. Available WWW: http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/updates/1998/jun/m09-018.shtml Randle, Kevin and Donald Schmitt. UFO Crash at Roswell. New York: Avon, 1991 Rudiak, David. . 11 June 1998. Online posting. UFOMIND mailing list archive. 11 Jun 1998 Online. Internet. Available WWW: http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/updates/1998/jun/m11-032.shtml Saler, Benson, Charles Ziegler, and Charles Moore. UFO Crash at Roswell: Genesis of a Modern Myth. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1997 Todd, Robert. Personal E-mail. (Robert informs me the source of this letter is from "a file folder entitled "Guided Missile Test Ranges," in Box RD-3721, among the Sarah Clark files in Record Group 342 located at the National Archives.") US Government. The GAO Report on Roswell. Washington D. C.: Online. Internet. Available WWW: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/8148/gao.html
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