Document · 28 July 1995
GAO report on the Roswell crash records (B-262046, July 28, 1995)
Also known as GAO Roswell report, GAO/NSIAD-95-187
The General Accounting Office's 1995 report to Congressman Steven Schiff of New Mexico, who had asked what government records existed about the 1947 Roswell crash. It found two contemporary records: a July 1947 Roswell Army Air Field history and an FBI message saying the recovered disc and balloon were being flown to Wright Field for examination. A search of Wright Field's records for 1947–1950 found nothing about Roswell, and the GAO learned that Roswell Army Air Field's administrative records and outgoing messages for the period had been destroyed without a recorded authority.
The report is evidence both for the Wright Field connection in the Roswell story and for the absence of any surviving record of what was examined there.
Sources: GAO report B-262046 (1995), copy published by the NSA
Facts and claims
- documented A General Accounting Office report to Congressman Steven H. Schiff on the government records concerning the 1947 Roswell crash, dated July 28, 1995. Source: doc-gao-roswell-1995.pdf
- documented It quotes a July 8, 1947 FBI message reporting the recovery near Roswell of a hexagonal disc suspended from a large balloon, stating that “the disc and balloon were being sent to Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio) for examination,” and that the object resembled a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector. Source: doc-gao-roswell-1995.pdf
- documented The GAO reviewed Air Materiel Command (Wright Field) records from 1947 to 1950 and “found no records mentioning the Roswell crash or the examination by Air Materiel Command personnel of any debris recovered from the crash.” Source: doc-gao-roswell-1995.pdf
- documented It found that Roswell Army Air Field administrative records from March 1945 to December 1949 and outgoing messages from October 1946 to December 1949 had been destroyed, and that the disposition form “does not indicate what organization or person destroyed the records and when or under what authority the records were destroyed.” Source: doc-gao-roswell-1995.pdf
Connected files
Incidents
- Roswell crash (about)
Places
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (about) — It found the FBI message saying the Roswell disc was flown to Wright Field, but nothing in Wright Field's records
Organizations
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (quotes) — It quotes the FBI's 8 July 1947 message that the disc and balloon were being sent to Wright Field
People
- Steven Schiff (requested by) — The GAO's 1995 report on the Roswell records is addressed to him, in answer to his request
Videos
- Citizen Hearing 2013: History & Background, Part 2 (discussed in)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Roswell, Part 1 (discussed in)
- Citizen Hearing 2013: Truth, Lies & the Cover-up, Part 1 (discussed in)
More documents
- Project Blue Book case file: Lincoln, New Hampshire, September 1961 (the Hill case)
- Twining memo: AMC Opinion Concerning “Flying Discs”
- Luke AFB FOIA reply on the Phoenix Lights (1 May 1997)
- The Roswell Report: Case Closed (U.S. Air Force, 1997), summary
- Brazilian Air Defence Command report on the events of 19–20 May 1986 ("Official UFO Night")
- Halt memo: Unexplained Lights