Document · 1995
The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert (U.S. Air Force, 1995)
Also known as The Roswell Report, Weaver report, Air Force Roswell report 1994, Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert
The U.S. Air Force's first report on Roswell, prepared in 1994 by Col. Richard L. Weaver and 1st Lt. James McAndrew of the Secretary of the Air Force's declassification team after Representative Steven Schiff asked the General Accounting Office to find the records of the July 1947 events, and published in 1995 as a 994-page book with all its attachments.
It concludes that the debris collected by Maj. Jesse Marcel and Capt. Sheridan Cavitt on the Foster ranch most likely came from a Project MOGUL balloon train, a then Top Secret programme to detect Soviet nuclear tests with microphones carried by strings of balloons and radar targets. Its attachments are primary material in their own right: the sworn statements of Cavitt and of the Fort Worth weather officer Irving Newton, the transcript of Cavitt's interview, the affidavits collected by researchers, MOGUL flight records and the original Fort Worth photographs. Its sequel, Case Closed (1997), addressed the later accounts of bodies.
Source: U.S. Air Force, Headquarters, 1995 (Air Force Historical Support Division copy)
Facts and claims
- documented Published by the Air Force in 1995 (994 pages), the book reproduces the report Col. Richard L. Weaver and 1st Lt. James McAndrew prepared for the Secretary of the Air Force and the GAO after Rep. Steven Schiff's request, with its attachments: sworn statements, interview transcripts, Project MOGUL records and the Fort Worth photographs. Source: doc-af-roswell-report-1995.pdf
- documented It recalls that the Roswell Daily Record of July 8, 1947 reported that “the Intelligence Officer of the 509th Bomb Group, stationed at Roswell Army Air Field, Major Jesse A. Marcel, had recovered a “flying disc”” and that the disc had been “flown to higher headquarters”; the next day General Ramey said the debris recovered by Marcel was a weather balloon. Source: doc-af-roswell-report-1995.pdf
- documented The Air Force found “no evidence of any extraterrestrial craft or alien flight crew”; it concludes that “the most likely source of the wreckage recovered from the Brazel Ranch was from one of the Project MOGUL balloon trains”, and that the wreckage displayed by Ramey and Marcel in the Fort Worth photographs “was that of a radar target normally suspended from balloons”. Source: doc-af-roswell-report-1995.pdf
- documented Comparing first-generation prints and negatives of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram photographs, it says that although Marcel “allegedly stated that he had his photo taken with the “real” UFO wreckage” before a balloon was substituted, “the same wreckage appeared in the photos of Marcel and Ramey”. Source: doc-af-roswell-report-1995.pdf
Connected files
Incidents
- Roswell crash (documents)
Organizations
- Department of War (Department of Defense) (published by)
People
- Steven Schiff (requested by) — Written to answer Representative Steven H. Schiff's request, through the GAO, for the records of the 1947 events
- Irving Newton (quotes) — His sworn statement is attachment 30 of the report
- Jesse Marcel (quotes) — The Air Force's 1994 report retraces his part from the 1947 papers and the testimony of Cavitt and Newton
- Sheridan Cavitt (quotes) — His sworn statement and interview of 24 May 1994 are attachments 17 and 18 of the report
Videos
- Maj. Jesse Marcel interviewed by Lee Speigel on the Roswell debris (audio, about 1980) (discussed in)
Mentioned in documents and records
More documents
- NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team report (2023)
- Luke AFB FOIA reply on the Phoenix Lights (1 May 1997)
- GAO report on the Roswell crash records (B-262046, July 28, 1995)
- Fiscal Year 2025 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP (Department of War / AARO, July 2026)
- AARO case resolution: "Go Fast" (2025)
- Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Annual Report on UAP (DoD / AARO, November 2024)