Has recently been the source of intense interest by the media and a curious general public. In recent years, numerous books, magazine articles, television programs, madefortv movie, ufo museums, fraudulent documents and even an alien autopsy film have emerged to exploit the media fascination with the roswell incident. The story has even gained international attention. Despite the vested interest and questionable credibility of all sources involved in generating the media hype, the u. S. Air force is routinely accused of concealing a deep dark secret from the American People. In early 1994, new mexico congressman Stephen Schiff requested a records review. The purpose of the review was to determine if the u. S. Air force or any other u. S. Government agency possessed information on an alleged crash near roswell, new mexico in july 1947 of an extraterrestrial vehicle and its alien crew. In response to the probe, the secretary of the air force directed a comprehensive search for records. The objective of the search was to tell the congress and American People what the air force knew about the 1947 roswell claims. If the information was still classified, it was to be declassified. If active or former air force officials had signed nondisclosure agreements, they were to be released from these agreements. The resulting 800 page report was completed in july 1994. It concluded the predecessor to the u. S. Air force, the u. S. Army air forces, recovered material near roswell in july 1947. What was recovered was not the remains of an extraterrestrial spacecraft and its alien crew, but debris from a thin classified Army Air Forces project codenamed mogul. This was a topsecret attempt to acoustically detect suspected soviet Nuclear Explosions and Ballistic Missile launches. The project was recorded the highest priority because it addressed the most important postwar National Defense concern, the development of an Early Warning system to prevent a devastating surprise attack. Mogul used an audit assortment of sensors, radar reflecting targets, and other equipment carried aloft by weather balloons extending over 600 feet. Claims that the u. S. Army air forces recovered a flying disc near roswell in 1947 were based primarily on a misidentification of the radar targets, a standard element of whether equipment adapted for use on the long balloon train. In june 1940 seven, the oddly constructed radar targets were found by a local rancher who later reported the equipment as a flying disc. Following an initial confusion at Roswell Army Airfield, the flying disc debris, aluminum foil, rubber, paper and sticks, was identified by Army Air Force officials as remnants of radar targets and weather balloons. With the positive identification by the Army Air Forces of the debris recovered by the rancher, events that occurred in 1947 were officially resolved and largely forgotten. Initially the roswell incident consisted only of accounts of the recovery of a flying disc. In 1947, there were no claims of alien Bodies Associated with the incident. The recovery of alien bodies became part of the story during the late 1970s with other claims being made in the 1980s and 1990s. These later day revisions to the roswell story were often based on anecdotal accounts from second and third hand witnesses collected by ufo enthusiasts 30 or more years after the actual incident. The same anecdotal accounts that referred to bodies also described largescale Field Operations conducted by u. S. Military personnel using an assortment of military vehicles and aircraft to recover crash debris supposedly from an extraterrestrial spaceship. Military personnel were allegedly led by an angry redheaded captain threatening those who witnessed the operation with imprisonment or death if they revealed what they observed. The popular roswell story contends of the bodies, once recovered, were allegedly transported under tight security to the base hospital at Roswell Army Airfield for autopsy. At the hospital, the angry redheaded captain was again allegedly observed threatening civilians. Following the purported autopsies, the alien bodies were supposedly transported to wright field, ohio for further processing and storage. This summarizes the roswell incident scenario as presented by ufo enthusiasts. On the surface, this explanation may appear plausible to some. However, things are not always as they appear. The reports of bodies were only briefly discussed in the 1994 air force report because the search for records from 1947, the year of the alleged incident, did not yield any data to support the claim of alien bodies. However, following the release of 1994 report, Additional Research uncovered information which explains some of the claims of alien Bodies Associated with the roswell incident. From the Additional Research, a second report was written which critically examined anecdotal claims and descriptions of flying saucers, aliens, and reports of unusual air force act to eddies in the new mexico desert. It revealed that many of these claims were reasonably accurate to scriptions of air force activities. Some of the claims that referred to bodies are most likely misperceptions by uninformed persons of unclassified and widely publicized air force scientific achievements of the 1950s. However, other descriptions of bodies appear to be exploitation of air force members killed or injured in the line of duty. The following are the five main conclusions contained in the second report. Research reveals that actual u. S. Military operations widely separated by time, geographical location and purpose have been misinterpreted or to liberally misrepresented. Ufo proponents failed to establish accurate dates of reported eyewitness accounts in some instances by more than a decade. In addition, they erroneously linked all of these accounts to the actual 1947 recovery of project mogul equipment. Eventually these misrepresentations transformed a series of verifiable air force activities to what some have described as the extraterrestrial event of a millennium pure reports of aliens in the new mexico desert were actually anthropomorphic test dummies carried aloft by air force highaltitude research balloons. Critical examination of alleged alien sightings consistently match the physical characteristics of these dummies as well as where and how they were used. That new dummy cam is great. It will give people a whole new outlook on what it looks like when you dont wear a safety belt. [yelling] i think though get the picture. You can learn a lot from a dummy. Buckle your safety belt. Narrator anthropomorphic dummies are today easily identifiable and are even stars of their own successful advertising campaign. However, during the 1950s, Public Awareness was decades away for these important scientific tools. From 1953 until 1959, anthropomorphic dummies were used by the u. S. Air force Aeronautical Laboratory in projects high dive and excelsior. The Main Objective was to study methods for returning a pilot or astronaut safely to earth by parachute if forced to eject at extremely High Altitudes. For these tests, dummies were transported up to 98,000 feet by highaltitude balloons. [wind blowing] the dummies were released for a freefall period during which body movements and escape equipment performance were recorded by a number of instruments. Many dummies landed outside the confines of military installations and were observed by civilians. Following a series of dummy tests, a human subject, now a retired colonel, made three bailouts from highaltitude balloons. These and other aeronautical projects that used both dummies and human test subjects were unclassified and widely publicized in the press and other media. In 1956, 20th century fox released on the threshold of space, a Motion Picture based on these projects and filmed on location at Holloman Air Force base. Air force personnel, aircraft, highaltitude balloons, and other equipment, including the actual anthropomorphic dummies, were used in the making of the film. The eyewitness reports of military units that always seemed to arrive shortly after the alleged crash of a flying saucer were actually accurate descriptions of air force personnel engaged in High Altitude balloon and anthropomorphic dummy recovery operations. Since 1947, air force Atmospheric Research organizations at Holloman Air Force base, new mexico, have launched and recovered approximately 2500 highaltitude balloons, many in the same areas of new mexico where the roswell incident allegedly occurred. Additionally, the equipment, vehicles and procedures used by the Holloman Air Force base Balloon Branch, the unit that conducted most of the launches, are the same as that described by the reputed witnesses who claimed they saw the recovery of the flying saucer and alien through crew. These huge highaltitude balloons carried sophisticated and odd looking devices. Much of the equipment was experimental and represented for that era the latest in spaceage technology. Payloads ranged from simple radio transmitters to sophisticated satellite components and nasa space probes. In fact, qualification trials for the nasa voyager mars were flown by highaltitude balloons in the 1960s and early 1970s. Ironically, these balloons were launched from the former Roswell Army Airfield, the site of the original alleged 1947 incident, and recovered on the White Sands Missile range over 100 miles to the west. Recovering the balloon payloads was essential for accomplishing the scientific objectives of the highaltitude balloon program. The primary highaltitude balloon recovery areas were and still are located at predetermined sites throughout arizona, west texas and new mexico, including the area surrounding roswell. To retrieve the equipment, many miles from Holloman Air Force base, recovery personnel operated a variety of aircraft and vehicles. The exact vehicles described by the witnesses as having been present at the crashed flying saucer site. To expedite these operations, recovery crews track the balloons optically, electronically and from aircraft that directed vehicles to the impact areas. In several of the roswell accounts, unsubstantiated allegations asserted that military personnel who retrieved equipment from rural areas of new mexico intimidated and threatened civilians on the scene. On the contrary, Balloon Branch personnel enjoyed good relations with the local community and often solicited their assistance following a balloon or payload landing. In the course of their activities, recovery personnel rented or borrowed tractors, snowmobiles and even pack mules from local residents. The payloads, parachutes, balloons and circling aircraft often drew crowds of curious onlookers from local communities. Simile civilians are often present at a balloon or payload landing site that the scenes were once described by Balloon Branch personnel as being like the circus coming to town. Here is what it looked like this afternoon, floating from east to west over town. It was way up there, all right. Some 25 miles over our heads, the air force later told me. The giant helium filled balloon eventually collapsed, falling to earth like 1000 pounds of cellophane, landing on the gila reservation southwest of phoenix. A short while later, we spotted this, a large parachute perhaps 100 feet across. Dangling beneath it was some sort of silver box that made a rather hard landing. This is what had been attached to the balloon, we would later find out. There were no markings on it, no way at all of telling what it was. Then the air force pulled up. About a Million People in phoenix are dying to know what is this. This is a scientific payload launched from Holloman Air Force base in new mexico. How far are we, 400 miles . It went up approximately 125,000 feet into the air, carried aloft by an 11 million cubic feet balloon. And air force experiment together information on gases in the upper atmosphere. Thank goodness it was one of ours. Glenn clements, newscenter 10. Narrator the Balloon Branch also launched low altitude tethered balloons. They may have inspired at least one account of an alien Craft Associated with the roswell incident. In a popular book, the authors present a drawing of a crashed spaceship allegedly given to them by an anonymous witness. When this drawing is compared to a photograph of an experimental tethered balloon flown at Holloman Air Force base in 1965, the similarities are undeniable. The redheaded captain was probably Joseph Kittinger junior. He served as captain of the balloon projects. He was present at many balloon and dummy launch and recovery sites throughout the southwest United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. However, other than the allegations made by ufo proponents, there is no evidence of any kind that kittinger threatened or confronted civilians. His achievements as an air force test pilot are legendary. He has the standing world record parachute jump from nearly 20 miles. Later he went on to serve three combat tours in Southeast Asia and is credited with an aerial victory while engaged in combat over North Vietnam. [explosion] after over 480 combat missions, he was shot down over North Vietnam and spent 10 months as a prisoner of war in the infamous hanoi hilton before being repatriated in march 1973. He made history again after retiring from the air force. In 1984, he accomplished the first solo crossing of the atlantic by balloon. The final and most disturbing conclusion of the second roswell report is the apparent exploitation of air force members killed or injured in the line of duty to perpetuate the alleged sightings of alien bodies. Claims of bodies at the Roswell Army AirfieldArmy Hospital were largely a combination of several aircraft accidents and an unusual mans balloon mishap. One accident occurred on june 26, 1956. 11 air force members died when theyre fully loaded Tanker Aircraft experienced propeller failure 4. 5 minutes after takeoff. The crash site was approximately nine miles south of the former Roswell Army Airfield, renamed Walker Air Force base in 1948. The badly burned bodies of the 11 crewmen were identified and processed at the Walker Air Force base hospital. The alleged claims of buddies at the base hospital can be traced to a single witness whose descriptions closely match the condition and circumstances under which these victims were identified. Furthermore, claims of bodies attributed to specific air force personnel are unsubstantiated. Some of these individuals were not even present at Roswell Army Airfield in july 1947. The balloon mishap occurred during a low Training Mission for backup pilots in the project excelsior highaltitude mans balloon program. This unusual accident occurred approximately 10 miles northwest of Walker Air Force base on may 21, 1959. One of the three crewmen, now a retired colonel, was injured during landing. Following the mishap, he and the other balloon crewmembers were transported to the Walker Air Force base hospital via a chase helicopter that followed the Training Mission for emergency purposes. Upon arrival at the highly secure Strategic Air command base, the balloon crew was met by an armed air force security personnel who remained with the group until their identities were confirmed. As the excelsior project officer, the redheaded captain kittinger accompanied the balloon. They were apparently observed by individuals who later related the unusual incidents. Elements of the actual event now appear to be part of the roswell story. Captain folgum was treated for an injury that caused his head to swell yonder its normal size. Described as traumatic hematoma, it was not serious. On a specially arranged flight several days after the accident, he returned to Wrightpatterson Air Force base in ohio, where he made a complete recovery. He went on to distinguish himself as a test parachutist and physiologist for the space program. He later flew f4s in Southeast Asia during the korea war. When critically examined, the roswell incident is exposed as a conglomeration of many events, including aircraft accidents, that occurred over several decades. Misidentification of anthropomorphic dummies and experimental balloon launched devices combined with air force balloon operations portrayed as mysterious flying saucer and alien recovery teams transformed verifiable events into what is now known as the roswell incident. The u. S. Air force and its predecessors have been the unsurpassed innovators in aerospace technology. Legendary air force leaders throughout this century have used technological advances to establish the u. S. Air force as a premier military service. The facts presented in the reports examining the socalled roswell incident did not reveal it to be a dark secret or government coverup as persons unacquainted with air force technology proclaims. Instead, these studies identified a collection of events that exemplify the technological leadership, dedication to duty and continuing noble sacrifices of the men and women of the United States air force. According to the cia, the film angels in paradise was produced for family members of those working on the secret spy plane u2 at the u. S. Military facility in nevada. The film tells the story of the design, manufacture and testing of the plane between 1954 and 1960. It could fly and take photographs at an unprecedented 70,000 feet it is believed that siding of the flights in the vater with a source of many 1950s and 1960s ufo stories