Page 85 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Jan-Feb 2018, Vol 27, No 1

The Roswell Incident and Project Mogul 85

The Roswell Incident and

Project Mogul

by Dave Thomas

As reported in the January-February 1995
Skeptical Inquirer, a September 1994 Air Force
report strongly supported the theory that the
“UFO” debris found by rancher Mac Brazel in
1947 northwest of Roswell, New Mexico, was in
fact a remnant of a balloon flight launched as
part of a top-secret program called Project
Mogul. The possible connection between the
Roswell Incident and Mogul was first realized
by researcher Robert G. Todd, and
independently by Karl T. Pflock.
Recently, Charles B. Moore, one of three
surviving Project Mogul scientists identified in
and interviewed for the Air Force report, spoke
to the New Mexicans for Science and Reason
(NMSR) in Albuquerque. He discussed the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) shows the balloon wreckage shown in General Ramey’s office was
background of the project, the New York
train. No such diagram is available for Flight 4; just a weather balloon switched for the “real
University (NYU) balloon flights, and the
since no altitude data were obtained for it, it was debris,” Moore pointed out that the radar targets
Roswell connection. He provided new details
not included in formal NYU reports. However, used by NYU were unlike anything flown in
that would appear to virtually clinch the idea Moore says the configuration for Flight 4 was New Mexico before and that “they were not
that the debris Brazel found was indeed from quite similar to that shown. The large octahedral available in Fort Worth to be substituted for the
one of the Project Mogul flights that Moore objects at top left and bottom middle are radar debris in General Ramey’s office.” Warrant
helped launch. reflectors, which were used for tracking. Several Officer Newton was able to recognize the debris
What follows is based on Moore’s small aluminum rings for handling the lines are in General Ramey’s office because he happened
presentation, his answers to audience questions, indicated; the “payload” (a sonobuoy) was to have used an early version of the same targets
subsequent meetings and discussions with him,
supported by slightly larger rings. The cluster of while serving as a weatherman in Okinawa. The
documents he provided, and a monograph he is
neoprene sounding balloons extended for earlier-model targets Newton used did not have
preparing on these flights.
hundreds of feet in flight. the reinforcing tape with the pinkish-purple
Moore, professor emeritus of physics at The debris Brazel picked up—and which flower designs.
New Mexico Institute of Mining and was later taken to Fort Worth, Texas, for Brazel’s daughter, Bessie Brazel
Technology in Socorro, was a graduate student inspection by Brigadier General Roger Ramey, Schreiber, in a 1979 interview conducted by
working for NYU back in 1947. The Mogul the Air Force commander there—matches NYU author William Moore (no relation to Charles B.
project was so classified and compartmentalized Flight 4 in several different ways. Some of the Moore), described some aluminum ring-shaped
that even Moore didn’t know the project’s name debris consisted of patches of a smelly, smoky objects in the debris that looked like pipe intake
until Robert Todd informed him of it a couple of
gray, rubber-like material, which is consistent collars or the necks of balloons. (The mention of
years ago. The unclassified purpose of the
with the neoprene balloons used in NYU Flight the rings appears in William Moore’s transcript
project was to develop constant-level balloons
4. Much of the Roswell debris—sticks, metallic of the interview, but was not included in his
for meteorological purposes. paper, and strangely marked tape—is similar to book The Roswell Incident.) She estimated that
Its classified purpose was to try to material used for the radar reflectors. When they were about 4 inches around, and said she
develop a way to monitor possible Soviet Warrant Officer Irving Newton saw the debris in could put her hand through them. Charles Moore
nuclear detonations with the use of low- General Ramey’s office, he recognized it as points out that Flight 4 carried several 3-inch-
frequency acoustic microphones placed at high pieces of a radar target. Moore points out that diameter aluminum rings for assisting with the
altitudes. No other means of monitoring the
the Ramey photographs show parts of more than launching of the balloon train, as well as larger
nuclear activities of a closed country like the
one reflector; Flight 4 contained three Signal rings used to hold the sonobuoys. These were
USSR was yet available, and the project was
Corps ML-307B RAWIN targets. cut from cylindrical tubing stock, and then
given a high priority. One of the NYU tasks was
Many witnesses of the debris described chamfered to prevent damage to the ropes.
the development of constant-level balloons for tape with flower designs or hieroglyphics on it. Sheridan Cavitt, the CIC (Counter-
placing the acoustic microphones aloft. After Moore recalls that the reinforcing tape used on Intelligence Corps) officer who accompanied
some preliminary flights in Bethlehem, NYU targets had curious markings. “There were Major Jesse Marcel to the debris field, described
Pennsylvania, in April 1947, which failed due to about four of us who were involved in this, and a black box in the wreckage. Moore says the
high winds, the project moved to New Mexico. all remember that our targets had sort of a NYU crew routinely packed batteries for the
In June and early July 1947, numerous
stylized, flowerlike design. I have prepared, in acoustic equipment in black boxes. There has
NYU balloon flights were launched from
my life, probably more than a hundred of these been some speculation that the black box might
Alamogordo Army Air Field in New Mexico.
targets for flight. And every time I have prepared have been a radiosonde, but Moore pointed out
Some of these flights consisted of very long
one of these targets, I have always wondered that radiosondes are usually white to prevent
trains containing up to two dozen neoprene what the purpose of that tape marking was. But absorption of heat.
sounding balloons, having a total length of more . . . a major named John Peterson, laughed . . .
than 600 feet. and said ‘What do you expect when you get your (Continued on Page 86)
Moore makes a strong case for the targets made by a toy factory?'”
hypothesis that NYU Flight #4, which he helped The radar targets contained small
launch on June 4, 1947, was the source of the
eyelets. Moore showed the NMSR audience a
debris Brazel found on the Foster ranch, and
similar target with the eyelets. In an article in the
therefore the source of the “Roswell Incident”
Roswell Daily Record on July 9, 1947, rancher
itself. Many of the materials used in Flight 4
Brazel described the debris as having no strings
bear striking similarities to pieces of the Roswell or wire, but as having eyelets for some sort of
debris. A diagram of an earlier, similar flight, attachment.
Flight #2 (launched April 18, 1947, from While many UFO proponents claim the