The Roswell Report: Case Closed
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 24 June 1997 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 128 |
| Year | 1997 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1997 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 8 |
The Roswell Report: Case Closed is a 1997 U.S. Air Force report, written by Captain James McAndrew, which argued that accounts of alien bodies connected with the Roswell incident were distorted memories of later events, chiefly anthropomorphic test dummies dropped from high-altitude balloons in the 1950s. It was released on 24 June 1997, days before the incident's 50th anniversary.[1][2]
Background
McAndrew was an intelligence officer on the Secretary of the Air Force's declassification and review team, and had co-written a 1995 Air Force report on Roswell with Colonel Richard Weaver. The Air Force's 1994 report had concluded that the 1947 debris came from Project Mogul, a classified program using trains of balloons with acoustic sensors to detect Soviet nuclear tests, but had not dealt in depth with claims of bodies, which first appeared in the late 1970s.[1][3]
The explanations
- Dummies: the report argued that witnesses' "aliens" were probably anthropomorphic test dummies carried aloft by balloons and dropped over New Mexico between 1953 and 1959 in projects such as High Dive and Excelsior, to test high-altitude escape and parachute systems. Recovery crews from the Holloman balloon branch, with vehicles such as a wrecker, a six-by-six truck and a weapons carrier, matched witness descriptions, and Gerald Anderson's description of bald, four-fingered beings in grey suits matched the dummies' appearance and damage.[1]
- Hospital accounts: stories of bodies at the Roswell base hospital were linked to two unrelated incidents: the 1956 crash of a KC-97 aircraft near Walker Air Force Base that killed 11 airmen, and a 1959 manned balloon accident that injured two Air Force pilots.[1]
- Time compression: the report argued that Air Force activities spanning many years had been merged in witnesses' memories into a few days in July 1947.[1]
- No secrecy: the dummy projects were unclassified and widely publicised, including in the 1956 film On the Threshold of Space.[1]
Reception
The report was widely mocked. Critics, including many journalists, pointed out that the dummy drops began years after 1947, so the explanation required witnesses to have misremembered dates by a decade or more, and UFO researchers quickly highlighted its inconsistencies. Supporters argue that it reasonably explains how memories recalled decades later could become distorted. The Roswell story remained a major tourist attraction.[2][4]
People and topics
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Roswell — The New Mexico town at the center of the 1947 crash story.
- Project Mogul — A secret Army Air Forces program using balloon trains to detect Soviet nuclear tests, blamed by the Air Force for the Roswell debris.
On the Timeline
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- The Day After Roswell (June 1997) — Philip Corso claims he helped seed recovered UAP technology into U.S. industry.
- NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics workshop (1997) (August 1997) — NASA holds a breakthrough propulsion physics workshop.
See every 1997 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- The Roswell Report: Case Closed (1997), Project Gutenberg · gutenberg.org · archived copy
- "Dummies tell no tales: Air Force tries to close book", Spokesman-Review (25 Jun 1997) · spokesman.com · archived copy
- Roswell incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "U.S. Air Force reports on Roswell", History.com · history.com · archived copy
- The Roswell Report: Case Closed (1997, PDF) — The Black Vault · documents.theblackvault.com · archived copy
- The Roswell Report: Case Closed — DTIC · apps.dtic.mil · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
- ufologie.patrickgross.org · ufologie.patrickgross.org · archived copy
Further reading
- Roswell incident — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- UFOs and the Air Force: records — National Archives · archives.gov · archived copy
- Holloman Air Force Base — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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