by Jesse Marcel
Corner reflectors or Rawin targets were used in place of the radiosonde to track the balloon trains from either the air or ground. The Rawin targets were composed of a paper-backed tinfoil, and resembled a box kite constructed of balsa wood sticks and metalized paper, similar to a candy bar wrapper, taped to hold the foil to the sticks. Several of these were attached in the theory that radar detection would be easier if there were several targets, rather than just one.
As noted earlier, Army Air Force records indicate that there were a total of 11 balloon flights attempted by researchers from New York University in all of 1947. If you recall, when explaining the Roswell Incident, the government's story focused mainly upon Flight #4, which was launched June 3. Yet Flight # 10 was the only one whose actual path came even remotely close to the site, and that flight was later seen still aloft, far to the north over Colorado.
According to the New York University balloon group records, Flight #4 contained the following items:
— 28 neoprene balloons
— Sonobuoy microphone, dry cell batteries, and an FM transmitter
— 4 Rawin radar targets, composed of balsa sticks and metalized paper
— Multiple plastic tubes containing a liquid ballast dribbler system
— 3 sills canopy parachutes (highly visible colors)
— 600-plus feet of braided nylon cord
On Flight #4, there was no radiosonde for tracking, as it had been replaced with the four radar targets.
The items listed here were used in a great number of different research programs, and anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of weather balloons and radar targets would have been able to identify them. When rancher Mac Brazel originally brought the material into the police station, even the sheriff — untrained though he was in the radar technology of the time — would have been able to recognize the material as components of a weather balloon. If the government's published accounts were true, and the debris Brazel found actually was from a weather or Mogul balloon, the story would likely have ended right there.
When my father investigated the crash site, he ascertained the types of debris and the size of the crash site. He never mentioned seeing any electronic components such as the sonobuoy microphone, batteries, or other items such as parachutes or rope that would have been part of a weather balloon or Mogul device. The foil debris that we looked at on our kitchen floor was not paper that had been metalized on one side. The beams that I saw and handled were made of some kind of metal, definitely not balsa wood. Even as a child, I could easily tell the difference.
The size of the debris field and the amount of debris at the crash site deviated so dramatically from the government's story that it would have taken a simultaneous crash of every Mogul balloon ever constructed-many times over-at this exact spot to even come close to the mass of debris my father saw.
Although the government reported that it was Mogul balloon Flight #4 and its radar targets that were found at the debris site, the balloon group at New York University commented that it was more likely that Flight #11 would have landed on the Foster Ranch instead. However, Flight # 11 had no Rawin targets whatsoever. I once had a discussion with Professor Moore (which I'll go into more detail about in the next chapter), and he commented that Flight #4's radiosonde had a cardboard housing. I later found out that Flight #I I had a radiosonde, but Flight #4 did not. In a way, Dr. Moore confirmed that the balloon in the government's cover-up was from another flight, and not #4. Thus, I believe that we can discount the validity of the staged photos of my father holding a Rawin target, because there were none on the lost Mogul balloon flight anyway.
Let's take a closer look at Flight #11. Its telemetry failed over Arabela, New Mexico, where all tracking was terminated. If you compare its flight path to the trajectory of Flight #10, which was more fully documented (yet probably quite similar to that of Flight # 11), the balloon would have continued heading north past Albuquerque and Pueblo, Colorado. Because the telemetry of Flight #I I failed, however, everything after Arabela is simply a guess. Even so, the wind patterns in the stratosphere where these balloons travel are typically quite consistent, and their direction changes slowly, so the trajectory of the Mogul flights should have been similar.
Flight path of the Mogul balloon.
Location of the debris.
Chapter 5
Dr. Moore: Mogul Balloon Scientist
The year 1997 was a special one, being the 50th anniversary of the Roswell event. My wife, Linda, and I, along with our two youngest daughters, Marissa and Mackenzie, made plans to go down to the "festival" that was being held to commemorate the event. As had happened on many other occasions, I received a phone call in which the person on the other line apparently knew of my plans almost before I did. The person requested that I stay over in Socorro, New Mexico, on the way to Roswell. Apparently there was a gentleman there who needed to talk to me.
We booked a room in Socorro and continued with our plans. Shortly after we arrived at our motel, there was a knock on our door. As it turned out, our visitor was none other than Dr. Charles Moore, who had been the head of the NYU balloon portion of Project Mogul. Our meeting was a pleasant one, and Dr. Moore, a gentleman in every sense of the word, told me that he had in his possession a Rawin target, and that he wanted me to look it over and tell him what I thought. In particular, he was interested in having me compare it to what I had seen in my kitchen in Roswell 50 years before. (There is a photograph of Dr. Moore holding a Rawin target; it was not taken at our meeting, but it shows Dr. Moore holding a target similar to that one.)
The target he showed me had the appearance of a box kite, quite similar to those I might have made as a child. The actual construction was quite simple: There was a framework of balsa wood sticks, taped to a white paper body that was coated on one side with some kind of metallic coating, like the wrapper on a chocolate bar. It was all pretty much identical to the material in the old photo taken of my father holding one of these targets. Let's take a closer look at the components of the target.
Dr. Moore holding a radar target array.
The Tape
As Dr. Moore and I were discussing the difference between the debris I had seen and the target he was holding, he commented that the tape on the original targets had been decorated with flowers and berries in a Christmas motif, rather than being clear, as it was on the one he currently held. (More than three years previously, he had told Air Force investigators that the reflectors had been manufactured by a New York toy company, which had reinforced the seams with leftover tape that had "pinkish-purple, abstract, flower-like designs." He and others have surmised that this was what my dad and I could have interpreted as hieroglyphics.)
In any event, the differences between the target Dr. Moore brought to our meeting and the materials I had seen in my kitchen 50 years prior were quite obvious. As I had noted earlier, the "foil" in the debris my father showed us was quite different from the paper-backed foil of the radar target. Neither the foil nor the tape I was shown resembled those in the original debris. Following is a reproduction of Dr. Moore's drawings of the symbols on the tape.
Drawing of symbols by Dr. Moore.
His symbols are just outlines, and the originals are at least an inch high. The symbols I viewed on the I-beams were solid figures of a purple/violet hue, with no distinctive outline. In fact, the symbols were so subtle that I didn't even notice them until direct light reflected off of them. They were clearly not line drawings, and were less than 3/8 of an inch in height. I had a facsimile made to better demonstrate the actual appearance of the beams.
Later on, my daughter Denice did some research on tapes manufactured during that time period that had been printed with a Christmas motif. She was lucky enough to locate and purchase some from a collector. Unfortunately, those samples have been misplaced through the years, and did not resemble the designs on the I-beams my father and I saw anyway.
When Dr. Moore was subsequently interviewed by NBC
for a program about Roswell, he described the symbols on the tape not as flowers, but as mathematical symbols or Greek letters. I have to wonder, why the change? The symbols I had seen on the debris were not printed on tape, nor were they holiday floral or berry designs, as Dr. Moore had initially described them. Neither were they Greek letters or mathematical symbols; they were, instead, geometric symbols. As much as I respect Dr. Moore, I have to wonder at the changes in his story. My assumption is that he revised his comments to more accurately match my own recollection of the debris I had examined with my father, rather than to describe what was actually on the tape. I would prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he really does not remember what the tape on the original targets looked like.
My regard for Dr. Moore aside, I find myself unsure as to whether the flowered tape actually existed on the materials shown to photographers. In all of the photographs of the Rawin targets that were used in Project Mogul, not one of them shows anything resembling the decorative tape he has described.
The picture of Dr. Moore shows one of the ML-307 Rawin radar targets used in Mogul flights. Though it is difficult to see due to the age and poor quality of the photograph, there is no flowered tape, and the white strip is the paper backing folded over one of the structural members. If you look closely, you can even make out the buttons on his shirt, so you would think there should be some evidence of flowers along the taped edge if they were there.
One would also think that, as well-documented and — photographed as the Mogul tests were, some photographs should exist that show the decorative tape described in the government's story, but no such photographs have ever been made public. This is just another example of how the Mogul balloon didn't fit the description of what my father and I saw, and how, in my opinion, truth has been supplanted with disinformation.
I realize that it might seem that I am belaboring the significance of the tape-or, rather, the lack of the tape-but the official story has relied so heavily upon this as a plausible explanation for the symbols that adorned the I-beams in the original debris, that I feel it represents a significant flaw in what I firmly believe to be the government's cover-up.
The Paper
As I have noted previously, the foil in the debris my father showed me was very similar in appearance to modern-day heavy-duty aluminum foil, except that it was much lighter, and had a dull, burnished appearance, rather than the highly reflective finish of aluminum foil. As I also noted earlier, the material on the Rawin target Dr. Moore showed me had an appearance very similar to that of a candy bar wrapper-shiny on one side, and paper on the other. I asked Dr. Moore if any of the radar targets they had used had been foil without the paper backing. He responded that all of the targets used in the Mogul device used paper-backed foil, but that he thought the Navy may have used foil without the paper backing in their radar targets. Such foil, however, would not possess the resiliency and strength of the foil I had handled in the original debris.
The Balsa Wood Sticks
The wood sticks that made up the structure of the Rawin target were obviously lightweight balsa wood, quite fragile, and identical to what I used in building stick models as a child. The I-beams I examined in the wreckage, however, were made of some lightweight metal that had an appearance similar to titanium. My father had, on numerous occasions, made note of the fact that these members were unbelievably strong-strong enough that even a sledge hammer would not dent them. If you were to take a sledge hammer to one of the balsa wood sticks used on the Rawin targets, all you would end up with is a handful of shattered splinters.
Electronic Components
During our conversation, I asked Dr. Moore if any of the electronic components in the Rawin or Mogul devices had been housed in black plastic similar to the material I had seen in the debris. He responded that the radiosonde devices that contained the electronic components were housed in cardboard boxes, rather than plastic. I asked him for his explanation of the fact that there were no electronic components in the debris, because if what we had examined had been sonobuoys or radiosondes, as he claimed, components such as transmitters and batteries would have been found somewhere in or around the crash site. I also asked him to explain why no weather balloons were found in the wreckage, when each of the flights he had conducted had been carried aloft by such balloons, and at least some remnants of the balloon material should have remained with the other material. He admitted that he could offer no explanation for either discrepancy.
In the end, we parted with a handshake. Though Dr. Moore had done his best to convince me that what I had seen had been a Mogul balloon, I think he realized that my description, which had never changed, was not going to change then either.
* * *
The conversation with Dr. Moore only served to further convince me that what my father had brought into our kitchen that night had not been a Mogul device. The discrepancies between what I had seen in Roswell and a Rawin radar target were too numerous, and too clear. Dr. Moore, however, remained convinced that what I saw was a radar target, and assumed that I was mistaken in my memories of what I had seen. I am just as convinced that what I saw was not part of a radar target, nor could any of the debris I saw and handled have come from a Mogul device. I know what I saw, and I know that there are people within the government who know as well, but who remain in the shadows. It is perhaps these people about whom I was cautioned when asked if I had ever gotten any threatening phone calls (I'll go into this in the next chapter).
A few years before I had my meeting with Dr. Moore, I received a call from the Air Force. Because I was a colonel in the Montana National Guard, he began the conversation with, "Colonel, we need your help." I was not sure at first who it was that needed my help. As it turned out, the Air Force wanted to feel me out as to what I thought the debris from Roswell really was. I began by describing what I had seen, in as much detail as my memory would allow. At the end of my description, the caller said that he believed that I had seen parts of a Mogul balloon device, namely the radar reflector that was a part of the Mogul balloon train. I then pointed out the discrepancies between what I had seen and handled in Roswell and the radar target. He was not impressed. I then asked him, just as I would later ask Dr. Moore, if the plastic Bakelite-esque material I had felt could have been part of the housing for the radio transmitter carried aloft with the radar targets. He said that he did not think so, because the radio was housed in either a cardboard or aluminum container. As we reached the end of our conversation, he said something to the effect that he was not sure what I had seen, but that it had obviously not been part of the Mogul project.
I later learned that he had been tasked with gathering pertinent information for inclusion in the official Air Force document I mentioned previously, The Roswell Report: Case Closed. When that document was published, it concluded that what my father and I had seen had indeed been a radar target. Inasmuch as the points made in my conversation with the Air Force were contrary to such a conclusionI'd held firmly to my opinion that it was not a radar target, and the Air Force official had admitted he couldn't say for sure what I had seenI realized, once and for all, that the government was either too inept to relay a factual account, or was participating in a well-choreographed cover-up.
As did my late father, I have no doubt that what I saw in Roswell was unearthly in origin. The only questions that continue to nag at me are, first of all: from where did it come? Secondly, what does the government I have joyfully served for all these years have to gain from hiding the truth? And lastly-though just as worrisome as the other questions-to what lengths will it go to perpetuate the falsehood?
Chapter 6
A Government Official's Admission
It was a bright summer day in the early 1990s, and I had just returned home from my annual two-week training session for the Montana National Guard. To say that it had been a grueling two weeks would he a gross understatement. Between routine medical duties and the constant helicopter support t
raining sessions, it was much more stressful than the time spent in our civilian occupations, and I was looking forward to returning home and taking it easy for a while.
When I got home, I found in my accumulated mail an invitation to a UFO conference in Washington, D.C. The meeting was funded by an anonymous host, who invited me-along with my family-to attend, with all our expenses paid. It sounded like a great deal to me, so I talked to my wife, Linda, about it. Even though she has always been less trusting than I am, I was surprised when she insisted that, because I didn't know who our "benefactor" was, she wouldn't allow the family to go. It seems that before-and especially during-my absence, we had been getting numerous phone calls from people who would not identify themselves, but would inquire as to my whereabouts, then abruptly hang up. Linda was actually concerned that if we all went to Washington, we would perhaps never be seen again. As I recall, she said something to the effect that all of us would be "thrown in the Potomac." The bottom line is that she was too worried and protective of our family to let the kids go. I thought she might have been overreacting a bit, but because she is normally a level-headed person, I had to respect her feelings. After giving it some thought, I told her that I felt it would be a good idea for me to go, but I would do so by myself.
Not too long after I accepted my invitation, my secretary, Linda Story, received a phone call from someone who would not reveal his identity, but claimed that he needed to speak with me. She told the caller that I was seeing a patient at the moment, and asked that he call back a bit later. The caller unformed her that he was from Washington, and that it was imperative that he speak with me immediately. Apparently something in his words or tone convinced my secretary that the call was important enough to warrant interrupting me, so she put the caller on hold to inform me of the apparently urgent nature of the call.