searched for other government
records on the Roswell crash. In this regard, The Chief Archivist for the
National Personnel Records Center provided us with documentation indicating
that (1) RAAF records such as finance and accounting, supplies, buildings
and grounds, and other general administrative matters from March 1945
through December 1949 and (2) RAAF outgoing messages from October 1946
through December 1949 were destroyed. According to this official, the
document disposition form did not properly indicate the authority under
which the disposal action was taken. The Center's Chief Archivist stated
that from his personal experience, many of the Air Force organizational
records covering this time period were destroyed without entering a citation
for the governing disposition authority. Our review of records control forms
showing the destruction of other records-including outgoing RAAF messages
for 1950 -- supports the Chief Archivist's viewpoint.
During our reviewof records at FBI headquarters, we found a July 8, 1947,
teletype message from the FBI office in Dallas, Texas, to FBI headquarters
and the FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio. An FBI spokesperson confirmed the
authenticity of the message.
According to the message, an Eighth Air Force headquarters official had
telephonically informed the FBI's Dallas office of the recovery near Roswell
of a hexagonal-shaped disc suspended from a large balloon by cable. The
message further stated that the disc and balloon were being sent to Wright
Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio) for examination. According
to The Eighth Air Force official, the recovered object resembled a
high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector. The message stated
that no further investigation by the FBI was being conducted. (A copy of the
teletype message appears in app. II.)
To follow up on