STATEMENT OF WITNESS
Date: 25 May 95
Place:
I, Charles A. Coltman, Jr., Col, USAF, MC (Ret), hereby state that James McAndrew was identified as a Lieutenant, USAFR, on this date at my place of employment and do hereby, voluntarily and of my own free will, make the following statement. This was done without having been subjected to any coercion, unlawful influence or unlawful inducement.
I entered the U.S. Air Force in 1957 as a flight surgeon and was assigned to Walker AFB, NM, in 1958. Following a residency at Ohio State University from 1959 to 1963, I was assigned to Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center, Lackland AFB, TX, where I eventually became the Chairman of the Department of Medicine. I retired from the Air Force in 1977. I am presently a Professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and Chief Executive Officer of the Cancer Therapy and Research Foundation of South Texas.
I remember a balloon crash that happened north of Roswell, NM, in May, 1959. I received a phone call from the NCOIC of the Flight Surgeon’s office, who informed me of the crash. The NCOIC, Earl Wormwood, came to my quarters and we drove, in an old blue Air Force “crackerbox” ambulance, to the crash site. I remember the gondola laying on its side and the deflated balloon on the ground. The crew members were sitting next to the gondola. I examined the pilots and determined they were not seriously injured. They told me they were practicing touch-and-go’s and a gust of wind had dumped them on the ground, and the gondola had struck one of the pilots in the head. Also present were Air Force technicians in trucks who tracked the balloon. The injured pilots were transported to the Flight Surgeon’s office at the hospital at Walker AFB.
The injury sustained by the crew member was a head abrasion/contusion and a hemotoma. The hemotoma caused the patient’s head to swell, however, it was not serious enough for him to be admitted. I remember receiving a call from Col (Dr.) John Stapp. He was in charge of the balloon project and was quite famous. Dr Stapp inquired about the injuries to the pilots and he wanted them returned to Holloman AFB as quickly as possible.
The hospital was an old World War II cantonment-type building with long corridors and a capacity of fifty beds. I do not recall a nurse assisting me in the treatment of the patient, although a nurse may have been on duty and observed the patient. I was the only doctor in the hospital that morning. There were no visiting doctors from other bases or facilities. I do not remember any altercations or arguments that day. During my time at Walker, I do not recall that any autopsies were performed at the hospital, since we did not have a pathologist on staff. I do not recall any remains brought to the hospital in body bags, or wreckage transported in the back of an ambulance. There may have been remains brought to the hospital in body bags after a KC-97 crash, but that was before I arrived at Walker. Dr Ed Bradley was involved in the recovery of the remains.
At no time was there ever any involvement of the Walker hospital with UFO’s or “space aliens” I know this to be true because the hospital was very small and had a small staff. If any activity, other than normal hospital functions, had occurred, I would have known about it.