The balloons carrying the dummies were launched from various locations in New Mexico and often impacted off of the White Sands Proving Ground depending on the wind conditions. The dummies were outfitted with clothing and equipment of an Air Force pilot. The facial features of the dummies were not as pronounced as a human. The ears and noses did not protrude. I do not recall any dummies with ears or noses. Some of the dummies were not complete; they sometimes did not have arms or legs. To someone not associated with the project or who viewed the dummies from a distance, they could appear to be human or with some imagination a space “alien.” In fact, I recall one incident at Wright-Patterson where one of our dummies landed near the backyard of Gen. Rawlings, Commander of the Air Research and Development Command. Gen. Rawling’s wife was entertaining officer’s wives that afternoon when one of our dummy’s parachute failed to deploy and impacted the ground in full view of the ladies at Gen. Rawling’s home. I acted quickly to retrieve the dummy and went to the impact site and recovered it by throwing it in the back of a pickup truck and quickly driving away. Later that day I received a call from Col Stapp who informed me that some of the women at the party believed that the dummy was a human and they were appalled to see the careless nature in which the obviously dead or injured “parachutist” was hauled away.

At Holloman AFB recoveries of the dummies were handled by the Balloon Branch but members of my project team, including myself, often assisted. The standard procedure was to track the dummy both from the ground and air to attempt to recover the dummies in a timely manner. On the ground we used an assortment of Air Force vehicles to track and recover not only the dummies but also other scientific balloon payloads. We used trucks, communications vans, converted field ambulances, cranes, and trailers. In the air we used helicopters, C-47s transports, and L-19 and L-20 light observation aircraft. On occasion civilians would observe our recovery operations. We often attracted a crowd due to the odd appearance of the balloon payloads and dummies and also the aircraft that circled overhead or landed on nearby roads. We also used many of the same procedures and equipment to launch from off range locations. During the recoveries weapons were not carried because there was no classified information or equipment. I do not recall any altercations of any kind. At no time did I or any of the personnel makes threats against civilians. We always attempted to maintain good relations with the local civilians and explained the purpose of the project to them if they asked. We were directed to remove as much of the material dropped by the balloon as possible. Sometimes this was difficult because the balloon and pay load would break apart and cover a large area. We collected the debris in these cases by “fanning out” across a field until we had collected even very small portions of the payload and balloon. We were particularly careful to recover the large plastic balloons because cattle would ingest the material and the ranchers would file claims against the government. Additionally, there were reward notices that offered twenty five dollars for the return of the equipment attached to each of the balloons. I wrote a book, The Long, Lonely Leap (E. P. Dutton & Co., 1961), that completely describes Project Excelsior and my participation.

Also as a part of the high altitude balloon projects, I trained balloon pilots in May 1959 at the request of Col Stapp. Col Stapp was concerned that I might be injured as a result of the hazardous nature of the projects and he wanted backup pilots to be trained. The backup pilots, Capt Dan Fulgham and Capt Bill Kaufman were volunteers from the Aero Medical Laboratory and they were sent to Holloman from Wright-Patterson for training on a temporary duty basis. On our second training flight, Fulgham, Kaufman and I, flew an overnight mission that was launched at Holloman and ended with a crash northwest of Roswell, NM. We were followed on this mission by an aircraft at night, a helicopter during the day, and a ground crew in trucks at all times.

I recall that just after sunrise the weather had deteriorated and I directed Fulgham to land the balloon in a small field. This was the last suitable field before we would overfly the City of Roswell. I remember approaching the field just over the trees and I recall our forward velocity was about 10–12 knots, a little fast for landing. When we touched down Fulgham cut the balloon away and due to the forward velocity the gondola flipped over spilling all three of us on the ground. While lying on the ground I realized that Fulgham was injured and Kaufman and I raised the gondola. Fulgham had been struck in the head by the edge of the gondola and I could see the blood rapidly accumulating under his scalp in the forehead area. We treated him for shock and soon the recovery vehicles and the chase helicopter arrived. I decided to transport Fulgham by helicopter to the hospital at nearby Walker AFB.

When we arrived at Walker I remember that security was tight, as it was at all Strategic Air Command bases, and we were closely scrutinized by security personnel due to the unusual circumstances and early hour of our arrival. I had two concerns once we arrived at the hospital, first to get treatment for Fulgham and second to leave as soon as possible. After I was assured that Fulgham’s injuries were not serious I wanted to quickly leave the base before the Walker AFB Flying Safety Officer arrived to fill out an accident report. I didn’t want a report filed because an accident investigation would bring unwanted scrutiny to the project. Even though the project was unclassified I did not want any publicity or premature releases of information.

Although Fulgham’s injuries were not serious, his head had swollen considerably—both eyes were black and his face had swollen so much you could barely see his nose. I believe that if someone saw him while we were at Walker they would have been startled. When his treatment was completed we all three returned to Holloman on the helicopter. At Holloman, Fulgham was admitted to the hospital and I made preparations for him to return to his duty station at Wright-Patterson AFB. Due to his grotesque appearance, I did not want Fulgham to fly on a commercial airline. I made arrangements for all of us to fly to Wright-Patterson on a C-131 a few days later. When we arrived at Wright-Patterson, I assisted Fulgham down the steps of the aircraft because his eyes were swollen shut and he could not see. His wife was waiting at the bottom of the steps of the aircraft and she asked me where her husband was. I replied “this is your husband” and she screamed and began to cry.

While I was at the Walker AFB hospital, I do not recall any contact with a male civilian. I certainly did not call anyone an “SOB” or speak to anyone in a disrespectful manner. I did not make any threats or instruct anyone else to make threats. I recall nurses in the hospital but I am not certain if they participated in the treatment of Capt Fulgham. I was not accompanied by a black NCO at the hospital, but there may have been a black NCO on the balloon recovery team. I recall no body bags in the hospital and I am sure there were no “aliens” at the hospital, just Dan Fulgham with a very odd looking head injury.

I was also involved in the joint Air Force, Navy, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology astronomical observation project, Project Stargazer. The object of this project was to make observations via a stabilized telescope mounted atop of a gondola suspended from a high altitude balloon. I was the USAF project officer and Dr J. Allen Hynek was the scientific advisor. I worked very closely with Dr Hynek over a period of five years from 1958 to 1963. Dr Hynek would typically spend a half day working on Stargazer and then the rest of the day participating as one of the consultants on the UFO study, Project Bluebook, that was also conducted at Wright-Patterson AFB. Dr Hynek, as the scientific advisor to Stargazer, was very familiar with the techniques and capabilities of the Air Force high altitude balloon program. Dr Hynek once approached me and we discussed at length, the possibility that Air Force high altitude balloons were responsible for many UFO sightings. We ended the conversation in agreement that the balloons probably accounted for many of the UFO sightings. In other conversations Dr Hynek always gave me the impression that there were very few UFO sightings that could not be explained by good scientific investigation. At no time did Dr Hynek mention or discuss the alleged “Roswell Incident”. I was therefore “flabbergasted” when Dr Hynek appeared to believe that some of these sightings were of an extraterrestrial origin.

I am not part of any conspiracy to withhold or provide misleading information to the United States Government or the American public. There is no classified information that I am withholding related to this inquiry and I have never been threatened by U.S. Government persons concerning refraining from talking about this matter.

SIGNED:
Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr., Col, USAF (Ret)
WITNESS(s):