Fig. 9. (Left) B.D. “Duke” Gildenberg served as the civilian meteorologist, engineer, and physical science administrator for the Holloman AFB Balloon Branch from 1951–1981. Gildenberg actively participated in thousands of high altitude balloon operations, including the flights that dropped anthropomorphic dummies at off-range locations throughout New Mexico. Gildenberg, the “father” of Air Force scientific ballooning, was instrumental in identifying the many actual Air Force activities now known as the “Roswell Incident.”
Fig. 10. (Right) Charles B. Moore, Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Physics at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, was the project engineer for New York University under contract to the U.S. Army Air Forces to develop high altitude balloon technology for Project Mogul. Moore launched the balloon train on June 4, 1947, that when combined with other events, are now known as the “Roswell Incident.”
Since many of the Roswell accounts and allegations were collected by irregular methods and are not specifically documented, the series of events as alleged by UFO theorists has become very complex and requires clarification. Therefore, the following section will briefly examine some of the more confusing elements of the Roswell stories, specifically, the multiple crash sites and complex scenarios, in order to facilitate an objective analysis of actual events.
1.1
The “Crash Sites,” Scenarios,
and Research Methods
The “Crash Sites”
From 1947 until the late 1970s, the Roswell Incident was confined to one alleged crash site. This site, located on the Foster Ranch approximately 75 miles northwest of the city of Roswell, was the actual landing site of a Project Mogul balloon train in June 1947.[10] The Mogul landing site is referred to in popular Roswell literature as the “debris field.”
In the 1970s, the 1980s and throughout the 1990s, additional witnesses came forward with claims and descriptions of two other alleged crash sites. One of these sites was supposedly north of Roswell, the other site was alleged to have been approximately 175 miles northwest of Roswell in an area of New Mexico known as the San Agustin Plains.[11] What distinguished the two new crash sites from the original debris field were accounts of alien bodies.
Fig. 11. Map of New Mexico depicting the “crash sites” and “debris field.”
“It must be emphasized that the claims of bodies only became part of the Roswell Incident after 1978, when they were erroneously linked to the July 1947 retrieval of Project Mogul components.”