The GAO's Roswell Records Search: Two 1947 Documents, Destro

The GAO's Roswell Records Search: Two 1947 Documents, Destroyed Files, and the MOGUL Explanation

The GAO reported that RAAF administrative records and outgoing messages were destroyed, that only a July 1947 unit history and a July 8, 1947 FBI teletype originated in 1947, and that the Air Force attributed the wreckage most likely to the classified Project MOGUL balloon program.

Published

October 27, 2026

Declassified

July 28, 1995

Source agency

U.S. Government Publishing Office

gaoroswellsearchtwo1947destroyedmogulexplanation

What the 1995 GAO Roswell Records Audit Actually Found

Everything else the auditors reviewed, including materials previously withheld from the public because of security classification and the Air Force's analysis of unidentified flying object sightings from 1946 to 1953, known as Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14, did not mention the crash or the recovery of an airborne object near Roswell in July 1947. Responses from executive branch agencies to the GAO's letters of inquiry likewise produced no other government records on the crash.

The report is therefore best read as a documentation of an evidentiary gap rather than a verdict. It records what was found, what was missing, and what could not be located—and it leaves the underlying question of the crash's nature where the records themselves leave it. The GAO did not dispute that something happened near Roswell; its work was to establish what the paper trail could and could not support.

Army Air Accident Reporting Rules and Four July 1947 Crashes

Army records management official,…

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Based on the official release at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-95-187

Original government source · U.S. Government Publishing Office

Government Records: Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico

Official government source URL

https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-95-187

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