Charles B. Moore — sworn statement to the USAF (8 June 1994), verbatim
Verbatim transcription of the signed sworn statement of Prof. Charles B. Moore — NYU balloon-project engineer and the surviving Project Mogul scientist — given to Col. Jeffrey Butler and 1st Lt. James McAndrew on 8 June 1994 (AF Form 1168 “Statement of Witness,” Attachment 21 of the 1995 USAF report usaf-roswell-report-fact-vs-fiction-1995). Three pages, signed “Charles B. Moore,” subscribed and sworn before Butler (Col) and McAndrew (1Lt). Moore initialed each paragraph (“C.B.M.”).
Provenance / fidelity: transcribed by direct inspection of the page images at 220–400 DPI (archive.org DTIC ADA326148, scan pages 172–174; the same document the user read in the official AF release AFD-101201-038.pdf). This corrects the garbled body-text OCR in the full-report capture. Proper nouns and Moore’s own inconsistent spellings (e.g. “Alamogordo”/“Alomogordo,” “Alomorgordo”) are preserved as written. Captured 2026-06-01. Analysis is in charles-moore-mogul-scientist; see also roswell-incident-1947, 2026-05-31-could-roswell-debris-be-project-mogul, moore-1994-interview (the companion interview transcript), crary-diary-1947-roswell-report, cavitt-roswell-cic-officer.
STATEMENT OF WITNESS — Charles B. Moore (Page 1 of 3)
Date: 8 Jun 94 Place: NM
I, Charles B Moore, hereby state that Jeffrey Butler, was identified as a Colonel, USAF and Jim McAndrew, was identified as a Lieutenant, USAF on this date and at my home and do hereby, voluntarily and of my own free will, make the following statement. This is done without having been subjected to any coercion, unlawful influence or unlawful inducement.
I was the Project Engineer for the NYU balloon project during the 1947 time frame. I was not aware that the project had the name MOGUL until 1992 when I was contacted by an individual who was working on some research related to the “Roswell Incident” and the relationship to the NYU balloon project. Our only purpose for the NYU group was to develop constant level balloons. In the early flights at Alamogordo, starting in June, 1947, we used radar targets to track the balloons (not all the balloons had targets). Some of the targets were apparently manufactured by a toy or novelty company. Ed Istvan was the procurement officer and he had contacted some company that extruded toothpaste tubes as well as radar chaff. The early balloons were made of neoprene and manufactured primarily by the Dewey Almy company in Cambridge and the Kaysam company. Dewey balloons were dip type and the Kaysam ones were cast in a mold. The neoprene balloons were susceptible to degradation in sunlight turning from a translucent milky white to a dark brown. Some of the material would almost look like dark gray or black flakes or ashes after exposure to the sun for only a few days. The balloon material and radar target material would be scattered after returning to the earth depending on the surface winds. The balloon material also had a peculiar acrid odor due to plasticizers and anti-oxidants. There is a recollection from another procurement person (Peterson) that he had obtained radar reflectors from a toy manufacturer. I have a specific recollection of reinforcing tape applied to the seams of the reflectors that had some symbols such as arcs, flowers, circles and diamonds. These were pinkish in color. To my knowledge, there were no radar reflectors in New Mexico in 1947 like the ones we used until the NYU group arrived. The Columbia group was primarily involved in developing low frequency microphones for long range detection of explosions. There was intense pressure for these developments, the constant altitude balloons and the microphone gear. I was involved in 1945 in China-Burma-India for the installation and maintaining of weather equipment in the war against Japan. Our subsequent work with the balloons and microphones was highly classified and we didn’t know that there was a project name until 1992. Concerning the make up of the balloon trains, we used braided or twisted nylon lines—there were no monofilament lines during the 1947 time frame. Some of the balloons in early June carried radar targets for tracking purposes since we did not have radiosonde receivers with us. Some also carried sonobuoys for detecting the pressure waves where we didn’t have the Watson Lab microphone gear. All the radiosondes were covered in white painted cardboard; I don’t recall the color of the sonobuoys but I believe they were covered in metal. On review of the photos in the Randle/Schmitt book, the material looks like one of our balloon and target assemblies. The wooden beams were made of a balsa wood that had been coated in an Elmers-like glue. The targets had eyelets where the various strings were attached. The 307(B) model was more of an aluminum foil material than the 307(C) model, which was more of an aluminized paper. The targets we used appeared more fragile than the later
(Page 2 of 3)
model. I think that Flight #4 was the flight that was launched out of Alamogordo on June 4, 1947. This is based on Dr. Crary’s actual diary of the launch and other events. This is also one of those events where we went to multiple radar targets because we were not having good success with single targets. This flight was with multiple balloons and targets and may have had a sonobuoy (black box?). The Watson Lab gear was the microphone equipment specifically for MOGUL. The idea was proposed in a 1945 letter from Dr Ewing (Woods Hole and Columbia) to Gen Spaatz that we might be able to detect nuclear blasts via pressure waves and low frequency microphones. This was developed from a study of the 1883 Krakatoa explosion where the pressure waves circled the earth seven times. Dr Crary was sent to Ascension island (the antipodal) to attempt to detect the Crossroads shot for Operation Crossroads on Kilohuea or Bikini. He didn’t get anything. In December, 1946, Dr Crary was sent to Alomogordo to run the field stations for MOGUL. There were several ground microphone sites for detecting blasts (bombs) detonated off the New Jersey coast. He also initiated activities off Bermuda and Panama. Dr Crary and Dr Peoples were the advance people and scientific monitors for our project. Dr Peoples told us to use the cover story of meteorology and to enforce the need-to-know—in fact I had been reluctant to discuss any of this until only a few years ago. Your letter (SAF/AA) is the first official document I’ve seen that says this is declassified. Concerning the Japanese balloons, we did not use any of them for MOGUL. We didn’t pattern our work after the Japanese balloons. We were very secretive of our work, but the cover story was not a detailed developed cover story. Our new hires were not even aware of the purpose. They thought they were just handling meteorological equipment. Any of the flights that had “tags” would have stated, “Research Balloon Flight, Request Return to NYU”. The “service flights” for Dr Peoples were specific ones carrying the microphone gear. The radar test flights were not recorded. There was a lot of pressure to develop the constant level balloons. The tracking was to be done by the Watson Labs radar for the V-2 launches, etc. Starting in early June, 1947 the 307(B) targets came from NYU. We also launched TNT on some of the balloons to simulate airbursts for detection. All of these balloons were accounted for. These and the radar test flights had no tags—we did not want these to be associated with our project and the explosive ones would all be destroyed with pressure switches. To my knowledge, the NYU group were the only ones using balloons in New Mexico during this time but others were involved in other activities so debris from rockets, aircraft dropsondes, etc. may have been found throughout this area. Initially we did not coordinate any of our balloon launches with the Civil Aeronautics Administration. We had no contact with any of the Roswell personnel— although Crary or Peoples may have. There were two July 8th press releases: in the earlier release, Col J D Ryan stated that radar reflectors were being used to track balloons for wind information. July 8th is the same day the NYU group returned to NYU, so we had no contact with the Roswell personnel when the announcement was made concerning having found the “discs”. When we heard the news back in New York, we joked that they probably found one of our balloons. From that time up until about 1980, no one, officially or otherwise made any contact with me concerning the possible association between MOGUL and the “Roswell incident” (it was in about 1980 that William Moore contacted me and asked questions about balloons making “gouges” in the earth). The July 10th Alomogordo News article shows a demonstration of some of our multiple balloons and target trains. We had no one there so it was surprising to see this. It almost appears that there was some type of “umbrella cover story” to protect our work with MOGUL.
(Page 3 of 3)
I can think of no other explanation for Roswell than one of our early June service flight balloons. If one of our balloons went down there was no shroud of secrecy about it. We would attempt to recover the flight gear when possible, but the reflectors, balloons, and microphone equipment was expendable. We went to no great effort to recover the equipment and we certainly would not cordon off an area where one of our balloons went down. We would sometimes send out 3-4 men to recover the equipment if we knew where it went down. The July 10th Alomorgordo News report was a good cover—it does not appear to be a coincidence—I don’t know who may have initiated it. Trakowski does not recall being involved in a cover story in one of my conversations with him. In New Mexico during 1947, all of our balloon operations were launched from Alamogordo AAF.
I am not part of any conspiracy to withhold information from either the US government or American public. There is no classified information that I am withholding related to this inquiry and I have never been threatened by US Government persons concerning refraining from talking about this situation.
SIGNED: Charles B. Moore WITNESS(s): [blank] Subscribed and sworn to before me, a person authorized to administer oaths this 8th day of June 1994, NM JEFFREY C BUTLER, COL, USAF / JAMES MCANDREW, 1LT, USAF