Do Missing Roswell Records Leave Room for MJ 12?

Introduction

The missing Roswell-era records are a genuine limitation on what the General Accounting Office (GAO) could establish in its 1995 search. Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) administrative files covering March 1945 to December 1949 had been destroyed, as had its outgoing messages from October 1946 to December 1949. The surviving disposition paperwork did not properly record the authority for that destruction. GAO also failed to locate records for one relevant military-police unit. Those gaps mean that a claim such as “every potentially relevant Roswell record survives and has been checked” would be indefensible.[gao.gov]gao.govnsiadGovernment Accountability OfficeGovernment Records: Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico |…

But that archival caution has a precise limit. Missing Roswell files create uncertainty about what communications or routine paperwork may once have existed; they do not supply affirmative evidence that the alleged Majestic 12 (MJ-12) documents were authentic. GAO treated those as separate evidential questions. Its parallel examination of MJ-12 found no evidence that the circulating papers originated in the executive branch.[Government Accountability Office]gao.govGovernment Accountability Office[Comments on Majestic 12 Material] | U.S. GAOJuly 28, 1995…Published: July 28, 1995

Which Roswell records were missing?

GAO’s investigation was unusually useful because it did not merely report unsuccessful keyword searches. It examined what kinds of records should or might have existed, traced surviving unit histories and records-disposition documentation, and identified specific holes in the archive.

The most important gap concerned RAAF itself. Documentation supplied by the Chief Archivist of the National Personnel Records Center showed that two broad sets had been destroyed:

• General administrative records from March 1945 through December 1949. GAO described these as including finance and accounting, supplies, buildings and grounds, and other general administrative matters.
• RAAF outgoing messages from October 1946 through December 1949. This interval encompasses July 1947 and therefore includes the period in which any surviving outgoing message traffic concerning the Roswell recovery might have appeared.[Intelligence Resource Program]irp.fas.orgIntelligence Resource Program GAOIntelligence Resource ProgramGAO - Government Records: Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico…

The second category is plainly more consequential for reconstructing the Roswell episode. Outgoing messages could potentially have shown what personnel at Roswell communicated elsewhere in the military during or after the incident. Their destruction therefore removed one potentially valuable contemporary evidence stream.

There was another, less celebrated gap. GAO searched for records of military units stationed at RAAF in 1947, including the 509th Bomb Group, 1st Air Transport Unit, 427th Army Air Force Base Unit and 1395th Military Police Company (Aviation). Disposition documents showed that histories of several units had been transferred to an Army records depository in 1953, but GAO could not locate documentation showing that records of the 1395th Military Police Company had ever reached the National Personnel Records Center or its predecessor repositories.[UFO Transparency]ufotransparency.comUFO Transparency United States General Accounting OfficeUFO Transparency United States General Accounting Office

These absences are important precisely because GAO was conducting a records audit. A negative search is strongest when researchers know that the relevant record series was created, preserved, transferred and comprehensively searched. Roswell did not offer that ideal archival situation.

The destruction paperwork raises a question, not an answer

The most striking detail was not merely that files had been destroyed. It was that the surviving document-disposition form did not properly identify the authority under which the disposal occurred. GAO said the form did not establish the responsible organisation or person, when the destruction happened, or the governing authority for it.[UFO Transparency]ufotransparency.comUFO Transparency GAO Report to the Honorable Steven HSchiff, Government Records: Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico (NSIAD-95-187), U.S. Gener…

Read in isolation, that irregularity can sound highly suspicious. In its archival setting, however, GAO recorded an important qualification. The National Personnel Records Center’s Chief Archivist said that, in his experience, many Air Force organisational records from this period had been destroyed without a citation to the governing disposition authority being entered. GAO checked other records-control forms and found evidence supporting his observation, including documentation concerning destruction of RAAF outgoing messages for 1950.[Intelligence Resource Program]irp.fas.orgIntelligence Resource Program GAOIntelligence Resource ProgramGAO - Government Records: Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico…

That changes the historical interpretation. The destruction remains inadequately documented, but the irregular paperwork was apparently not unique to the records spanning July 1947. The missing administrative files also covered more than four years, beginning in March 1945, while the missing outgoing-message series extended for more than three years. The loss therefore cannot, on the evidence GAO found, simply be equated with a targeted destruction of “the Roswell files”.

There is an important distinction between three propositions: records are missing; records were destroyed with incomplete disposition documentation; and records were deliberately destroyed to conceal a particular event. GAO established the first two. It did not establish the third.[Intelligence Resource Program]irp.fas.orgIntelligence Resource Program GAOIntelligence Resource ProgramGAO - Government Records: Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico…

Why incomplete archives limit absolute conclusions

The missing files matter because archival searches cannot recover records that no longer exist. That sounds obvious, but it places a real constraint on arguments built from silence.

Suppose, for example, that an outgoing RAAF message concerning the recovery was sent on 8 July 1947 and later destroyed along with the broader message series. A 1990s search of surviving RAAF records could never find it. Consequently, the absence of such a message from today’s holdings cannot by itself prove that no such message was ever written.

The same principle applies to records that may never have been created. GAO examined 1947 requirements for air-accident reporting and found four Army Air Forces accidents in New Mexico during July 1947, all involving military aircraft and all occurring after 8 July. Yet Air Force officials told GAO that the contemporary rules did not require an accident report for the crash of a weather balloon. If an expected record was never required in the first place, its absence carries much less evidential weight.[UFO Transparency]ufotransparency.comUFO Transparency GAO Report to the Honorable Steven HSchiff, Government Records: Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico (NSIAD-95-187), U.S. Gener…

Nor did “missing records” mean that Roswell had disappeared completely from contemporary government documentation. GAO located two records originating in 1947 that explicitly concerned the episode: the July history of the combined 509th Bomb Group and RAAF, and an FBI teletype of 8 July. The unit history recorded the “flying disc” publicity and said the object turned out to be a radar-tracking balloon. The FBI message reported information from Eighth Air Force headquarters describing an object resembling a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector.[Intelligence Resource Program]irp.fas.orgIntelligence Resource Program GAOIntelligence Resource ProgramGAO - Government Records: Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico…

The archival picture is therefore neither “all the records survived” nor “everything was destroyed”. It is a mixed record: some potentially useful series disappeared, while other contemporary documents survived in RAAF and FBI holdings.

That is why a careful negative conclusion should be framed probabilistically rather than absolutely. A broad unsuccessful search can show that investigators found no corroborating record in the holdings available to them. Missing or never-created files prevent that finding from becoming proof that no corroborating document could ever have existed.

Why the missing files do not authenticate MJ-12

This limitation becomes especially important when the Roswell records problem is connected to the alleged MJ-12 documents. There is a tempting but invalid inference: because potentially relevant Roswell records were destroyed, the absence of an official MJ-12 documentary trail might simply reflect those missing files.

The difficulty is that the two propositions operate at very different scales.

The destroyed RAAF series concerned records at the Roswell installation. The alleged Majestic 12 material, by contrast, purported to document a highly classified programme involving senior figures and executive-branch authority. GAO therefore did not confine its MJ-12 inquiry to the surviving Roswell files. It sought views from the Information Security Oversight Office, the Air Force and the National Archives and considered searches at presidential libraries. GAO reported that these organisations’ knowledge of the circulating MJ-12 material derived from material submitted by people outside government, and that there was no evidence that the papers were actual executive-branch documents.[Government Accountability Office]gao.govGovernment Accountability Office[Comments on Majestic 12 Material] | U.S. GAOJuly 28, 1995…Published: July 28, 1995

The National Archives’ own MJ-12 work further illustrates the difference between a local archival gap and a wider provenance problem. Its staff searched Air Force and Joint Chiefs of Staff records, while the Truman and Eisenhower presidential libraries searched their holdings. National Security Council indexes were checked under multiple relevant terms. The Archives reports that those searches produced no supporting documentary network for MJ-12 apart from the controversial one-page Cutler-to-Twining memorandum; its reference report identifies several anomalies surrounding that document and states that searches of related records produced no further information about the alleged project.[National Archives]archives.govNational Archives Project BLUE BOOKNational ArchivesProject BLUE BOOK - Unidentified Flying Objects | National ArchivesJune 25, 2024…Published: June 25, 2024

The missing Roswell outgoing messages therefore weaken one particular kind of negative argument: nobody can confidently say that all communications generated at RAAF in July 1947 survive and contain no extraordinary information. They do not erase the independent negative results from presidential, National Security Council, Air Force, Joint Chiefs and other executive-branch record searches.

Most importantly, an evidential gap cannot authenticate a document. To establish MJ-12 provenance, researchers would need positive evidence connecting the disputed papers to government creation or handling: independently preserved copies, contemporary registers, authenticated correspondence, reliable filing history, related records from other offices, or another documentary trail that does not depend upon assuming what the missing Roswell files contained. The fact that one archive contains holes cannot provide that missing chain of custody.

The right conclusion from a negative search

The GAO findings support two conclusions that can comfortably coexist.

First, absolute claims should be avoided. The surviving federal record is incomplete. Some RAAF records spanning the Roswell period were destroyed, the disposition documentation was deficient, and at least one relevant unit’s records could not be traced. Anyone treating the surviving archive as a complete transcript of everything the military said or did around Roswell goes beyond what GAO established.[Intelligence Resource Program]irp.fas.orgIntelligence Resource Program GAOIntelligence Resource ProgramGAO - Government Records: Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico…

Second, uncertainty is not positive evidence. GAO did find surviving contemporary Roswell material, while its separate MJ-12 inquiry failed to establish an executive-branch origin for the disputed papers. The National Archives likewise records extensive unsuccessful searches for corroborating MJ-12 documentation and identifies documentary problems with the one purported MJ-12 memorandum found in its holdings.[Government Accountability Office]gao.govGovernment Accountability Office[Comments on Majestic 12 Material] | U.S. GAOJuly 28, 1995…Published: July 28, 1995

That distinction is the lasting value of the missing-records finding. It prevents a negative archival search from being inflated into proof that no hidden record ever existed. But it equally prevents the gaps themselves from becoming evidence for whatever document or programme a researcher hopes they might once have contained. For the alleged MJ-12 papers, the Roswell losses leave a degree of historical uncertainty; they do not supply the affirmative provenance that authentication requires.

Amazon book picks

Further Reading

Books and field guides related to Do Missing Roswell Records Leave Room for MJ 12?. Use these as the next step if you want deeper reading beyond the article.

Book

Crash at Corona: The U.S. Military Retrieval and Cover-Up of...

By Don Berliner, Stanton T. Friedman

IF UFOS DON'T EXIST, THEN THEY CAN'T CRASH. But something did crash near Corona, a tiny town not far from Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. A...

See on Amazon

Book

UFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Cover-U...

By Richard M. Dolan

Included in this volume are the records of more than fifty military bases relating to innumerable violations of sensitive airspace by unk...

See on Amazon

Book

Archives: Principles and Practices

By Laura A. Millar

This new and extensively revised second edition offers an international perspective on archives management, providing authoritative guida...

See on Amazon

Book

The Roswell Incident

By Charles Berlitz, William L. Moore et al.

The Roswell Incident was the most important UFO encounter of our century. But the facts about the incident are still being hidden from th...

See on Amazon

Browse more on Amazon:Crash at Corona: The U.S. Military Retrieval and Cover Up of a UFOUFOs and the National Security State: Chronology of a Cover Up,Archives: Principles and Practices

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

eBay marketplace picks

Marketplace Samples

Live-tested eBay searches with available results related to this page.

Shop location

UsingUSA USA USAUKCanadaAustraliaIreland

Selected fromRoswell poster oneBay.co.uk.

Current eBay listing

roswell alien space colored smoke f Framed Wall Art Poster Canvas Print Picture

GBP 29.95 | Shipping GBP 4.95NewSeller: silkframe (99.7% positive)Ships from: GB

View listing on eBay

Current eBay listing

roswell alien space colored smoke f Framed Wall Art Poster Canvas Print Picture

GBP 34.95 | Shipping GBP 4.99NewSeller: jjestoreltd (99.6% positive)Ships from: GB

View listing on eBay

Current eBay listing

Roswell WB POSTER Katherine Heigl JASON BEHR Rare Series Launch! SHIRI APPLEBY

GBP 29.49 | Shipping GBP 16.15NewSeller: ess266 (100.0% positive)Ships from: US

View listing on eBay

Browse more oneBay.co.uk

Example items shown for inspiration; availability and pricing can change. Branchoria may earn a commission if you purchase through outbound eBay links.

Endnotes

1. Source: gao.gov
Title: nsiad 95 187
Link:https://www.gao.gov/products/nsiad

2. Source: gao.gov
Link:https://www.gao.gov/products/154832

Published: July 28, 1995

3. Source: archives.gov
Title: National Archives Project BLUE BOOK
Link:https://www.archives.gov/research/military/air-force/ufos

Published: June 25, 2024

4. Source: archives.gov
Link:https://www.archives.gov/research/topics/uaps/presidential-libraries

5. Source: archives.gov
Link:https://www.archives.gov/research/topics/uaps/rg-collections

6. Source: archives.gov
Title: rg26 vesseldoc tampa
Link:https://www.archives.gov/atlanta/finding-aids/rg26_vesseldoc_tampa.html

7. Source: archives.gov
Title: R G 21
Link:https://www.archives.gov/atlanta/finding-aids/rg21-2363797

8. Source: archives.gov
Title: Do Records Show Proof of UFOs? | National Archives
Link:https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/do-records-show-proof-of-ufos

9. Source: archives.gov
Title: ¿Registros muestran prueba de ovnis? | National Archives
Link:https://www.archives.gov/espanol/ovnis

10. Source: trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov
Title: remarks president trump president xi china joint press statement beijing china
Link:https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-president-xi-china-joint-press-statement-beijing-china/

11. Source: gao.gov
Link:https://www.gao.gov/assets/a310938.html

12. Source: vault.fbi.gov
Link:https://vault.fbi.gov/search?SearchableText=Majestic

13. Source: irp.fas.org
Title: Intelligence Resource Program GAO
Link:https://irp.fas.org/gao/nsi95187.htm

14. Source: ufotransparency.com
Title: UFO Transparency United States General Accounting Office
Link:https://ufotransparency.com/api/source/1995-07-28-gao-roswell-report-nsiad-95-187-gao-nsiad-95-187-roswell-1995

15. Source: sgp.fas.org
Title: Project on Government Secrecy
Link:https://sgp.fas.org/othergov/roswell.html

16. Source: ufotransparency.com
Title: UFO Transparency GAO Report to the Honorable Steven H
Link:https://ufotransparency.com/files/1995-07-28-gao-roswell-report-nsiad-95-187-gao-nsiad-95-187-roswell-1995

17. Source: pt.scribd.com
Link:https://pt.scribd.com/document/427182434/Ufo

18. Source: govinfo.gov
Title: GA O/NSIAD-95-187
Link:https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD

19. Source: phatsoheff.tripod.com
Link:https://phatsoheff.tripod.com/ufo.html

20. Source: ro.scribd.com
Link:https://ro.scribd.com/document/472644084/196986

Additional References

21. Source: legalclarity.org
Title: Roswell Crash Location: Debris Field, Skip Site, and Visits
Link:https://legalclarity.org/roswell-crash-location-debris-field-skip-site-and-visits/

Published: July 1995

22. Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCr9ft4yWaI

23. Source: nsa.gov
Link:https://www.nsa.gov/Helpful-Links/NSA-FOIA/Declassification-Transparency-Initiatives/FOIA-Reports-and-Releases/FOIA-Reports-and-Releases-List/igphoto/2002761373/

24. Source: scribd.com
Link:https://www.scribd.com/document/972270906/3718045

25. Source: scribd.com
Link:https://www.scribd.com/document/975710184/Rain-of-Ruin-a-Photographic-History-of-Hiroshima-and-Donald-M-Goldstein-Katherine-V-Dillon-And-J-Michael-Washington-District-of-97800

26. Source: af.mil
Link:https://www.af.mil/The-Roswell-Report/

27. Source: blog.seniorennet.be
Link:https://blog.seniorennet.be/peter2011/archief.php?ID=2435460

28. Source: blog.seniorennet.be
Link:https://blog.seniorennet.be/peter2011/archief.php?ID=2450667

29. Source: blog.seniorennet.be
Link:https://www.blog.seniorennet.be/peter2011/archief.php?ID=2414413

30. Source: blog.seniorennet.be
Link:https://www.blog.seniorennet.be/peter2011/archief.php?ID=2414465