THE 'DEFENSE OF SILENCE": Balloons BEFORE Roswell

In 1994 the Air Force presented the first of a two-part debunking of what they termed the "Roswell Incident." They sought to mark "case closed" on the whole pesky situation. Prior to that point various online sites had highly academic and scientific discussions about the theory of a lost balloon. Once they had a name for a super-secret project (Mogul), it was clear how little of that projects records had been kept.  The Air Force called on an aging project manager (C.B. Moore) to recall details of test flights from 1947. 

Several websites in that time did collect and list the various test flights, providing the time frame of launches and weather, where and when found, etc. It was learned two flights were unaccounted for.  I recall seeing this in chart form on several sites in the 1994 to 2001 time period.  Now, post the "case closed" those charts and that data seem more difficult to locate. The consensus seems to be to accept the Air Force work on a "just because" basis. Instead of the data and research being made available to a wide variety of researchers - a defunct and no longer classified collection of facts - it was gathered by the Air Force, interpreted by the Air Force and disseminated by the Air Force (and the Government Printing Office for a time), 

In fact, the second volume that explains away the "aliens" aspect of the noted Roswell story, "The Roswell Report: Case Closed" (1997) cites itself as an authority (see page 1 , where the work "The Roswell Report: Facts & Fiction in the New Mexico Desert" (1995) is cited three times).

For those who feel the government played the populace they site the 1947 "weather balloon" story, the 1994, "Project Mogul" story, and then the '"Case closed."

Re-reading the July 9, 1947 news articles it is implied that weather balloons were both a common feature used but also one that most people did not know about. Even experienced, trained military types serving at sites where they went up several times a week.

So, I was curious, just how widely known was the whole concept of the "weather balloon" pre-Roswell?  Searching just one state I found newspaper article before Kenneth Arnold's sighting in June 1947 of people seeing weather balloons, finding weather balloons, and being able to read about their parts and pieces sitting in their living rooms at home! In fact, early accounts of weather balloons, many tethered in place, but still weather balloons with "equipment packages" could be found in papers from the 1930's.

In fact, around June 6, 1947,

there was story out of Chicago (NANA; news service) "U.S. Silence Broke Jap Balloon Bomb Dives, General Reveals." Brig. General, Ret. William H. Wilbur shared the story he had heard from the Japanese leader in charge of those bombs, Major General Kasaba. He sited the U.S. Navy finding balloon bombs as early as 1944 off the coast of California, of one landing in Wyoming, 

"We asked...papers and radio stations not to mention it and they agreed to co-operate...Sheriffs, local officials, forest rangers and troops knew about it, but were notified to keep it to themselves." The retired general credited the "defense of silence" to encouraging the Japanese that more bombs would not be productive since they were not hitting their targets or generating mass fear. (Oklahoma City Times, June 6, 1947).

Here we see a mention of a "cone of silence" approach to national security. If not the alleged "Operation Mockingbird" designed to manipulate news stories to cover true and or covert military actions, it is very close. 

Online copies at:

The Roswell Report: Fact vs Fiction in the New Mexico Desert (1995)

The Roswell Report: Case Closed (1997)