Within Ramey Memo
The 1947 Document We Can Actually Read
The FBI teletype gives the contemporary official description most often compared with the uncertain memo text.
On this page
- What the teletype says
- Balloon and radar reflector language
- How it frames the memo debate
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Introduction
The FBI teletype is the clearest 1947 official record in the Roswell paper trail because it is readable, dated, and tied to the same day the story changed from “flying disc” to balloon-related debris. Unlike the Ramey memo in the press photograph, it does not require enlarging a tiny document, guessing at broken letter shapes, or choosing between competing image enhancements. Its core description is plain: an object reported near Roswell was described to the FBI as a hexagonal disc suspended from a roughly 20-foot balloon, resembling a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector.[GAO]gao.govnsiadnsiad
That does not make the teletype a complete solution to every Roswell question. It is a second-hand FBI communication based on what Eighth Air Force headquarters told the Dallas FBI office, and parts of the page are redacted. But for the narrower Ramey memo debate, its value is simple: it provides a contemporary, legible benchmark against which uncertain claims about the photographed memo can be tested. If a proposed reading of the Ramey memo sharply contradicts the teletype, the contradiction has to be supported by evidence at least as clear as the teletype itself.
What the Teletype Actually Says
The message was sent by the FBI’s Dallas office on 8 July 1947 to FBI headquarters and the FBI office in Cincinnati. The Government Accountability Office, which later reviewed Roswell-related government records, reported that an Eighth Air Force headquarters official had telephoned the Dallas FBI office about the recovery near Roswell of a hexagonal-shaped disc suspended from a large balloon by cable. The same GAO passage says the disc and balloon were being sent to Wright Field, now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, for examination.[GAO]gao.govnsiadnsiad
The most important words are visible in the reproduced teletype itself. It states that “the disc is hexagonal in shape” and was suspended from a balloon by cable; it also says the object resembled a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector, while noting that telephone conversation with Wright Field had not “borne out” that belief at that point. The message ends by saying that no further FBI investigation was being conducted.[GAO]gao.govnsiadnsiad
That wording is more nuanced than either side of the debate sometimes admits. It is not a breathless confirmation of an alien craft, but it is also not merely a bland “weather balloon” press line. It records an object, a shape, an attachment method, an approximate balloon diameter, a radar-reflector comparison, and a pending technical check at Wright Field. For evidence work, that combination matters: it is specific enough to compare with known balloon-and-target equipment, but cautious enough to show that the FBI was passing on military information rather than announcing an independent finding.
Why It Is Clearer Than the Ramey Memo
The Ramey memo debate turns on a press photograph taken at Fort Worth Army Air Field, where General Roger Ramey was pictured with debris and a paper in his hand. The University of Texas at Arlington notes that Star-Telegram photographer J. Bond Johnson captured the only known images of the wreckage on 8 July 1947, and that the original negatives are held by UTA Libraries Special Collections. UTA’s own description also says the memo in Ramey’s hand has been closely scrutinised and has “yet to be definitively deciphered”.[Flickr]flickr.comRoswell UFO Incident, July 1947 |…
That distinction is the heart of the matter. The photograph has excellent provenance, but the visible text is not a normal readable document. The FBI teletype is different: it is a document page, reproduced as a document page, with most of its key sentence structure intact. Even where redactions or noise interrupt the copy, the main operational description remains legible enough for the GAO, the FBI Vault summary, and the Air Force’s Roswell report to summarise it consistently.[FBI+2GAO]vault.fbi.gov— Federal Bureau of InvestigationFBI — Federal Bureau of Investigation…
This is why the teletype often functions as the stabilising record in arguments about the Ramey memo. The memo may be fascinating because it is physically present in the famous photograph, but its proposed readings depend on interpretation. The teletype is less dramatic, but it is readable. In historical evidence, boring clarity often beats exciting ambiguity.
Balloon and Radar-Reflector Language
The teletype’s “balloon” and “radar reflector” language fits a specific kind of mid-century equipment rather than a vague after-the-fact excuse. A radar target, often called a Rawin target from “radar wind”, was a corner reflector carried aloft by balloon so that radar could track winds. The Air Force’s Roswell research described ordinary weather-balloon equipment as potentially including a radar reflector for wind-speed measurement, and it contrasted that with the larger, more unusual balloon trains used in Project Mogul.[muller.lbl.gov]muller.lbl.govProject MogulProject Mogul
That context helps explain why a witness or official could speak of a “disc” while still describing balloon equipment. A radar reflector was not a simple rubber balloon; it could involve foil, paper, sticks, tape, and a geometric frame. The 1994 Air Force report specifically argued that the debris displayed in the famous Fort Worth photographs was largely radar-target material and that this was consistent with contemporary press descriptions of “tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks”.[esd.whs.mil]esd.whs.milOpen source on whs.mil.
The GAO’s 1995 record search also found a separate July 1947 history report by the combined 509th Bomb Group and Roswell Army Air Field. That unit history said the public information office had been busy answering enquiries about the “flying disc” and that the object turned out to be a radar-tracking balloon. The GAO treated this and the FBI teletype as the two 1947-origin government records it found concerning the Roswell crash.[GAO]gao.govnsiadnsiad
The Line That Keeps the Debate Alive
The teletype includes one phrase that prevents it from being read as a perfectly closed file: the statement that telephone conversation between the Eighth Air Force office and Wright Field had not yet “borne out” the high-altitude weather-balloon-with-radar-reflector belief. In plain terms, the message records a working identification, not a completed technical analysis.[GAO]gao.govnsiadnsiad
That caveat is important, but it has limits. It does not say Wright Field had identified the object as extraterrestrial, exotic, or biological. It only says that, at the time of the call, the Wright Field conversation had not confirmed the belief. The same message still describes a balloon, cable, hexagonal disc, radar reflector, transport for examination, and no FBI investigation. The reasonable reading is provisional classification, not secret confirmation of a crash retrieval.
This is also where the teletype improves the quality of the Ramey memo discussion. It gives sceptics a firm contemporary balloon-and-reflector reference, but it gives careful UFO researchers a fair point too: the official description was still in motion on 8 July. The strongest use of the document is not as a slogan for either side. It is a timestamped snapshot of what the military was telling the FBI during the day the Roswell story was being reframed.
How It Frames the Ramey Memo Debate
The Ramey memo debate is often driven by one proposed phrase: “victims of the wreck”. If that reading were secure, it would carry obvious implications. The problem is that it is not secure. Scholarly discussion of the memo has emphasised the difficulty of deciphering a degraded, tiny, photographed document, and published attempts have produced competing readings rather than a stable transcription.[ResearchGate]researchgate.netOpen source on researchgate.net.
The FBI teletype changes the standard of comparison. A proposed Ramey memo reading is not being judged in a vacuum; it has to sit beside a same-day official message that clearly describes balloon-related equipment. That does not automatically disprove every alternative reading of the memo, but it raises the evidential bar. A fragmentary image interpretation must explain why it should outweigh a legible contemporary teletype whose wording is independently summarised by later government record reviews.[GAO]gao.govnsiadnsiad
The document also helps separate two questions that often get blurred. One question is whether the Ramey photo is authentic and historically important. It is: the original negatives are part of a recognised newspaper collection, and the scene belongs to the original 1947 news cycle. The other question is whether the paper in Ramey’s hand can be read reliably enough to override other contemporary records. On the present evidence, that is much harder to support.[Flickr]flickr.comRoswell UFO Incident, July 1947 |…
What the Teletype Can and Cannot Prove
The teletype can prove that, on 8 July 1947, the FBI received a military-sourced description of the Roswell object as balloon-and-radar-reflector-like equipment. It can also prove that the FBI did not treat the matter as requiring its own continuing investigation, at least according to the message and the GAO’s later review.[GAO]gao.govnsiadnsiad
It cannot prove that every later Roswell claim is false. It cannot identify a specific balloon train by itself. It cannot show exactly what Ramey’s unreadable memo said. It cannot remove the fact that some Roswell Army Air Field outgoing messages and administrative records from the relevant period were later destroyed, a record-keeping issue the GAO noted without being able to determine the authority for every disposal action.[GAO]gao.govnsiadnsiad
Its real strength is narrower and more useful: it anchors the debate in a readable 1947 record. In a case crowded with later memories, disputed reconstructions, alleged secret documents, and image-enhancement arguments, the FBI teletype is not the most exciting artefact. It is the one that most clearly says what an official channel was being told at the time: a hexagonal disc, a balloon, a cable, a radar reflector, and transport to Wright Field for examination.
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Endnotes
1.
Source: gao.gov
Title: nsiad 95 187
Link:https://www.gao.gov/assets/nsiad-95-187.pdf
2.
Source: flickr.com
Link:https://www.flickr.com/photos/spcouta/36080122212
Source snippet
Roswell UFO Incident, July 1947 |...
Published: July 1947
3.
Source: vault.fbi.gov
Title: — Federal Bureau of Investigation
Link:https://vault.fbi.gov/Roswell%20UFO
Source snippet
FBI — Federal Bureau of Investigation...
4.
Source: esd.whs.mil
Link:https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/FOID/Reading%20Room/UFOsandUAPs/rosswe1.pdf
5.
Source: muller.lbl.gov
Title: Project Mogul
Link:https://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/physics10/Roswell/USMogulReport.html
6.
Source: researchgate.net
Link:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/James-Houran/publication/228706129_A_Message_in_a_Bottle_Confounds_in_Deciphering_the_Ramey_Memo_from_the_Roswell_UFO_Case/links/0deec527833e585cd6000000/A-Message-in-a-Bottle-Confounds-in-Deciphering-the-Ramey-Memo-from-the-Roswell-UFO-Case.pdf
7.
Source: fbi.gov
Title: Inside the FBI Podcast: UFOs — FBIOn
Link:https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/inside-the-fbi-ufos-102921.mp4/view
8.
Source: sites.libraries.uta.edu
Link:https://sites.libraries.uta.edu/roswell/node/21
9.
Source: sites.libraries.uta.edu
Link:https://sites.libraries.uta.edu/roswell/home
10.
Source: sites.libraries.uta.edu
Link:https://sites.libraries.uta.edu/roswell/node/14
11.
Source: muller.lbl.gov
Title: Roswell Incident
Link:https://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/physics10/Roswell/RoswellIncident.html
12.
Source: ramey-memo.com
Title: 7 SNAPSHOTS FOR ETERNITY
Link:https://www.ramey-memo.com/7-snapshots-for-eternity/
13.
Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbtvxBXEHVw
Additional References
14.
Source: youtube.com
Title: The Roswell Incident and UFO Sightings Documentary
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQRyaCBxPeU
Source snippet
4 Ancient Aliens: Secrets of Roswell Revealed | History...
15.
Source: youtube.com
Title: The Roswell Incident Mystery Finally Solved
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz0vYcc4KiI
Source snippet
3 The Roswell Incident and UFO Sightings Documentary - PART 1 | Mysteries Decoded | The CW...
16.
Source: war.gov
Link:https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release_1/65_hs1-834228961_62-hq-83894_section_4.pdf
17.
Source: youtube.com
Title: General Gerald Anderson Recounts Events in #Roswell Cover Up #UFO #UAP
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBLbYytmJyI
Source snippet
2 The Roswell Incident Mystery Finally Solved...
18.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Ancient Aliens: Secrets of Roswell Revealed | History
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VJD2mM6uUU
Source snippet
5 Roswell - UFO Crash in New Mexico | Free Documentary History...
19.
Source: reddit.com
Link:https://www.reddit.com/r/ufo/comments/1t7mqxl/did_the_us_just_quietly_confirm_the_roswell/
20.
Source: abcnews.com
Link:https://abcnews.com/Technology/fbi-vault-reveals-ufo-roswell-files/story?id=13347754
21.
Source: sgp.fas.org
Link:https://sgp.fas.org/othergov/roswell.html
22.
Source: academia.edu
Link:https://www.academia.edu/144097753/Rameys_Memo_An_In_Depth_Scientifically_Based_Deep_Research_Study
23.
Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/groups/spacehipsters/posts/8096320837079395/
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