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FBI file 62-HQ-83894, section 5

Department of War · 209 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This section of FBI file 62-HQ-83894 collects Bureau correspondence on flying disks from 1949 and 1950. Most of it concerns a letter to Walter Winchell, passed on by Ernest Cuneo, from Peter Camerlon Jones, who said he saw a top-shaped silver object in the mountains near Los Angeles in August 1947. Los Angeles agents could not find Jones, and Hoover suggested the letter might be a prank. The file also holds a Navy intelligence report on 6 or 7 discs seen over southern Oregon on 27 May 1949, plus letters from members of the public about Chicago and Toronto.

  • p. 99 …That project then was taken over by the Navy in wartime. Much more advanced models now…
  • p. 101 …It all points to a big advance in the science of flying. Surface indications, then, point…
  • p. 157 …Many theories have been advanced to explain these reports of aerial phenomena over the US. These…
  • p. 160 …official attitude toward the matter? I wish to thank you in advance for your interest and…

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Subj: Unidentified Phenomena

(e) The objects sighted have been described as follows:

(1) To Lt Smith and crew it appeared as two orange lights rotating about a common center, "like two jet aircraft making slow rolls in tight formation". It had a wide speed range.

(2) To Morgan, EIC, and Carver, it appeared as a reddish orange ball of fire about one foot in diameter, travelling at a high rate of speed.

(3) To Lt Gauser, Lt Barco, and Paulson, AD1, it appeared to be a pulsating orange yellow projectile shaped flame, with regular period of pulsation on 3 to 5 seconds, off 3 to 5 seconds. Later, as the object increased the range the pulsations appeared to increase to on 7 to 8 seconds and off 7 to 8 seconds.

3. A check with the Navy Weather Central, Kodiak, Alaska revealed that balloons were released at the following times:

22 January - 0445. and 2200W (aporoximately)

23 January - 0400. (aporoximately)

4. On 23 January winds aloft at 1000 feet were reported at 04007 as from $ 310^{\circ} $ T at 36 knots, and at 2000 feet from $ 240^{\circ} $ T at 37 knots, while the object was reported to be on an ascending - westerly course.

In view of the fact that no weather balloons were known to have been released within a reasonable time before the sightings, it appears that the object or objects were not balloons. If not balloons the objects must be regarded as phenomena (possibly meteorites), the exact nature of which could not be determined by this office.

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