Documents / FOIA release
This FBI file section collects July 1947 Bureau memoranda, teletypes, citizen letters and newspaper clippings about reported flying discs. They cover recovered objects at Twin Falls, Idaho, Shreveport, Louisiana, Black River Falls, Wisconsin, and Laurel, Maryland, many judged to be pranks, plus a Grafton, Wisconsin priest's circular saw blade the Milwaukee office called a hoax. A Dallas teletype reports a disc recovered near Roswell resembling a high altitude weather balloon with radar reflector. Kenneth Arnold's own account of his sighting is also included.
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# 'Saucer' Stories Disk Found Is Priest Hears a 'Bang,' Discovers a Circular Blade With Teeth; Other Disks 'Seen' Picture on Picture Page The "what is it?" which Father Joseph Brasky said he found early Sunday on the lawn of St. Joseph's Catholic church in Grafton may be just another gadget to add to Father Brasky's already sizable collection. Those who saw it Sunday said "what is it?" was a circular saw blade with a few wires attached. Father Brasky, who said he knew of no sawmills in the area, would not claim it was a "flying saucer" when he called newspapermen to his home. Father Brasky gave the following account of how he found the object. a steel plate 19 inches in diameter, about an eighth of an inch thick and with saw teeth. ## Hears "Bang," Finds Disk "It may or may not be one of those flying disks that have been reported all over the country." he said. "Let's just call it a 'what is it?' " Meanwhile, in Milwaukee and other points in Wisconsin, several persons reported seeing the "flying saucers." Father Brasky's disk, however, was the only case here in which the "landing" of a "saucer" was reported. "I usually get up about 5 a.m. on Sundays. I was at the front door of my house, about to take my dog out for a walk, when I heard a 'bang!' like a big firecracker. I stopped outside and found this disk on the church lawn. "Although the grass was still wet from the night rain, the disk was too not to pick up. I noticed the glass ball had been knocked off one of the lightning rods on the church, so suppose it struck that in landing" Tries to Call FBI Man Father Brasky said he did not bother to show the disk to any of his parishioners Sunday. He tried to telephone an FBI agent whom he knows, but was unable to reach him Sunday, he added. Asked whether it could have been the work of a practical joker, Father Brasky replied: "Could be. I don't know." The disk, apparently of steel, had a one and three-eighth inch hole in the center. Through it ran a few wires. To each end of the cluster of wires was attached what looked like a small condenser about three inches long. The condenserlike objects were wrapped in black tape which still was sticky. The disk was greasy and somewhat dirty. Stamped on it was: "Approved, Dunlap." Father Brasky declined to part with the disk. He showed a number of items in his trinket collection. All of them had something to do with fishing, Father Brasky's favorite sport. They included his "bass bottles," beer bottles with the head of a fish - and a fish pole from Manila which folds up into a cane. When opened, it extends to 12 feet. ## Others Report "Saucers" "I use it in reaching folks who can't be touched with a 10 foot pole." Father Brasky quipped. Father Brasky also passed out copies of his recent publication, "Fish Tales." "I'm going to revise this thing," he explained. "I've got some new and better tales to put in it." There were other reports around Milwaukee and Wisconsin of "flying saucers." Mrs. Anthony Hoffman, 3410 W. Layton av., said she and her husband saw one at 4:25 p.m. Sunday flying toward Billy Mitchell field from the northwest. When it neared the field, it veered toward the south and disappeared, she said. It was flying high and appeared illuminated, according to Mrs. Hoffman. "It looked like a small meat platter," Mrs. Hoffman asserted. Glenn Rowden of Detroit claimed he saw a "saucer," about 50 inches in diameter, over Billy Mitchell field at 10:05 p.m. when he alighted from an airplane. He said it was in sight for 90 seconds. William Humphrey, who lives with his wife in a quonset hut at 3148 S. 20th st., telephoned police at 9 p.m. Sunday that he and Mrs. Humphrey had seen a slightly illuminated disk which appeared to fall to earth near Pulaski high school. Mrs. Humphrey said Monday that her husband tried unsuccessfully to photograph the disk. ## Changed Colors, He Says Erwin Rottman, 1328 N. 19th st. claimed he saw three of them flying through the air in a northwestern direction at 6 p.m. Sunday. They turned from orange to gold to silver before disappearing, he said. Reports came also from Janesville, where Mr. and Mrs. Alva Sievert and Mr. and Mrs. Howard Roth reported seeing a flying disk about 11:35 p.m. Saturday. The Roths were leaving the Sievert home when Sievert saw it, according to Roth. It appeared to be several thousand feet up and about 10 miles away. Roth said. He described it as vaguely resembling the moon and as having a regular motion in a counterclockwise, elongated orbit. It appeared to Roth to be moving faster than an airplane. He said it was yellow on its face, but when it turned it looked silver. Roth said that the four of them viewed the disk for 10 minutes. Stopped in Sky, Claim "It fluttered around, faded out and came back again, and once it just stopped and hung there for about two minutes." Roth said. "The last time we saw it, it had a very Turn to page 3, col. 5 ENCLOSURI RECORDED 62-83894=13 412 52 CUL 16 1547
FOIA release, from the fbi-vault collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 79 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.