Documents / FOIA release
This FBI file section, from 1947, gathers Army Air Forces counterintelligence reports and FBI memoranda about the summer's flying disc reports. It includes a Boise newspaper pilot's sworn statement describing a black object he filmed on 9 July 1947, interviews with a United Air Lines captain and a Hamilton Field soldier, and a Pan American crew's orange object near Boston. Other items cover the Tacoma disk fragment story, which was admitted to be false, the fatal B-25 crash at Kelso, a coded "Radio Ham" message dismissed as a hoax, and an Air Defense Command assessment that "something is really flying around."
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MEMORANDUM FOR THE OFFICER IN CHARGE: On 15 July 1947, AAF BU (ORD), Squadron A, Hamilton Field, California, was interviewed and stated as follows: has been in the Army ten years and two months, twenty-six months overseas duty in the ETO, and has been in the Air Corps for about ten months. stated that on 8 July 1947, he was going to Base Cleaners from his office and was passing along the sidewalk near the barracks of the CRD when he saw five or six men pointing toward the sky, but as he was use to this around an Army Air Base, he paid no further attention to it until a lieutenant and a captain ahead of him stopped and pointed in the same direction. He stated that on glancing up he saw three objects traveling northeast across the sky. Two seemed to be traveling faster than an ordinary flight of P-80s and he estimated the altitude between 8-10,000 feet and approximately 7-10 miles away. stated that the two objects in the lead appeared to be round and of a very light gray color while the object in the rear seemed to be either rotating or rolling behind the other two. stated that from a distance he could not tell exactly the shape of the one which was rolling as it appeared to be turning over and he couldn't tell whether the object was flat. The only means he had of identifying it was the fact that it seemed to get brighter and darker as it appeared to roll. The objects were in sight approximately four seconds. As he was in a hurry, he did not ato to talk to the other men but he heard one of them remark that the one in the rear was certainly rolling fast. was unable to identify any of the other men in the group who were reported to have seen the object. stated that it was unlike anything he had ever seen and that he has been trying to convince himself that it was an optical illusion, and yet at the same time he is certain that he saw the object as described. (See Exhibit I). NOTE: appears to be intelligent and is a reserved sort of person. He was very reluctant to discuss the subject at first and appeared hesitant prompted by the possibility that he might be ridiculed He seemed to be honest and sincere in what he stated he saw, and said frankly he was puzzled over the matter. A signed statement by is attached. 1 Incl: b b Exhibit 1. WILLIAM L. DAVIDSON, Capt, AC, OIC CI, 4AP
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. 111 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.