Documents / FOIA release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation file section collects 1947 records on flying disc reports, including field office memoranda from Butte, Seattle, Salt Lake City and San Francisco on sightings in Washington, Montana, Utah and Idaho. Several were attributed to burnt paper or weather balloons, and Wright Field judged debris from a Danford, Illinois farm a hoax unconnected to Project Mogul. After the Army Air Forces described FBI work as chasing "ash can covers, toilet seats and whatnot," the Bureau discontinued its flying disc investigations and referred reports to the Air Forces.
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Office Memorandum UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO : Director, FBI FROM : SAC, Anchorage SUBJECT: Flying Disks DATE: 9-17-47 Reference is made to Bureau Bulletin No. 42 dated July 30, 1947. This is to advise that two army officers reported to the Office of the Director of Intelligence, headquarters Alaskan Department, at Fort Richardson, Alaska, that they had witnessed an object passing through the air at a tremendous rate of speed which could not be judged as to miles per hour. The first officer stated that his attention was attracted to this airborne object, and he in turn pointed it out to the second officer. The object appeared to be shaped like a sphere and did not give the impression of being saucer-like or comparable to a disk. The first officer stated that it would be impossible to give minute details concerning the object, but that it appeared to be approximately two or three feet in diameter and did not leave any vapor trail in the sky. Both officers attempted to determine the approximate altitude of the object, and from a weather group stationed nearby it was determined that cloud formations at the time the object was sighted were "scattered above 10,000 feet." The object was noted to be traveling below the cloud formation. The first officer stated that in his opinion the object appeared to be metallic and was silver in color, much like the color of many airplanes. The second officer stated substantially the same facts and also pointed out that the object remained within his vision for approximately 15 to 20 seconds. When sighted, the object was traveling due south at a speed considerably in excess of any plane. The second officer stated that the object appeared to him to be approximately 10 feet in diameter and compared it to half the size of a full moon on an ordinary night. The second officer based the altitude at approximately the same as the first officer except for the fact that due to the size he believed the object to be, he estimated the altitude to be only approximately 3,000 or 4,000 feet. The object appeared broadside to the second officer, and no evidence of a spinning motion or reflection was noted. As to the color, the second officer pointed out that it appeared to be a dull metal finish. 60671874848484848
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. 77 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.