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.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# Federal Bureau of Investigation United States Department of Justice 422 - Federal Office Building, Civic Center San Francisco 2, California September 19, 1947 Director, FBI Attention: Assistant Director D. M. LADD HE: REPORTS OF FLYING DISCS Dear Sir: Grace I am transmitting herewith copies of a "restricted" letter dated September 3, 1947, which was furnished to me by Lieutenant Colonel A-2, Army Air Forces, Hamilton Field, California, which letter is designated to certain Commanding Generals in the Army Air Forces from Colonel Assistant Chief of Staff - Intelligence, Headquarters Air Defense Command, Mitchel Field, New York, concerning "Cooperation of FBI with AAF on Investigations of 'Flying Disc' Incidents". It is my understanding from recent Bureau instructions that we are to assist the Air Force Intelligence personnel in the investigation of flying disc incidents. However, it will be noted from the attached letter that it is Army interpretation that it was their intent that the Bureau would investigate those incidents of the so-called "discs" being found on the ground and apparently not those which are observed only in flight. Further, the attention of the Bureau is respectfully called to paragraph two of this letter and to the last sentence therein which states, "The services of the FBI were enlisted in order to relieve the numbered Air Forces of the task of tracking down all the many instances which turned out to be ash can covers, toilet seats and whatnot." In the first place, the instructions issued by the Army Air Forces in this letter appear to limit the type of investigations which the Bureau will be asked to handle and secondly it appears to me the wording of the last sentence in the second paragraph mentioned above is cloaked in entirely uncalled for language tending to indicate the Bureau will be asked to conduct investigations only in those cases which are not important and which are almost, in fact, ridiculous. The thought has occurred to me the Bureau might desire to discuss this matter further with the Army Air Forces both as to the types of investigations which we will conduct and also to object to the sourrilous wordage which, to say the least, is insulting to the Bureau in the last sentence of paragraph two.
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.