Documents / FOIA release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation file section collects 1947 to 1949 correspondence, memoranda and newspaper clippings about flying disc reports. It includes Hoover's replies to citizens, a Maine woman's account of a drifting object judged probably a weather balloon, a Richmond memo on a cigar-shaped object seen over Radford, Virginia on May 12, 1949, clippings on the Chiles and Whitted sighting near Montgomery, a Flyin' Saucer toy promotion, and agent interviews with witnesses in Vermont and a pilot near Bethel, Alaska.
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HARRISON described the object as appearing some 3 or 4 inches in diameter from the distance he saw it. It was very bright and reflected a light in a manner similar to a mirror. He reported the incident to the local press at Fort Smith and inquired if anyone had made a similar report. He received a negative reply. In this connection, please find attached an article from the front page of the Southwest-Times Record newspaper published at Fort Smith, Arkansas, Sunday, April 17, 1949. The interview with HARRISON developed he is 52 years of age. He has had considerable college training and attended the seminary at Westminster, Maryland 2 1/2 years. He stated that his eyesight is very good for a man of his age and that he has worn reading glasses only for the past few years. He was positive he had observed the object as related above. He was unable of course to state just what the object was or furnish any additional information concerning it. No information was available at Fort Smith indicating the object had fallen in that section or that it was observed by others. The Little Rock Office is making no further inquiries concerning the subject matter. The offices of CSI and MID have been notified of the information set out above.
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. 129 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.