Documents / FOIA release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation file release gathers memos, teletypes and letters from 1949 and 1950 on flying saucer reports. Most of it covers a March 1950 claim by a Knoxville radio technician that his surplus APN-7 radar detected an object over Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Navy radar never confirmed the object, and Air Force examiners judged his equipment unreliable. Other items include a cardboard saucer hoax near Elmira, New York, a pilot's 1949 formation sighting in Oregon and a Denver claim of a crashed disc.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
Office Memorandum • UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FROM : MR. A. H. BELMONT UNKNOWN OBJECT OVER OAK RIDGE, TENNESSEE, MARCH 1, 1950; COMPLAINANT; VITAL FACILITIES; INTERNAL SECURITY At 9:55 A.M. today, SAC Robey of Knoxville advised that owner and operator of Knoxville, had called the Knoxville Office at 11:15 P.M. on March 1. is a radio ham operator and has set up in his home in Knoxville an Army Surplus APN-7 radar set. advised that he had picked up on this set a "pip" indicating that an object was circling at an altitude of about 40,000 feet over Oak Ridge. stated that he customarily had followed the movement of airplanes through this set and he was sure this item was not a thunder cloud. Mr. advised that the Knoxville Office had immediately notified the AEC Security Section following the receipt of the call from Mr. At 5:30 P.M. on March 2, Mr. again called to say that he had again picked up an object at 11:15 A.M. on March 2 about 100,000 feet up and about 18 miles from his home in Knoxville which would place the object over Oak Ridge. Mr. advised that CIC Agents had been given the information coming from the Knoxville Office, as a result of which CIC Agents and CSI representative went out last night and looked over Mr. is set. They did see an object on the screen about 11:00 or 12:00 P.M. last night. They reported this information to the Third Army. Mr. was of the opinion that the Air Force probably has sent the information to Washington also. Army CIC has now informed that CIA is going to send a technician down from Washington to examine the set. Mr. had no information as to how CIA had jurisdiction. Mr. advised that the Army is also contemplating sending a man up from Atlanta with a portable radar set to check into this situation. In addition, the Naval Reserve has a set locally and is putting it into operation this morning in an effort to identify this object. Mr. advised that AEC and the Armed Forces' representatives are somewhat concerned about this matter and he wanted the Bureau to have the above information in case there were inquiries. I advised Mr. to keep in touch with the situation and let us know immediately of any developments and as to any information picked up by the Armed Forces or the CIA representative. I also requested that he ascertain who the CIA representative is and what action he took upon his arrival. Mr. was advised that no investigation should be conducted by the Knoxville Office but that he should be kept advised of developments and should send a teletype to the Bureau tonight.
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. 66 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.