Documents / FOIA release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation file section collects 1949 Army intelligence reports of unidentified aerial objects seen around Camp Hood, Texas, forwarded by the San Antonio office, which told the Director it was reviewing and destroying such reports unless they held FBI interest. It also has 1957 FBI liaison memoranda on a radar-tracked object near Montauk Point and Benton, Pennsylvania, judged unlikely to be a Soviet operation. The file also includes a civilian Flying Saucer Researchers release arguing that saucers probably come from Mars.
“Anderson”4 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
111th CIC Detachment, FAO # 8, P. O. Box 379, Knoxville, Tennessee OBJECTS SIGHTED OVER OAK RIDGE, TENNESSEE At 1655 hours, on 20 October 1950, Mr. Larry P. Riordan, AEC Badge No. 522, Superintendent of Security at X-10 in the "Control Zone" at Oak Ridge Tennessee, while enroute from X-10 to the Oak Ridge residential area, on Benton Valley Road, saw an object in the sky which appeared to be directly over the University of Tennessee Agricultural Research Farm. This object gave the general appearance of an aerial balloon which had lost its "basket." In other words, the object was generally round; appeared to come together at the bottom in wrinkles (rather indistinct), and something was hanging below. The balloon was described as being from eight to ten feet long; of a lead pipe or gunmetal color; and seemed to be approximately one-fourth (1/4) mile from the observer, at a thirty (30) degree elevation above the horizon. The object was apparently stationary but since the observer was in a moving vehicle, he did not verify that it was stationary. As the vehicle in which he was travelling changed position, and went around a curve, Mr. Riordan noticed that this object appeared to be thinner. He concludes that by reason of his changing position, or the object changing its altitude, he observed another angle of the object which appeared to be thinner than upon his first sighting. At the time of the observation there was adequate light and the object was plainly visible. Mr. Riordan is a responsible person, so is indicated by his position, and he has been aware of the many instances of reported objects flying in the city. He is also very familiar with the weather balloons which are sent up hourly each day over Oak Ridge between 6:00 a.m. of one day until 1:00 a.m. of the next day. The size of these balloons vary but, generally, they are similar to a cirous balloon which is about twenty-four (24) inches in diameter. Mr. Riordan is certain the object soon was not a weather balloon but his first impression was that this object was an experimental "gab" being utilized by the University of Tennessee Agricultural Research Farm. Mr. Riordan has been the Security Chief of X-10 since 14 July 1943. His vision is normal except that he has negligible impairment of the right eye. Like many of the Atomic Energy Commission officials, Mr. Riordan has hoped for the opportunity to see one of these objects, and under the circumstances, he visualized it as accurately as possible. At 1845 hours, on 24 October 1950, Mr. William B. Fry, Assistant Chief Security, NEPA Division, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, while attending a Drive-in theater with his wife and child, at Oak Ridge, noticed an object in the sky North-Northwest of his position, at a thirty (30) to forty (40) degree. 3 cc Eq., Third Army, Ft. McPherson, Ga. 1 cc Sec. Div., AEC, Oak Ridge, Tenn. 1 cc FBI, Knoxville, Tenn. 1 cc OSI, Knoxville, To 1 cc File
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. 169 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.