Documents / Report
This declassified 1949 Army General Staff file collects Plans and Operations Division routing sheets and memoranda about flying saucers. On 24 February 1949, prompted by radios from Kirtland AFB, P&O asked the Intelligence Division for an evaluation. The ID study found about 20 percent of some 210 incidents explained, mostly as weather balloons. It found no evidence of foreign activity and said the rest were probably natural phenomena. In April the ID said it could not verify Walter Winchell's broadcast claim that the saucers were Russian guided missiles.
From the source: Release of 2026-06-12 This file contains an Evaluation Study of the Phenomenon (Flying Saucers) prepared at the request of the Plans & Operations Divisions of the General Staff, U.S. Army (P&O, GSUSA) to determine if the origin could be traced to natural phenomena or the activities of a foreign power.
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Decimal Classification: B&O 350.05 (5 Apr 19) P/W 21/3 5 Apr 19 THIS COPY OF COVER SHEET X 000 ID WILL BE REMOVED ONLY BY X 350.05 THE RECORDS BRANCH X 000.92 Suspense Date: 1200, 26 Apr 19 Subject: Evaluation Study of Phenomenon (Flying Saucers) Date: 5 Apr 19 Origin: B&O to ID Digest: ID cont. 2, 18 Apr 19, advise that any change in the evaluation contained in Inclosure 1 re-subj will be promptly transmitted to B&O Action: Circulate as indicated, then file in P&O. Reply required by: None Executive Branch: To: Control European & Middle East For East & Pacific 1 Operations Latin American North American Joint War Plans Army War Plans 2 Plans Policy Planning Advanced Study 3 International Personnel Records Implementing Asst Executive, P&O Executive Br Comments: This may be of interest to Generals Maddocks, Nichols, Schuyler and Timberman. Recommend Approval: Branch Chief Date Concur: Executive, P&O Deputy Director, AE Deputy Director, P&O Director, P&O
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Report, from the pursue 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. 25 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.