Documents / Official release
This 1952 file of U.S. Air Force intelligence correspondence on flying objects comes from the Directorate of Intelligence at Headquarters USAF. It records the return to the Coast Guard of a negative of objects photographed at Salem Air Station on 16 July 1952, and requests to Naval Intelligence to analyze the Tremonton film by Delbert Newhouse and the Great Falls film by Nicholas Mariana. It also holds Strategic Air Command report transmittals, letters from members of the public, and an Okinawa object said to have fallen into the sea.
From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: September - December 1952, Various. This file is an archival collection of U.S. Air Force Director of Intelligence records relating to reported “flying disc” incidents during the period from September through December 1952. Drawn from multiple governmental and non-governmental sources, it compiles a wide range of material associated with reported sightings and official handling of those observations, rather than presenting a single analytical conclusion on the nature or origin of “flying discs.” The contents include correspondence, memoranda, reporting forms, case summaries, distribution and routing material, and other administrative or intelligence-related documentation tied to flying-disc reporting and review during that period. Pages 26-36 of the file refer to an incident reported near Tremonton, Utah, in July 1952, in which a U.S. Navy Warrant Officer recorded film of unidentified objects that the Air Force later assessed were likely seabirds. Overall, the file is a broad documentary collection reflecting how such reports were recorded, circulated, and evaluated in late 1952.
“Wilcox”5 pages
•• 1 0 0 ·p I OBS LABOllA.'!OllIES .l Dirtaion of Colllllbia :Broe.deaati.ng S,.1tea. Inc. 485 Jladiaon .l-.enue. ••• Torl: 22 . 1'ev Tor~ - Plan 5-2000 Au&uat 1. 1952 MaJor General Jue• .l. Satdord Chtet ot Intelligence Pentagon :Building Arli~on. Virginia Dear Sir: In connection with •t171ng eaucer• newspaper accounts of obaerTaUons on t be aeareh radar 17stem at the Washington Rational Airport , 1t occurred to me that. the described ~ haTtor could poesibl7 be accounted for in the following IDllDller: 111gb. power, narrow beam fire control radar s7ate111 of the uSlllll. tn,e night concel~bl7, under unusua1 atmospheric conditions, create enough ion.ilaUon along points on the beam i~ the upper ataospher• to al.low the return of an appreciable echo to the search radar 17atem f'rOJll such po1nt1. The apparent motion would be quit• haphaslll"d, follovtng wzat...-.r the f'ire control radar ~erator does in directing the beaa. !his hypothesis 18 t.inatt:racti'ff for teTeral reeaona: J'irst).7, t he p ower required for auch an effect 1e many timea greater than that put out by the UBU&l radar. Second.17. eueh echoes would pre11UJD&bl7 come from ionospheric heigh.ta and theref'ore could not appear at ra.ngea of' a fev mile ■ from the search radar. •• •• reported. fllird.17. it a"11la 11Dl.1kel7 that a coinciden~ Tilual effect ot 8.J17 conapieaous magnitude vould be produced. In spite of this, I am offering this suggeatioa in the belief that if considerable tille, mon•7 and effort 1a being deToted \o thi s problea, it might be vorthvhile trying the relatively aimple experiment ot having a povert"ul fire control radar sweep out certain dmple pattern• to see if the7 can be detected on the aearch radar e7et•• preterabl,: at a time when •n71ng saucer• echoea a re being obaened. •I John X. BollTWOod lmgineer COP Y
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 253 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.