U.S. Air Force Flying Discs File, 1952

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.

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24-0 6 October 1950
SUBJECT: UNCONVE1d'IONAL AIRCRAFT
TO: District Commander
5th District Office of Special Investigations
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Dayton, Ohio
1. Transmitted under separate cover is approximately fifteen
feet of moving picture film taken by Mr. Nicholas Mariana, of 2919
First Avenue North, Great Falls, Montana, who is general manager
of the Great Falls Baseball Club.
2. Mr. Mariana made these pictures on 15 August 1950 between
the hours of 11:25 and ll:30 A. M., at Great Falls, Montana. On
interview, he stated that he first fighted the objects while standing
in the gx·andstand of the ball park located at 26th Street and Eleventh
Avenue North, Great Falls, Montana, and that he saw two bright disc
shaped objects proceeding in a southerly direction at an alti tude
of approximately ten thousand feet and at a distance of about three
quarters of a mile in a westerly direction, fr.:>m the observer•s view
point. Mr. Mariana then stated that he ran downstairs and outside
to his car from which he obtained his camera and made the pictures
shown in the film. From the time of first sighting to the
completion of taking of the pictures, Mr. Mariana estimated con
awned approximately twenty seconds. At the time of his taking
the pictures, a Miss Virginia Raunig, l.12 Second Avenue North,
Great Falls, Montana, who is anployed as his secretary, was a
witness.
3. The water tower in instant pictures is located approximately
seven hundred feet in a southwesterl y direction from the point at
which Mr. Mariana stood when taking the pictures and the tower is
approximately one hundred seventy- five feet in height.
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