Documents / Official release

Washington State ‘UFO’ Investigation, 1952-1960

Federal Bureau of Investigation · 1952 · 55 pages · text by OCR

This Federal Bureau of Investigation Seattle field office file (100-18945) gathers flying saucer material from 1952 to 1960. It holds newspaper clippings, citizen complaint forms and agent memoranda about sightings over Pasco, Kennewick, Seattle, Richland and the Hanford reservation, Spokane and other Washington locations. The file records 1952 agreements with military intelligence on passing reports to OSI and the Air Force. One Hanford sighting from 1953 was attributed to a meteorological balloon. The FBI itself carried out no investigations.

From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Incident: July 1952-1960, Washington State, United States. This file details an investigation of various sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) in Washington state between July 1952 and August 1960. This file includes memoranda and correspondence between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Air Force regarding UFO sightings.

  • p. 4 …SPENCER RAYNOR, Commanding Officer, 20th District, Office of Special Investigations, McChord Field, Washington. The following individuals…
  • p. 15 …Colonel Spencer Raynor Commanding Officer 20th District Office of Special Investigations McChord Air Force Base. Washington…
  • p. 24 …THE INSPECTOR GENERAL USAF 20th DISTRICT OFFICE OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS McCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, McCHORD FIELD…
  • p. 25 …OFFICE OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS McCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, McCHORD FIELD, WASHINGTON Mr. R. D. Auerbach Special…
  • p. 27 …THE INSPECTOR GENERAL USAF 20th DISTRICT OFFICE OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS McCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, McCHORD FIELD…
  • p. 31 …THE INSPECTOR GENERAL USAF 20th DISTRICT OFFICE OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS McCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, McCHORD FIELD…
  • p. 36 …LEVY Chief, Counter Intelligence Division Directorate of Special Investigations The Inspector General
  • p. 41 …There is no objection by this office to your investigation of this matter and your interview…
  • p. 45 …Raynor District Commander 20th District Office of Special Investigations United States Air Force McChord Air Force…
  • p. 48 …I am forwarding your letter and completed questionnaire to the Office of Special Investigations, United States…
2. Any report of a flying saucer or similar matter received from a complainant by the FBI would be disseminated to all intelligence agencies if the report was an immediate one, that is the sighting had just been received and it appeared to be a matter that the other agencies would not know about. It was agreed, however, that if it was a sighting that had occurred some time before, that all that was necessary was for a letter to be written to the OSI for their referral to Air Force Intelligence.

## PARACHUTE LANDINGS

There was a general discussion concerning parachute landings and it appeared to be the consensus of those present that the most important thing to determine on a parachute landing was if it came from an unidentified plane. This can only be determined through a check with Air Force Intelligence through OSI. It was suggested, therefore, that OSI maintain a liaison with Air Force Intelligence at McChord Field, who received reports of incidents such as unidentified planes, parachutes, etc. from the Civil Air Patrol, Civilian Defense Air Watchers, etc., so that if a parachute report was received from Air Force Intelligence as coming from an identified plane that the information could be immediately disseminated to all intelligence agencies. There was some discussion about the recent incident of a parachute landing which occurred in the vicinity of Walla Walla, Washington, where there was approximately a ten-hour delay before the information was received from OSI, McChord.

As concerns submarine sightings, it appeared that all agencies desired to be notified immediately of sightings of submarines that were not identified as friendly. It also appeared that Major Bosse, Regional Office No. 3, was most anxious to receive any kind of report, whether it be flashing lights, flying discs, etc. immediately for referral to his headquarters.

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About this file

Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 55 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.