Documents / Official release

box Incident Summaries 173-233

U.S. Department of War · 144 pages · text by OCR

This Air Materiel Command file, released by the U.S. Department of War, holds Incident Summary Sheets 173 through 233, sent under a 1949 transmittal. Most of the sheets record sightings of unidentified aerial objects in 1948 and early 1949. They cover Santa Fe, New Mexico, San Pablo, California, Honolulu, Kentwood, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi. Each sheet gives the observer's details and the object's size, speed and shape, and often an investigator's note on how reliable the witness seemed. The file ends with a blank guide for investigating reports, including radar sightings.

From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: N/A, N/A. NARA Record Group 38, catalogue id 143685. Each of these incident summaries includes a "Check-List - Unidentified Flying Objects" that contains details about the incident. Many summaries also include witness lists or statements and other narrative reports or descriptions.

Open the PDF at page 103 Original source ↗

“Sea”7 pages

  • p. 23 …At sea - aboard the S/S Gulfport (i.e. ground, air, control tower, etc.) 5. Name…
  • p. 65 …N/S - disappeared at sea 23. Weather Conditions at Time of Sighting: CAVU 24. Peculiarities Noted…
  • p. 66 …right then resumed its course, disappearing to sea. No smoke or noise was heard from the…
  • p. 120 …13.500 above sea level. 7.000 ft above earth (estimated) (approximately 2.000 ft higher…
  • p. 121 …At 1833 while flying at an indicated altitude of 11,500 feet, mean sea level, approximately…
  • p. 133 …5.500 ft elevation above sea level (estimated) 15. Estimated Distance of object from Observer: N…
  • p. 134 …northwest to southeast at an elevation above sea level of 5500' (absolute direction and elevation argumentative…
On 8 Dec 1948 at approximately 1846 hours Sergeant James E. Doty noticed what appeared to be either a sky rocket or meteor, and called the object to the attention of his companion, Sergeant Eugene E. Montag.

Sergeant Doty stated that the object did not appear to be a star because it was three or four times as large as a star and seemed closer than a star would be. It was sending from the northeast toward the south southwest and was moving upwards at about 15 or 20 degree angle. As it moved it seemed to get larger. The object left a trail. In about two or three seconds it disappeared. The object was round, white and moved very fast.

Sergeant B. Montag's statement does not differ as to direction or color or angle of ascent. States that the object traversed about 2 to 3/10 of the sky while under observation and did not appear to him to be a falling star. Be reported to the Duty Forecaster at the Base Weather Station. Sergeant Montag's statement does not mention seeing a trail.

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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. 144 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.