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.

  • 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…
Information regarding this sighting taken from a letter of Oscar Nonnig addressed to Mr A. Schroeder of Abilene, Texas, in regard to Mr Schroeder's query regarding a phenomena he witnessed the night of 1 Jan 48 at approximately 1:25 A.M. and again at 1:30 A.M.

Object was described as a fan-shaped glow which originated from a large bell on the horizon and which extended to the meridian due west of Abilene, Texas, in a perfectly clear sky. Phenomena was of 2 seconds duration. Five minutes later it was seen again for the same length of time. No sound was heard.

Mr Wonnig thought the phenomena could possibly be attributed to:

(1) Disturbance of an electrical system such as transformers blowing out, or

(2) Experiments at White Sand Proving Grounds which are due west of Abilene.

NOTE: Inquiry at Holloman AF Base, Alamagordo, N. M., revealed that research work at night and on Sundays does not involve the use of any lighting device or flares such as described in the various reports submitted. See Incidents

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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.