Documents / Official release
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.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
1. Date and Time of Observation: 1705-1715 HST 18 October 1948
2. Where Sighted: Honolulu, T. H., $ 1 5 8^{\circ} $ $ 2 1^{\circ} $ $ 5^{\prime} $ N
3. Observer's Position: Ground (i. e., ground, air, control tower, et.
4. Name and Address of Observer: 2737 Pacific Hgte Rd, Honolulu
5. Occupation and/or hobbies; Major. USAF - rated pilot
6. Attention Attracted by: B/S
7. Number of Object(s) Seen: 1 seen intermittently 4 times or 4 separate sighting
8. Size of Object(s): Appeared 4 or 5 inches in dia from observer's viewpoint Estimated size: 10 to 15 feet in diameter
9. Color of Object(s): bright silver - comparable to aluminus in aircraft
10. Shape (Sketch if Possible) round or elliptical
11. Nature of Luminosity: H/SX No flame or lights observed (directed beam of light?)
12. Altitude of Object: 10.000 to 14.000 feet (estimated)
13. Estimated Distance of object from Observer r: 2/s
14. Estimated Speed of Object: 200 MPH
15. Time in sight: Observed intermittently, one time for 4 seconds, another for 10 seconds, the longest period.
16. Tactics: No maneuvering - observed horizontal flight
17. Sound made b. Obj. ct(s): No sound noticed
18. Direction of Flight of Object(s) Northeast on steady course
19. Apparent Construction: metallic
20. Effect on Clouds: cloud formation blocked vision of observer as object was at an altitude between the two cloud formations (See attached drug)
1. Exhaust Trail Color of): No exhaust trail
22. erner of Disappearance: N/S
23. Weather Conditions at Time of Lighting: High broken clouds 3,500 ft; 3/10s cumulus bases 3,500 ft; 2/10 alto cumulus 14,000 ft; 5/10s cirus est, 80,000 f
24. Peculiarities Noted: Was not conventional craft Visibility: 15 m.
25. Summary of Incident: (See attached page) Not linked to a story yet.
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 144 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.