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…
1. Date and Time of Observation: 20 Oct 1945 0600

2. Where Sighted: 6688 Winona, Minnesota

3. Observer's Position: ground (i. e., ground, air, control tower, etc.)

4. Name and Address of Observer: Dr F. 7. Benoit & Paul Zenk.

5. Occupation and/or hobbies: N/S

6. Attention Attracted by: M/s

7. Number of Object( ) Seen: 1

8. size of Object(s): 25 feet long by 8 feet wide

9. Color of Object(s): 3/2

10. Shade (Sketch if Possible) I/s

11. Nature of Luminosity: "sparks" (Directed beam of light?)

12. Altitude of Object: N/S (estimated)

13. Estimated Distance of object from Observer:

14. Estimated Shift of Object: Slow

15. Time in Sight: N/S

16. Tactics: Broke up into numerous bright particles

17. Sound made by Obj ct(s): X/3

18. Direction of Flight of Object(v) I/S

19. Apparent Construction: "a bunch of sparks with a tail"

20. Effect on Clouds: /S

1. Exhaust Trail Color of): tail

22. Manner of Disappearance: broke up into numerous bright particles

23. Weather Conditions at Time of Sighting: E/S

24. Peculiarities Noted: allow speed and the fact that it broke into numerous bright particles

25. Summary of Incident: (over) (See attached page)

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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.