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: 20 October 1948 at approx 0550 hours
2. Where Sighted: Minneapolis, Minnesota
3. Observer's Position: (i. e., ground, air, control tower, etc.)
4. Name and Address of Observer: Lawrence A. Hansen, 1498 N. Albert St, St Paul Harold Oliver, 2929 13th Ave, South, Minneapolis
5. Occupation and/or hobbies: L. Hansen: teletype operator H. Oliver: Mailman
6. Attention Attracted by: $ \mathbf{n} / \mathbf{s} $
7. Number of Object(s) Seen: 1 (seen at two different locations, in Minneapolis)
3. Size of Object(s): 6 feet
9. Color of Object(s): orange flame colored
10. Shape (Sketch if Possible) round with tail 1/3 again as long as diameter of object. See attached drawings
12. Nature of Luminosity: that of boiling sheets of flame (directed beam of light?)
12. Altitude of Object: From 5,000 to 10,000 feet (estimated)
15. Estimated Distance of object from Observer: X/S
14. Estimated Speed of Object: 3 times that of jet aircraft
15. Time in Sight: x/8
16. Tactics: Seemed to follow a straight course, in a horizontal attitude losing very little altitude. 17. Sound made by Object(s): No sound
17. Sound made by object(s): No sound
18. Direction of Flight of Object(s) South southwest to north northeast.
19. Apparent Construction: "flame"
20. Effect on Clouds: Disappeared behind cloud banks to the north northeast
11. Exhaust Trail Color of): boiling sheets of flame
22. Manner of Disappearance: Behind cloud bank to the north northeast
23. Weather Conditions at Time of Sighting: 2/8
24. Peculiarities Lated: Front of the object seemed blurred as if enveloped in smoke - the rest of the main body was a fiery
25. Summary of Incident: orange color (See attnened page) (over) 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.