box Incident Summaries 173-233

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.

Target appeared in ground clutter area during entire period of observation Target was not observed in station area, and was not observed visually at any time. At times the target appeared as 2 aircraft and at another time as a single aircraft. Gave impression of 2 fighter craft dog-fighting. Evaluated as Soviet aircraft conducting electronic reconnaissance mission. Thought to be a Soviet "Ferret" sine the object was computed to have held a speed of 240 MPH and since the size of blip on radarscope was normal for an aircraft. The unidentified aircraft circled (20 mile radius) continuously for one hour and five minutes immediately above radar site installed at Wakkanai. No authorized aircraft was in the vicinity. Weather conditions precluded visual observation.