Documents / Official release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation file section (62-HQ-83894, Section 4) collects 1947 to 1949 correspondence on flying discs. It includes Portland police officers' accounts of a silvery object over the city on September 11, 1947, an Alaska pilot's July 1947 sighting near Bethel, citizen letters answered by J. Edgar Hoover, and a 1948 Air Defense Command directive on disc investigations. The FBI replied that it was conducting no flying disc investigations. Later items concern William Albert Rhodes's disc photographs and a Los Angeles letter judged a probable prank.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: N/A, N/A. The FBI's 62-HQ-83894 case file includes investigative records, eyewitness testimonies, and public reports concerning Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs documented between June 1947 and July 1968. The records include high-profile incident accounts, photographic evidence from sites like Oak Ridge, TN, and technical proposals regarding potential propulsion systems. Additional topics include convention programs, researcher accounts, and extensive media coverage from the period. This file is partially posted on FBI vault with more redactions and some pages missing. Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions.
“Socorro, New Mexico”1 page
C 0p y Ltr. to Mr. G. J. Rathman, Chief, Investigation Section, u. s. AEC, dated 10 February 1949, Re Photographs of the negative. In other words, there is a trail of that section of the negative which was not exposed in the camera. Thie effect shows up in one negative and not in the other because the negative in question is fogged; therefore, this irregularity was developed. "Sti11 f'Urther proof of these defects lies in t.he number of unevenly developed sections of the negative." In view of the above, it is reoam:nended that this entire matter be declassif'ied and that Mr. Presley be advised of the nature o£ the images, if and when the negatives are returned to h1m by your office. For your information, this ottioe is taking the liberty of :turnish- 1ng a copy o£ this ~ommnieation to Mr. c. c. Mcswain, Special Agent, F.BI, because of official interest eTidenced by his office 1n the matter. Your cooperation 1n furnishing photographs and negatives, together With information contained in your letter o£ 16 December 1948 to Major Grant, is sincerely appreciated. Vecy truly yours, C. D. GASSER Colonel, US.AF Am EngineerinsField Officer 3 Incle. 2 Negatives l Photostat cc - Mr. C. C. McSwain C 0p y
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 214 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.