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.
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Memorandum • UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
fV¼ ·:o , 11r. Ladd ~ DATE: March 14, 1949
FROM Mr. Fletche:r:~ :::m:n__llr. Glavln
Mr, !..ad~:~-_-_-_
..... Nlchola__
SUBJ ECT: wr. Rosen__FLYING DISCS ..... Tracy__
Mr. Egan:,,.,,....--
::=~
::'. r.:1ngton_
PURPOSE Mr. Quinn Te.a_
Tele. Rooa__
Mr. Nease__
Illes llolltlis__
Illes O&:ncly__The approval of the Executives Conference is requested for the
attached SAC letter furnishing to the field the type of infonnation
desired by the Intelligence Division of the Air Force in connection with
the captioned matter. ,.
BACKGROUND
You will recall that by Bureau Bulletin #57, Series 1947, dated
October 1, 1947, the field was advised that effective as of that date the
Bureau had discontinued its investigative activities in connection with
flying discs . The field was advised that all future reports concerni ng
this matter received in the field should be referred to the Air Forces .
I
Colonel c. D. Gasser, Resident Engineer, Air Materiel Command,
Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft Research, Oak Ridge ,
Tennessee, has recently and confidentially advised the Bureau that
flying discs are believed by the Air Force to be man-made missiles
rather than some natural phenomenon and that as much as four years ago
it was learned that some type of flying discs were being experimented
upon by the Russians . It was further detennined f r om Colonel Gasser that
most all of the flying discs seen by persons in the United States approached
this country from a northerly direction ana returned in the same direction,
indicating the strong possibility that they are coming from Russia.
The Department of the Air Force has furnished to the Bureau a
' sufficient number of copies of a memorandum dated ~b!'l,)aty 15, 1919 captioned
"Unconventional Aircraft" which can be furnished to our field offices .
STATUS 1~_...l[ .-5 tf z~ - IRECORDED - 76 F
At the present time this Bureau is conduct3"1'1ARo2fii.,J:MVt:,igation of
infonnation r eceived in the field relating to the caption-l~Mtter. ef }·..,vl
RECOMMENDATION , _ ~-r.,., - d
rt is reccmmended that the attached SAC letter and enclosure be
forwarded to the field to advise them of the type of questions to be asked
of persons who voluntarily submit information relative to 11flying discs. 11
Although no active investigation will be conducted by the Bureau, it is iJbelieved that the captioned matter is of sufficient importance t o the
internal security-of the country that our field offices should secure as
much information as possible from compai.nants in order to assist the
Depart'm~t , of'l1 •~ Ai Fer ce. ✓ ~EHM :E'HW Hf I{ \) , -
Attachment 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.