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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MEMO FOR MR. HOOVER CALLAHAN HINCE NANNA
TOLSON CALLAN JONES, M.A. NAUGHTEN
CLEGG CARLSON KEAY NEASE
CONNELLEY CARTWRIGHT LAUGHLIN PARSONS
GLAVIN CONRAD LEONARD PENNINGTON
HARBO DOWNING LONG RENNEBERGER
LADD EDWARDS, H. L. McCABE, E. J. ROGERS
NICHOLS EGAN McCABE, N. H. SIZOO
ROSEN FEENEY McGUIRE TAMM, Q.
TRACY FLETCHER, H. B. McINTIRE WAIKART
BAUMGARDNER GURNEA MOBLEY WALL
BOSWELL MOHR WHITSON
DECLAS/~tf-BY S{Jf{~rr/~Olt _,L K; 7 FLYING DISCS
Your attention is directed to Bureau Bulletin #57, Series 1947, dated
October 1, 1947, relating to the discontinuance of investigation by this Bureau in
matters concerning flying discs .
For your confidential information, a reliable and confidential source
has advised the Bureau that flying discs are believed to be man-made miss i les rather
than natural phenomenon. It has also been determined that for approximately the
past four years the USSR has been engaged in experimentation on an unknown type
of flying disc.
7 --The Department of the Air Force has furnished to the Bureau the attached
memorandum classified "restricted" dated February 15, 1949, entitled "Unconventional
Aircraft , " This memorandum is being fUrnished to you in order that all agents
assigned to your office can be informed of the type of inf ormation desired by the
Air Force in t his matter.
As set forth in Bureau Bulletin #57, referred to above, no investigation
should be conducted by your office relative to flying discs , however , the attached
memorandum should be referred to in securing data from persons who desire to
voluntari ly furnish i n formati on to your office relating to flying discs,
Very truly yours,
John Edgar Hoover
Director
, /. "1 -s.::_: Cf ll - /
Encl osure NOT RECORDlt) =111
150 APP. 4 1949
-. ........_ ---- 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.