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
• b~D...RD FORM NO. 64 •
.
•,. Ojfice Memorandum • UNITED .STATES GOVERNMENT
(1), TO DIRECTOR, FBI DATE: 4-22-49
/ FROM ~ C, LITTIE ROOK
SUBJECT: UNKNOm{ §.J.IBJECTS;1
/ll WADE H-KllARRISON - INFORMANT
v · FLYING DISCS
- FoR"? SMITH, ARKANSAS (4-16-49)
WADE H. HARRISON, residence address Route 1, Box 29.3,
Fort Smith, Arkansas,. is employed as a Special Delivery messenger by
the Fort Smith Post Office Department.
HARRISON stated that at 5:25 p.m., Saturday, April 16, 1949,
while delivering special delivery mail in Fort Smith, he stopped his
automobile at a signal light located at the intersection of North
Eleventh street and Grand Avenue. He glanced up at th? stop light and
observed a brilliant object moving in a southeastern direction. He
presumed tb! object was approximately 2 miles high. He got out of his
automobile and pointed up With the suggestion that other automobile
drivers, stopped for, the signal light, could see the object. He does
not know who an:, of the other people are or what they saw. He was
obliged to move on after the light changed ' and the drivers began honking
their horns. He watched th3 object until it was obscured by the line
of trees in that section. He estimated he watched it travel some
.3 or 4 miles before he lost sight of it. He stated the weather was
clear, visibility was good, and there were no clouds near the object.
The object made no noise perceptible to HARRISON. However, he commented
that be was stopped at an intersection where the traf fie was heavy and
there was considerable noise. He first thought possibly he bad seen
scne type of a r eflector on an airplane, but c ould not locate or hear
a plane anywhere. ✓
HARRISON drove to the 1400 Block of North "C" Street, where
he observed an Army officer, wearing the insignia of a niajor or lieutenant
colonel, standing back of the of ficer's automobile. He stopped and
asked the officer if he had observed the f'l.y:Lng object. The officer,
name unknown to the informant, answered negat i vely and then remarked,
111 am glad other people are also reporting seeing flying objects."
The of ficer then r elated t hat the day previous, Friday, April 15, 1949,
while the officer was traveling oat of Oklahana City t oward Fort Smith,
his wife observed a flying object in the sk;y very similar to that
described by HARRISON. The officer stated h e saw the object too, but
furnished no more information.
DOS:crc
98-0
Enc. RfCORDfQ -119
AMSD ~-118
CO:PIES DESTROYED'· MA1 3 194~ \NDEXEO
2 7 0 NOV 18,1964- 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.