65 HS1-834228961 62-HQ-83894 Section 004

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.

• •LET TO DIRECTOR 4-22-49
FLYING DISCS
HARRISON de scribed the object as appearing some 3 or 4
inches in diameter from the distance he saw it. It was very bright
and reflected a light in a manner similar to a mirror. He reported the
incident to tM local press at Fort Smith and inquired if anyone had
made a similar report. He received a negative reply. In this connection,
please find attached an article from the front page of the Southwest-Times
Record newspaper published at Fort Smith, Arkansas, Sunday, April 17,
1949.
The interview with HARRISON developed he is 52 years of age.
He has had considerable college training and attended the seminar:, at
Westminister, Maryland 2½ years. He stated that his eyesight is very
good for a man of his age am that he has worn r eading glasses only
for the past few years. He was positive he had observed the object
as related above. He was unable of course to state just what the object
was or furnish any additional information concerning it. No information
was available at Fort Smith indicating the object bad fallen in that
section or that it was observed by others. The Little Rock Office iS
making no further inquiries concerning the subject matter.
)/ The offices of OSI and MID have been notified of the informa-
~ tion set out above,
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