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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STANDARD FORM NO. e4
Office Me~ .andum • UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT•TO Mr. Ladd DATB : 3/1/48 IC', Tolson
:-: ~ie~ Tamn===
FROM V. P. Ke : : g~!;r~---
: : lfi~g- _ _oIB _
SUBJECT: j FLYING DISCS : : ~~:--
SECURITY MATTER - X : : ~.:'.="·=====
::: ~~~:.::,,~·-:,,,-;..-::.==Mr . PeM1 EonJ r.io~UJ~ ~
IC'. Neas
Reference is made to a memorandum to you f'rom Mr . J. P. Coyne •• L s
in the above- captioned matter dat~~ February 19, 1948. The memorandum
indicated that the ~an Franc:h.sco1
Field Di vision had re·ceived a letter from
the headquarters of the Air Defense Command, Mitchel Air Force Base, New York,
dated February 4, 1948, entitl ed, urnvestigation and Reporting of ' Flying Disc '
I ncidents . " This communication indicated that investigations should be
coordinated with the FBI.
The Agent in Charge of the San Francisco Field Division inquired as
to a change in policy r egarding the investigation of flying discs. A letter
was forwarded to San Francisco advising them that there had been no change in
the Bureau's policy. This matter has been discussed by Special Agent S. W.
·Reynolds of the Liaison Section with Lieutenant Colonel C. P. Martin of the
Intelligence Division of the Air Force. Colonel Martin advised Mr . Reynolds
that apparently the Air Defense Command at Mitchel Field was not aware of the
fact that the Bureau was no longer conducting investigations regarding flying
discs. He stated that he would take the necessary action and straighten out
the Air Defense Command as to the present policy regarding incidents of
flying discs . . JtECO'RD~ I ~ - o·_:) / :p-J.\•~ -·
_ll-i, I vj,_;_ -1 Jk ~r
29 MAR 9 I 5./ , "{}.A~·•vv (/ 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.