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
• • .. ~
Office Memorandum • lJN lTED STATES GOVERNMENT
TO MR. D. M. ~ December 28, 1948
FROM H. B. FIETC~ /J • ::: ~t!:·-
rn :: ~~1n_ _
11r. N1cnols_ _
SUBJ ECT: (1'FLYING DISCS IC". Rosen__
.IC'. Traer__
:::=·=·..===llr- tte.rbo__
llr. llOllr__
Mr. Peph{ngw.Q_
Reference is made to the teletype of December 28, 1948, llr. Quinn Tua_
Tele. Roo■__
from the Houston Office. Mr. se.aae__
MU• Kolmiio__
At J:JO p.m., I called SAC Hood of the Los Angeles Office
and i~cted that he attempt to locate Mr. Person and Mr. and Mrs .
Nat~th, secure photographs and film in their possession and also
secure from them the location of the described flying disc. I als o
instructed that Mr. Hood send out sufficient Agents to find the disc~
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and guard it until it could be properly handled by the appropriate Government -'<...._/_
authority. I also telephoned the Houston Office and told them to send
in the photographs or film in their possession, t ogether with the part which
had been recovered from the machine by the Informant Noack.
At 5 :00 p.m., SAC Hood called back and stated that all work on
this matter should be innnediately discontinued . They had managed to
reach Mr. Nathan Smith and he stated that he knew al l about this matter;
that it was not a f lying disc, but an object which had been identified
as a tow Idte, 'Which has a disc center and wings. This Idte is actually
made in Los Angeles by the Olson and Rice Manufacturing Company. A call
was made to Olson and Rice, who admitted making a kite along the lines
described by Mr. Smith and they explained that they had tried to fly it
and it had failed and they had abandoned it .
Mr. Hood stated he did not have full details at the time of his
call, but he did have this report from the Agents. Therefore, I instructed
that he call Mr. Willis of the Houston Office immediately in order that the
film and the part available to the Houston ·Office will not be forwarded
for Laboratory examination.
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RECORDED - 42
INDEXED - 42
a~rs
" 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.