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
., • •Director Re: Flying Disc HO 12/28/48 While observing the object, Mr. NOACK noted an aluminum cyJ1nder which had become detached from one of the wing tips and he brought this back with him as a souvenir. This cylinder conceivably could act as a rudder, a rocket housing, or fuel tank attachment. Mr. NOACK initialled the cylinder and surrendered it also. There are attached hereto for the Bureau two copies of a signed statement taken from Mr. NOACK dated Houston, Texas, 12/28/48. Two copies of the statement are attached for the Los Angeles Office, and one informational copy is being designated for the Cincinnati Division. The original is being retained in the Houston file. One copy of the statement is attached to the copy of this letter for the FBI Laboratory. During the interview with Mr. NOACK, Mrs. ROSE C. ROTSEL, a stenographer for O.S.I., Ellington Field, recorded the statement for O.S.I . use . Initial information obtained concerning this flying disc was furnished telephonically to Inspector Howard Fletcher at the Bureau, 9 A.M., 12/28/48. Mr . Fletcher requested the Bureau be given a summary of the information by teletype, with interested offices being similarly notified, and that the signed statement of NOACK be submitted AMSD. He further instructed that he did not want the Bureau "side tracked" in the handling of this matter, but that FBI representatives should assume an active interest in the investigation throughout, cooperating, of course, with O.S.I. representatives. Mr . Fleming's headquarters are the District Commander, 5th o.s.r . District, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. On the morning of 12/28/48 Mr. Fleming sent a telegram to his District Commander giving a general summary of the original complaint. Mr. Fleming was unable to advise how the 5th o.s.r. District would handle their inquiry in this matter. He stated this could either be handled by Wright Field dispatching a special plane to California or by having their District Commander, 18D, O. S.I . , San Bernardino, California handle it. He stated 1n any event it would be necessary for O.S.I. representatives to first confer with Mr . R. C. PERSON, named in this statement, as being the individual who initially discovered the flying disc and would lmow also its present whereabouts. -2-
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.