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
Houoton, Texas Dec • ?.8, 1948 ,I, LOiffiIE EDWARD )WACK, residing 2921 Cl'.1cago Street, Houeton 17, TexaE, make the following statement to Special Agent Robert D. Plemine and Chr1etopher R. Dradley, reDreeentatlvcc of the Of.t'1ce ot E-pecia'l Investigat ton, Ellington OSI Detachment, Ellington Field, Texoa, and Special J\gents Orahain . &itohel ana Galen N. I1llia who I know to be Special !agents of the Pederal Bureau or InYest1pt1on. On Monday afternoon December 6, 1948, at about 6 P.N., Mr. a.c. PERSON, Mr. YfATHAlf SJII'l'H,. )Ir. C.A. TOCK, Mr. R01SER'J.' BROUSSARD and another man, n&Jl8 not recalled, and I had dinner at the Old Virginia Inn, Loa Angeles, California. After dinner we went back to Mr.. Ssnitn•a electrical manutactur1ng company which he own.a and operates 1l1 Loa Angeles, CA11torn1a. Mr. PERSON told us about aeeing a tlytng diac and we made an appointment to leave early the next mom!~ by car• with our oueraa, to go to the location or the d11c. Mr. PERSON waa detained at some private air f.ield so we did not leave until about 2 P.M. ml. December 7. 1948. We arrived at the acene ot the tlyin.g diso and ~ook pictures of the d1ac which vaa still 171.ng around. Mr. SIIIITB took about 10 1'eet of 16 mm tilm and Mr. PERSOX took five or six ahota wlth a Speed Graphic Camera. He noticed that the t1r•t three shots were taken when the adapter on his lens was closed too much and I don•t icnow 1r they turned out all :right. Jllr. SMIT!I •uggested I hold the t1ying diac up and rotate it around and he would teke llY' p1ctu •1th 1ror came~. Atti!r taking the picture•, we patched the fence o~ Mr. PERSOK'• property where people had been cutting the wire to get to a road. f left and then d~ove baok and had dinner at Eaton •a Inn and they took me back home to Hollywood, ca11tom1a. I would like to recite that I loft Houston, Texan 11:30 A.M. on Sunday; December 5. 1948, tor Cal~fornia by plane and tlew to Hollywood, California on o commercial plane on buoinese matters. On arriving 1n Hollywood, I mot Mr. PERSON in Holly,rood on Monday, December 6, 1948,. and at that time he told :me about the tlylng disc he had located. 'He stated he bad gone to Laa Vegaa by h1a personal plane and saw the disc from the a1~ on hie way back.
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.