Documents / Official release

65 HS1-834228961 62-HQ-83894 Serial 130

Federal Bureau of Investigation · 126 pages · text by GLM-OCR

This FBI file serial collects 1947 Army Air Forces reports on flying disc sightings. It includes Air Defense Command interviews from September 1947 with Pan American pilot Alpheus Powell and navigator Walter White about orange objects seen near Boston on 4 August 1947. It also holds a Birmingham, Alabama report with a photograph, newspaper clippings and a sergeant's sworn statement, Newfoundland and Alaska sighting reports, notes on an instrument found in Illinois, and a Weather Bureau memo on a metallic disk.

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.

  • p. 1 IN REPLY REFER TO: HEADQUARTERS AIR DEFENSE COMMAND MITCHEL FIELD, NEW YORK 12 September 1947 SUBJECT…
  • p. 2 IN REPLY REFER TO: HEADQUARTERS AIR DEFENSE COMMAND MITCHEL FIELD, NEW YORK 15 September 1947 SUBJECT…
  • p. 5 …Forwarded for information of your Headquarters. 2. This Headquarters has made no investigation of "Flying Disc…
  • p. 7 HEADQUARTERS BIRMINGHAM AIR RESERVE TRAINING DETACHMENT BIRMINGHAM ARMY AIR FIELD Birmingham, Alabama 8 July 1947 SUBJECT…
  • p. 10 …Birmingham police headquarters was flooded with calls, too, last night. So was the Weather Bureau the…
  • p. 12 …They seemed to go over the mountain." At police headquarters, Officer E. E. McNeal said reports…
  • p. 15 …Chief of Staff Forwarded in accordance with instructions outlined in TNX CM-95, your Headquarters. 1…
  • p. 17 …Reference TWX - EN 18469, this headquarters, dated 121730Z July 1947, regarding sightings of "flying saucers" by…
  • p. 25 # INTELLIGENCE OFFICE # HEADQUARTERS 1388TH AAF BASE UNIT NEWFOUNILAND BASE COMMAND, ATLD-ATG APO 864, c/o…
  • p. 27 ## INTELLIGENCE OFFICE HEADQUARTERS 1356TH AAF BASE UNIT NEWFOUNDLAND BASE COMMAND, ATLB-ATG APO 864, e/o…
  • p. 37 …1947 SUBJECT: Investigation of Flying Disc. TO: Headquarters, Army Air Forces, Washington 25, D. C. ATTENTION…
  • p. 46 …Armstrong has been interviewed by your Headquarters, request that a copy of the MOIC be furnished…
  • p. 51 …Inclosed herewith for your information is investigation relative to Unidentifiable Objects which was initiated at Headquarters…
  • p. 80 …The following information was related to Counter Intelligence Corps Personnel at Headquarters Fifteenth Air Force, Colorado…
  • p. 84 …Attached statements and MOICs forwarded to your office per request TMX from Headquarters Air Defense Command…
  • p. 104 …Assistant Chief of Staff, A-2 Headquarters Tactical Air Command Langley Field, Virginia Received AFB1R-60…
  • p. 115 …ARMY AIR FORCES WISCONSIN WING HEADQUARTERS 161 W. WISCONSIN AVENUE # 161 W. WISCONSIN AVENUE MILWAUKEE 3…
  • p. 120 …FOR SEVERAL MINUTES BY MAJOR GRAHM THIS HEADQUARTERS SEVERAL OFFICERS FROM ALASKAN DEPARTMENT SUBSTANTIATED HIS STORY…

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

OKLAHOMA CITY AIR MATERIEL AREA TINKER FIELD

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA

30 July 1947

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECURITY OFFICER, OCAMA

Subject: DAN NELSON, Attorney-at-Law, 926 Perrine Building Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Ro: Flying Saucer Kystery Solved.

On 30 July 1947 DAN NELSON was interviewed at his office, 926 Perrine Building, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, relative to his alleged solving of the Flying Saucer Mystery.

Subject, whose age is 53, is at present engaged in practicing law and is the agent for the Dual Parking Meter Company. Subject advised he is married and has two sons, ages seven and ten, residing at 2613 N.W. 11th Street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Nelson stated he was a sergeant in World War I, being wounded in action while serving with Company L, 58th Infantry, and that before entering the service he had an eighth grade education. After leaving the service he finished his education and graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1929. He advised that since 1929 he has practiced general law in both Norman and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Subject stated he notified the War Department by Letter on 19 July 19k7, advising them of his discoveries concerning the Flying Saucer Mystery He received an answer dated 23 July 19k7 advising him his letter had been referred to the Air Forces. NELSON stated he heard no more from the War Department as of 29 July 19k7, at which time he released his statement to the "Da117 Oklahoma," Oklahoma City local newspaper.

Subject advised the basis for his theory concerning the Flying Saucer mystery was obtained from simple experiments which he conducted while driving his automobile. NELSON stated he believed that many people had seen lights or shining objects cast onto their windshields and side ventilator windows of their automobile and reflected as a saucer or disc shaped object. He stated that the movement of the automobile, plus the fact that the glass was not a perfect mirror and passing objects could be seen in relation to the objects gave them an appearance of great speed.

Subject advised that the vibration of the car gave the objects an appearance of rotating and that the reflections caused them to appear flat or saucer shaped. NELSON stated that any number of objects might be seen according to the direction that the car is traveling and the number of bright objects being reflected onto the window. He further stated that these objects might be seen in an ordinary window in a house according to the lighting

Cases discussed

About this file

Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 126 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.