65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_SUB_A
Sub-file A of the FBI's 62-HQ-83894 file, a large collection of newspaper clippings and wire copy on flying saucers from 1947 onward, including the November 1957 Levelland, Texas, reports and a Grand Blanc, Michigan, photo story.
Document Highlights
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Short overview
Sub A of the FBI’s 62-HQ-83894 file: a clippings file in which FBI headquarters collected newspaper and wire reports on flying saucers, from the summer of 1947 to May 1960, each pasted on a routing sheet for senior Bureau officials.
Why this is interesting
The file runs backward in time, from a 1960 Michigan story about a man whose saucer photo came back from Washington faded, through the debates of the 1950s, to the sightings of July 1947, with reports from Idaho, Portland, Philadelphia and Washington. In between are articles on a former Marine major and saucer author who accused the Air Force of withholding information, airline crews reporting objects, and the story of an inventor’s experimental “flying saucer” aircraft, located at the Air Force’s request. A highlight is a U.S. Air Force summary of its UFO program, which gives 1,700 reports in 1952, 429 in 1953 and 254 in the first nine months of 1954, says more than 80 percent are explainable, and lists balloons, jets, meteors, reflections and new aircraft lights as typical causes. The routing sheets show how closely the FBI leadership followed public coverage of the topic.
Selected passages
- “It should be remembered that any object viewed from a great distance appears to be round.”
- “Innumerable objects, from ashtrays to wash basins, have been photographed while sailing through the air.”