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This file documents the FBI's handling of early public reports of 'flying discs' and related aerial sightings. The released material includes 1947 field-office memoranda, newspaper clippings, telegrams, and correspondence showing that the Bureau was instructed to investigate such reports and coordinate information with military authorities. A Milwaukee memorandum describes two Wisconsin reports, including a 19-inch disc-like device found near Black River Falls that officials thought may have been a juvenile-made object; the office reported no further investigation. Other records include reports of sightings by pilot Dick Rankin and a 1949 acknowledgment signed by J. Edgar Hoover concerning an indistinct object in the sky that was considered possibly a weather balloon.

Documents span: 1947-1949 | Released in 16 parts | parts 1-8 attached here, the rest in the posts below
Names in this file: J. Edgar Hoover, Dick Rankin, D. M. Ladd, H. X. Johnson, Fletcher
Subjects: UFOs, flying discs, aerial sightings, FBI correspondence, military referrals

See also: FBI File on the Roswell UFO Incident, FBI UFO and Flying Disc Case File, 1947-1968

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Parts 9-16 of the file.

These parts contain Bureau memoranda and related correspondence concerning information on 'flying saucers,' dated from July through August 1949. One memorandum proposes asking the Los Angeles office to discreetly check with Mitchell and interview him about the background of a letter writer who described an alleged 1947 incident.