Documents / Official release
65 HS1-834228961 62-HQ-83894 Section 004
Federal Bureau of Investigation · 214 pages · text from the file's own layer
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.
PD 62-1531
Chief of Police LEON V. JENKINS advised that he was travelling south
on N. Williams Avenue near Russell St., when he and Officer H. s. RANEY, his
driver, received a call on the police radio requesting District 14 to attempt
to observe an unknown object in the sky reported by officers in District 18.
JENKINS observed what a ppeared to be a round silver object, about 10,000 feet
high, travelling northeast to southwest. It was directly to JENKIN's left ffllen
observed first . He thought it was a weather balloon. Further observation con
vinced him that it could not be a balloon because of its speed which was extreme
ly great . As JENKINS watched, it turned gradually until it was travelling due
south, and as it did so, its shape seemed to change until it appeared to be
egg-shaped. It disappeared in· about 30 seconds.
Patrolman H. s. RANEY stated that when he first observed the object
it was straight ahead of him and travelling straight away from his car.
RANEY was driving south on N. Williams Avenue. To RANEY it appeared to be just
a glare of sun on some object, and he was unable therefore to tell its shape.
It appeared to be very high and travelling extremely fast. It was out of sight
after he had travelled 4 or 5 city blocks at a speed of about 25 mph. RANEY
stated that he has never seen an object at such an extreme height before and
that if the sun had not reflected from it he could not have seen it at all.
He believes it could possibly have been a reflection from a large airplane at
great altitude.
ROBERT W. SHAYLOR, 4810 N. Fessenden St., Portland stated that he was
on duty in District 14 with Officer DONALD r'l. CO,JLit{G on September 11, 1947
and received the call to watch for the object flying over the city. SHAYLOR
and COWLING-immediately scaMed the sky f rom a vantage point in open territory
where they could see the entire sky. They saw nothing in the sky at that time,
SHAil.OR stating that they did not even see any airplanes.
A short article in "'lhe Oregonian", Portland daily newspaper, for
September 12, 1947, describes the object as seen by Chief of Police JENKINS and
also states that 11The Oregonian" received several calls from other persons
reporting the object. FRED M. WHITE, Assistant City Editor, advised that the
paper has no record of the identities of the people making the calls.
62-1531
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About this file
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 214 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.