38_143685_box_Incident_Summaries_173-233
- Date
- 1946 to 1948
- Place
- United States (multiple incidents, numbered approx. 173-233)
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
Continuation of the same Air Materiel Command incident case-file series, Incidents roughly #173-#233, using both the 'CHECK-LIST' form and an 'INCIDENT SUMMARY SHEET' variant plus a blank radar-sighting investigation questionnaire template. OCR quality on this file is much worse than the other two boxes (text-index.json does not mark it ocr:true, but the extracted text is heavily corrupted, often reduced to single characters and punctuation). Legible fragments describe a bright object with a distinct center tracked across three bearings, a possible 1946 'pancake wheel'-shaped object with a muffled 'put-put-put' sound near Salt Lake City, and a silver, wingless, blimp-like object seen by a fisherman in October 1948.
What officials concluded
No conclusion stated
The file gives no official explanation.
- Agency
- Department of War
- Released in
- 123456
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- Yes: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- No: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- No: Disc
- No: Triangle
- Yes: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- Yes: Sound
- No: Silent
Why this rating Severe OCR corruption limits confidence in this file more than the other two boxes; legible fragments describe single-witness, visual-only sightings with no instrument corroboration. The 'pancake wheel' case (low altitude, audible engine-like sound, no visible exhaust) is the most internally detailed but is still one uncorroborated witness.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- Individual civilian witnesses (a fisherman, an unnamed observer near Salt Lake City)
- Sensors
- Visual
- Shape
- Wheel/pancake-shaped with a bright center (Incident near p.32), cigar/blimp-shaped (Incident #200)
- Lights and colour
- Bright center, silver color
- Motion
- Varies
- Duration
- Seconds to a few minutes
- Altitude or range
- Roughly 500 ft (wheel-shaped case)
- Effects
- A throbbing/muffled sound reported in the wheel-shaped case
Pentagon files
38_143685_box_Incident_Summaries_173-233
Open the original on war.gov
What the file claims
- Unverified
A witness near Salt Lake City described a low, wheel-shaped object with a muffled throbbing sound and no visible exhaust, on the morning of 6 October 1946.
- Unverified
A fisherman, Andrew N. [surname garbled], reported a silver, wingless, cigar-shaped object resembling a blimp on 17 October 1948, with no smoke or noise from the object itself.
On the map
39.80° N, 98.60° W, plotted at the centre of the country
Show on the map