38_143685_box7_Incident_Summaries_1-100
- Date
- 1947 to 1948
- Place
- United States and abroad (multiple incidents, numbered 1-100)
- Record
- Pentagon file
- Assessment
- Not assessed
- Evidence strength
What was reported
A 208-page scanned box of individual 'CHECK-LIST - UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS' case files, Incidents #1 through roughly #100, each a single Army Air Forces/Air Materiel Command investigation form (witness data, distance, altitude, speed, shape, color, sound, remarks) plus attached correspondence. Incident #1 is dated 8 July 1947, two weeks after the Kenneth Arnold sighting and in the same window as the Roswell announcement; incidents sampled run through January and October 1948. Sampled cases include military witnesses (control-tower personnel at Muroc and Clinton County AAF), civilians, and press reports relayed through military attaches abroad (Finland). Most describe fireballs, lights, or disc/triangle-shaped objects with no instrument corroboration.
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
- Yes: Military aircrew
- Yes: 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
- Yes: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- No: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Why this rating Single untrained witness, visual-only observation in nearly every sampled case; no radar or photographic corroboration seen in the sampled pages. Several cases sampled are plausibly fireballs/meteors or, in one case, an admitted rocket explosion; others (the Clinton County AAF two-witness sighting, the Plevna letter) are more detailed but still single-sensor (the naked eye) even with more than one observer.
As described in the file
- Witnesses
- Civilians and military personnel, one witness per case in sampled files (control-tower NCOs, a billeting officer, an INS employee and spouse, a fisherman, foreign press)
- Sensors
- Visual
- Shape
- Varies: disc/spherical (Incident #1), oblong (Incident #129), ball (Incident #130), triangle/cone (Incident #46), round fireball (Incident #98)
- Size
- Varies by case, mostly compared to familiar objects (a football, a locomotive headlight)
- Lights and colour
- Varies: silver, white-to-red-to-green, fire-colored, shining white
- Motion
- Varies: hovering then fast departure, steady flight, erratic climbs/descents
- Duration
- Varies: seconds to about 35 minutes
- Altitude or range
- Mostly not stated or estimated only
Pentagon files
38_143685_box7_Incident_Summaries_1-100
Open the original on war.gov
What the file claims
- Unverified
A control-tower corporal and a control-tower sergeant at Clinton County Army Air Field, Ohio independently reported a hovering, color-changing object on the night of 7 January 1948.
- Unverified
A newspaper's territory manager reported a fast, silent, engineless-sounding ball of white-blue light near Plevna, Montana on 17 May 1948, in a signed letter to Army Intelligence.
- Unverified
A reported 'flying disc' near Adapazari, Turkey on 5 May 1948 was investigated and found to be a rocket that exploded, with debris killing a sheep dog.
On the map
39.80° N, 98.60° W, plotted at the centre of the country
Show on the map