“Reference is made to Bureau Bulletin No. 42, Series 1947, dated July 30, 1947, Section (B), which advises that all reports concerning flying discs should be investigated by field offices.”  So reads the first paragraph of an internal FBI communication from 1947. Shortly after World War II, sightings of “flying disks” and “flying saucers” began to be reported by the news media all over the country.  The task of investigating these reports fell naturally to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the bureau began receiving and handling reports from citizens and the military in the summer of that year.  At about the same time, the United States Air Force was separated from the United States Army and made a separate branch of the military, responsible for matters of aviation and national security, and was no doubt highly sensitive to any evidence of threats to security from the air. Through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), many of the original documents regarding reports and investigations of sightings were made public.  These documents consist largely of communications between the FBI and the military in July and August of 1947. As such, they represent the origin of the recorded history of the public awareness and national response to the sightings of unidentified flying objects and the possible presence of alien visitors to our planet.

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