PURSUE Release 01: 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_4

  FBI Section 4 Segment

Section 4 is one PDF segment of FBI file 62-HQ-83894 in PURSUE Release 01, identified in the release metadata as FBI material with no incident date or incident location assigned to the row.¹ The official PDF is 65_hs1-834228961_62-hq-83894_section_4.pdf.²

The file is a 214-page scanned section of the larger FBI "flying discs" case file. A targeted check of the opening pages shows the section begins with October and November 1947 memoranda and correspondence, rather than a single incident report.²

  Portland, Alaska, and Public Leads

The opening FBI memorandum, sent from Portland on October 9, 1947, follows up a September 13 teletype about objects seen over Portland on September 11, 1947. It draws on Portland Police Department radio records and interviews with Robert D. Adair, J. R. Caldwell, Chief Leon V. Jenkins, and Patrolman H. S. Raney, preserving differing judgments about a bright silver object: possible ordinary aircraft reflection, unusually fast elliptical object, weather balloon, or high-altitude airplane reflection.²

The next memoranda widen the file beyond Portland. An Anchorage memorandum dated October 18, 1947 reports pilot Jack Peck and co-pilot Vin Daly's account near Bethel, Alaska, describing an object they tried to avoid while approaching the airport in a DC-3; an Albany memorandum dated November 1, 1947 records that A. Courtney Parker had no additional information beyond an earlier letter and was directed to send future material to the Air Forces.²

Section 4 also preserves the Bureau's intake of public letters, tip referrals, and interagency coordination around "flying discs." Sampled pages include short Hoover response letters to correspondents, a November 18, 1947 Port Allegany letter asking the FBI to check a rumor that saucers came from Spain, and a February 12, 1948 San Francisco letter forwarding Air Defense Command instructions about how Air Force flying-disc investigations might intersect with FBI field offices.²

  Early UFO Intake at Work

This section matters because it shows how the FBI file mixed formal police and aviation reports with letters, rumors, and administrative routing. In PURSUE Release 01, Section 4 is less a single case narrative than a working slice of the Bureau's early postwar UFO intake system: witness reports were logged, some were treated as security leads, and many were closed or redirected when no federal violation appeared.¹²

  References

  References

1. war.gov ↩ ↩²

2. war.gov ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶