1947.09.19
From Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter to Joint Intelligence Committee
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE GROUP
2430 E Street, N. W.
Washington 25, D .C.
19 SEP 1947
MEMORANDUM FOR THE MILITARY ASSESSMENT OF THE JOINT INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: Examination of Unidentified Disc-like Aircraft near Military Installations in the State of New Mexico: A Preliminary Report
1. Pursuant to the recent world events and domestic security problems within the Atomic Energy Commission, the intelligence reports of so-called “Flying Saucers” and the intrusion of unknown aircraft over the most secret defense installations, a classified intelligence project is warranted. The National Security Act of 1947 established a Central Intelligence Agency under the National Security Council. When the Director of Central Intelligence assumes his official responsibilities, the National Intelligence Authority is abolished the files pertaining to unidentified aircraft sightings, intelligence personnel and funds of the Central Intelligence Group will be transferred to the Agency.
2. The recovery of unidentified planform aircraft in the state of New Mexico on 6 July 1947, ten miles northwest of Oscura Peak, and a debri field 75 miles northwest of the Army’s 509th Atomic Bomb Group, Roswell Army Air Field, is confirmed. A subsequent capture of another similar craft 30 miles east of the Army’s Alamogordo Army Air Field on 5 July 1947, has convinced the Army Air Forces S-2, Army G-2 and Navy ONI, that the craft and wreckage are not of US manufacture.
3. Until a clear directive from the President is issued, there can be no co-ordinated scientific examination of the objects in question. Currently, the core material is being secured at the Naval Research Laboratory hanger facilities at the White Sands Proving Ground, the Sandia Base facilities (Armed Forces Special Weapons Project), Alamogordo AAF and the Aero Medical Research facilities at Randolph Field, Texas.
4. The research scientists at the Air Forces Research and Development Center, Wright Field, are utilising their test facilities and a new biological laboratory in an on-going study program. The officers of the JRDB, FBI and the State Department are assisting the Joint Intelligence Committee in acquiring any intelligence from MI5 and MI6 on possible Soviet long-range reconnaissance aircraft/missile research and development tests.
Rear Admiral, USN
Director of Central Intelligence
TOP SECRET/EYES ONLY
[Handwritten:] Joint Chiefs concern [indicating paragraph 3.]