Flapjacks Saucers And Saw Blades
April 23, 2010 -
If you’ve ever watched The X-Files or other sci-fi shows like it, you
may think that investigating unexplained phenomena is one of the FBI’s
investigative responsibilities right along with terrorism, espionage,
white-collar crime, etc.
In fact, the FBI
was only occasionally involved in investigating the possibility of UFOs
and extraterrestrials over the years. The first Bureau investigations we
are aware of began in the summer of 1947, the time of the now well-known
A rash of reports of flying objects—some shaped like “flapjacks,” saucers, discs, and even a large circular saw blade that supposedly hit a lightning rod on top of a church—started to surface and make headlines across the nation.
Concerned citizens reported many of these strange sightings to the FBI.
That wasn't surprising, given that the Bureau had investigated airline
crashes such as the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 and aerial dangers like
the balloon bombs launched by
In late July 1947, a woman in
Initially, it was not clear how UFO sightings should be handled. FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover recognized that the Air Force—then part of the
U.S. Army—clearly had the lead in such issues, but he did want his
agents to investigate any “discs” recovered for their potential impact
on FBI responsibilities.
The Army did want
the FBI’s help—at least at first. On July 30, 1947, the Bureau issued
this notice to all of its offices:
Flying Discs – The
Bureau, at the request of the Army Air Forces Intelligence, has agreed
to cooperate in the investigation of flying discs….You should
investigate each instance which is brought to your attention of a
sighting of a flying disc in order to ascertain whether or not it is a
bona fide sighting, an imaginary one or a prank.
Three years later,
that policy changed. A July 1950 FBI statement said that “the
jurisdiction and responsibility for investigating flying saucers have
been assumed by the United States Air Force. Information received in
this matter is immediately turned over to the Air Force, and the FBI
does not attempt to investigate these reports or evaluate the
From this point,
the FBI’s cases on UFOs dropped off dramatically. Neither the public nor
the Air Force sought our expertise as they had during the first few
years of the Cold War.
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