CIA-UAP-007_Current_Status_of_Unidentified_Flying_Objects_UFO_Project.pdf

Approved for Release 2026
SECRET
17 December 1953

MEMORANDUM TO: Assistant Director, Scientific Intelligence
FROM: Chief, Physics and Electronics Division, SI
SUBJECT: Current Status of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOB) Project.

1. In accordance with the verbal request of Mr. Brent, Exec/SI, on 30 November, the following resume of the current status of unidentified flying objects activities has been prepared.

2. P&E Division assumed responsibility for the OSI project on unidentified flying objects as a result of your memorandum of 27 May 1953. The project has been confined to maintaini…

SECRET

investigative work of the project and "if it turns out that these things (UFOB's) are space ships or long range aircraft from another country, ADC is the (Air Force) Command that would have to take action." Col. Johnston followed this comment with the somewhat contradictory statement that the project transfer did not reflect any change in Air Force policy. It is undoubtedly true that ADC is the Air Force Command primarily concerned with UFOB's at the present time in that their interceptors are occasionally dispatched "against" reported UFOB's and that their reporting stations and commu…

SECRET
"laboratory" for recording observable phenomena connected with UFOB's.

It is interesting to note that in his recently published book "Flying Saucers From Outer Space" Mr. D. E. Keyhoe states that a Wilbur B. Smith of the Canadian Department of Transport had been conducting "saucer" investigations for three years before 1952, or beginning in 1949. If Keyhoe is correct and it is the same Wilbur B. Smith mentioned in his book as in the recent press releases one might wonder why the matter hit the press four years late. It is, of course quite possible that the press item was prompted by th…