Boise, IdahoMay 1949

On May 13, 1949, a newspaper reporter named Smith was driving from Caldwell to Boise, Idaho, when he spotted something unusual in the western sky near Shafer Butte. He watched a single silvery object vanish, then saw five more objects appear in tight V-formation, flying slowly in a spiral pattern. Smith described the objects as roughly the size of a B-29 bomber, with silver tops that caught the sunlight brilliantly and black or dark undersides. The objects maneuvered in the sky for about five minutes, descended two or three thousand feet in a spiral, then climbed sharply at high speed and vanished from sight.

Smith was an experienced observer. He held a first lieutenant's commission in the Air Force Reserve and had logged over 900 hours as a B-24 pilot during World War II. At the time of the sighting, he was working as a writer for the Idaho State Board of Publicity. He told investigators that the objects were silent, left no vapor trail, had no visible wings or fins, and appeared to move in an intelligent, coordinated manner.

The Air Force's Office of Special Investigations conducted a thorough follow-up. Agents checked with the Civil Aeronautics Authority, the Idaho National Guard's fighter squadron, the local weather station, and commercial airlines to rule out conventional aircraft. They found one F-51 fighter on a test flight that day, but records showed it was not in the area where Smith observed the objects. A nearby farmer who was interviewed had seen nothing. A pilot who had observed similar objects over Mountain Home, Idaho, on April 24 corroborated some details, though his sighting had occurred earlier. Weather conditions at the time matched Smith's observations exactly, with clear skies and high thin clouds.

The investigation exhausted all logical leads in the Boise area. No radar sightings were recorded locally. No military aircraft or testing devices were operating in the vicinity. The agents found no evidence of hoax or mental instability on Smith's part. His employer called him trustworthy and of above average intelligence.

The Air Force's final evaluation of the case remained unidentified. The 40-page case file is held by the National Archives.