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Case FileNARA NAID 28929393 · T1206 Roll 1

Project Blue Book Case File

[ILLEGIBLE], July 1947 - Incident Number: 12July 1947

Insufficient Data

Summary

In July 1947, police officers and citizens in the Portland, Oregon area spotted several unusual objects in the sky. Officer Kenneth McDowell was feeding pigeons behind the police precinct building when he noticed the birds became agitated. Looking up, he saw five large discs flying in formation east of the city, with two heading south and three flying east. The objects moved at tremendous speed, dipping and oscillating as they flew. McDowell saw no indication of any propulsion system and heard no sound. He quickly reported the sightings to police radio, triggering an alert.

Patrol officers who responded corroborated McDowell's account, describing similar disc-like objects over various parts of Portland that same afternoon. Some officers thought the objects might be radio-controlled because of their ability to change direction at ninety-degree angles. Captain E.A. Prehn of the harbor patrol likened the appearance to a shiny chromium hubcap that wobbled, disappeared, and reappeared. Several witnesses said the flashes of light made it difficult to determine the objects' exact shape or number. Though a plane was visible in the sky at the time, all observers agreed the discs were not ordinary aircraft.

The Air Force investigator noted that there is no astronomical explanation for this incident. The file suggests it is possible that small pieces of aluminum foil or similar material, dropped from an airplane during Fourth of July celebrations, could account for the reports. However, the investigator acknowledged this hypothesis as unlikely given the consistent descriptions of rapid motion, the coordinated appearance of objects across multiple locations, and the observers' insistence that what they saw was not aircraft. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 59 pages.

Reported location

[ILLEGIBLE], July 1947 - Incident Number: 12

Date of incident

July 1947

State / country

? / XX

Page count

59 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 1

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 59
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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28929393