A recently declassified FBI memorandum from November 1957 makes clear that, at that time, the bureau was instructed not to pursue any reports of flying discs. The document, which had lain under layers of redaction for decades, was unveiled on May 8, 2026, as part of the PURSUE archive initiative managed by the U.S. Department of War. It shows the Dallas field office receiving a Kansas City inquiry dated November 8, 1957, and then forwarding the matter to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations without conducting any follow‑up.
The memo bears the case number 62‑1311 and was dated November 14, 1957, with a receipt stamp of November 19. Its routing list includes the FBI headquarters, the Kansas City office, and the Dallas office. The subject line reads “FLYING DISCS C INFORMATION CONCERNING.” The file carrying this memo is titled 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_9 and sits inside a larger collection that spans from June 1947 to July 1968. That assemblage contains eyewitness statements, investigative logs, and photographs gathered at locations such as the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, nuclear facility.
The crucial sentence in the memo states that the matter was being referred to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations without investigation and that no other action would be taken in accordance with existing instructions. The phrase “existing instructions” points to a standing policy rather than an isolated decision. By 1957, the FBI therefore had a clear directive: do not examine UFO sightings, hand them over to the Air Force, and take no further steps.
The public remained unaware of this internal guidance. The file’s official description mentions “high‑profile incident accounts,” though the specifics of those accounts are still obscured. Although the newly released version is less redacted than earlier postings, it is not fully open, leaving questions about the reliability of the historical record. If the FBI was indeed ordered to cease looking into such reports, it implies that the decision originated somewhere above the field level, though the memo does not identify who issued the order or on what basis.
The Dallas office complied without protest, producing only the two‑sentence referral and moving on. If similar practices were followed in other field offices, years of UFO reports could have been funneled exclusively to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, bypassing any independent FBI review or cross‑checking. Consequently, there would have been no bureau‑level verification of the sightings or any attempt to correlate the information with other data sources.
The release originating from the Department of War adds an unusual wrinkle, as that agency is not typically associated with UFO‑related files. The PURSUE initiative has been releasing documents gradually; this particular PDF, sized at 49.6 MB, appeared on May 8, 2026. For researchers, it supplies a fresh fragment of a long‑standing puzzle. For the broader audience, it serves as a reminder that the official stance on unidentified aerial phenomena was established early, enacted quietly, and shaped by individuals who preferred to keep the FBI out of the discussion.
The memo itself is brief: it does not name the source of the information, describe the sighting, or elaborate on what the “C INFORMATION CONCERNING” might reference. It ends as a bureaucratic dead end, yet such terminologies carry meaning—they mark where a line of inquiry was cut off and invite speculation about what other material might remain concealed beneath the label of “existing instructions.” Sixty‑nine years after its creation, the document is now accessible, but the underlying guidance it reflects remains unexplained. Any records the Air Force Office of Special Investigations may have generated concerning the referral are not part of this file, leaving the chain of custody ending on November 19, 1957.
