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CONFIDENTIAL

FROM THE OREGON JOURNAL - 5 July 1947, Portland, Ore.

"PROWL CARS SPOT DISKS IN SKY HERE"

Whatever they are, there are some disk-like objects flying around in the sky.

Or else eight Portland area policemen and deputy sheriffs who sighted the objects Friday, numerous private citizens, the crew of a United Air Lines plane over Boise, Idaho, and a coastguardsman who claims to have photographed one near Seattle, are all wrong.

In Portland the alert was sounded over police radio at 1:06 p.m. Friday, after the East Side station received a score of calls that the disks were overhead. Within seconds, two prowl cars reported spotting the mysterious craft.

FLASHES SEEN, NOISE LACKING.

First to report in were Patrolmen Walter Lissy and Robert Ellis in Car No. 82, who stopped near Oaks Park. Both World War II veterans and civilian pilots, they sighted three of the objects within 30 seconds traveling at great height and speed over the park. They reported they heard no engine noises but saw flashes. The objects seemed erratic and changed direction of flight. The patrolmen agreed that without knowledge of the size of the objects it would be impossible to judge their speed or altitude.

Patrolman Earl Patterson in car No. 13 stopped at SE 82d avenue and Foster road to look eastward from where the disks were reported. Telephone calls located them coming out of the sun. He saw nothing, but a few seconds later observed one coming out of the west and heading southwest. The craft seemed to be aluminum or eggshell white and didn't flash or reflect light, he said.

OBJECTS UNIDENTIFIED.

A former aircorps veteran, he said the object was unlike any plane he'd ever seen. He thought it appeared radio-controlled because the disk could change direction at a 90-degree angle without difficulty.

Members of the harbor patrol at the foot of NW Irving street stepped out when they heard the all-car alert. Capt. K. A. Prehn, Harbor Pilot, A. T. Austed and Patrolman K. C. Hoff all saw the objects and said they appeared to be going south high over the Globe mills at terrific speed. Capt. Prehn said the flashes kept them from ascertaining whether there were three or six.

"The disks would oscillate and sometimes we would see a full disk, then a half-moon shape, then nothing at all," he reported. The objects looked more like a shiny chromium hub cap off a car which wobbled, disappeared and reappeared."

There was a plane in the sky at the time, but all were emphatic that the disks were not planes.

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

AUG 7 1947

SAN FRANCISCO

ROUTED TO

CONFIDENTIAL