The Army checked a Russian-saucer rumor

This is a 1949 Department of the Army Plans and Operations file. It holds the Air Force Air Materiel Command study evaluating 'flying saucer' reports, along with routing forms and an Intelligence Division comment responding to broadcaster Walter Winchell's claim that the saucers were Russian guided missiles. It shows that the first government office for saucers was built to do two jobs at once: study the reports and quiet down shaky public claims. From the start this work was tangled up with uncertainty, rumor, and security worries.

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