On 3 September 1947, a memo from Colonel R H Smith (Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence) to several Commanding Generals in the Army Air Forces stated that the FBI had been asked to assist the Air Force in UFO investigations “to relieve the numbered Air Forces of the task of tracking down all the many instances which turned out to be ash can covers, toilet seats and whatnot”.
The memo was supplied to FBI Special Agent Harry M Kimball by Lieutenant Colonel Donald Springer on 19 September 1947.
Web Resources
Complete images of relevant memo available online at page 21 (of 77) in Part 4 (of 16 parts) of the UFO material on the FBI’s FOIA website at the link below:
http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/ufo.htm
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Book References
Complete text of memo presented by Fawcett, George and Greenwood, Barry in their “Clear Intent” (1984) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 156-159 (in Chapter 10) of the Spectrum softcover edition (with the same page numbering in the Fireside softcover edition published under the title “The UFO Cover-Up”).
For discussion of the toilet seat FBI memo see the following:
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Year |
Discussion by:
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No. of Pages |
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Blum, Howard in his “Out There“ (1990) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 210 (in Chapter 30) of the Simon & Schuster hardback edition, at page 232 of the Pocket Star paperback edition. |
1 |
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Dolan, Richard M. in his “UFOs and the National Security State: Volume 1: 1941-1973” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 80 (in Chapter 2) of the Keyhole softcover edition, at page 33 of the 2002 revised Hampton Road softcover edition. |
1 |
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Fawcett, George and Greenwood, Barry (with complete text) in their “Clear Intent” (1984) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 156-159 (in Chapter 10) of the Spectrum softcover edition (with the same page numbering in the Fireside softcover edition published under the title “The UFO Cover-Up”). |
4 |
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Maccabee, Bruce in his “UFO-FBI Connection” (2000) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 31-32 (in Chapter 4) of the Llewellyn softcover edition. |
2 |
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Paget, Peter in his “The Welsh Triangle” (1979) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 56-59 (in Chapter 3) of the Grafton paperback edition. |
4 |
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Randles, Jenny and Hough, Peter in their “The Complete Book of UFOs” (1994) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 101 (in Chapter 7) of the Piatkus softcover edition. |
1 |
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Redfern, Nicholas in his “The FBI Files” (1998) (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at pages 34-37 (in Chapter 2) of the Simon & Schuster softcover edition, with the same page numbering in the Pocket Books paperback edition. |
4 |
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Sachs, Margaret in her “The UFO Encyclopedia“ (1980 (available on Amazon USA and on Amazon UK) at page 103 (in an entry entitled “Federal Bureau of Investigation”) of the Corgi softback edition. |
1 |
Other Material