UNCLASSIFIED // PUBLIC RELEASERELEASE 04 · JULY 10, 2026
PENTAGON UFO FILE · DOCUMENT · FBI-UAP-D014Correspondence Relating to UFO Sightings, 1967, 1974
This short file joins two unrelated pieces of paperwork from the FBI’s Chicago field office, seven years apart. Together they show how the Bureau treated UFO matters in that era: passing a report on to the military in one case, and telling a member of the public that it did not collect such reports in the other.
The 1967 call
A memo dated September 22, 1967, records that on the evening of September 16 an eleven-year-old boy in Chicago phoned the office. He said that at about 8:30 p.m. he had heard a strange noise, looked out of the window and seen a flash of light heading north. He could add nothing more but was sure it was a UFO. The agent passed the details to a sergeant at the 755th Radar Squadron in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
The 1974 letter
In a letter dated September 30, 1974, Larry W. Bryant of Arlington, Virginia, wrote that the Air Force had supplied him with a U.S. Army report of a claimed April 8, 1954, sighting in which a craft chased by Coast Guard personnel landed briefly, let out an occupant who walked around and got back in, and was seen by at least three civilians. He said the report listed the Chicago office among its recipients, and asked for any follow-up records, any other 1954 UFO files, and the main witness’s address.
The Special Agent in Charge replied on October 10 that the FBI had nothing on the incident, does not collect UFO sighting information because Congress has not given it that job, and had no address for the witness. The Army report itself is not included.
The official description
From war.gov/UFO, released July 10, 2026, quoted in full
This file contains two pieces of correspondence. The first, dated 9/22/1967, relays a description of an incident provided by an eleven-year-old child in which they heard a “weird” noise and saw a “flash of light.” The second, dated 9/30/1974 and 10/10/1974, is an exchange of letters between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Mr. Larry Bryant regarding an “alleged April 8, 1954 sighting of an occupied unidentified flying object (UFO).” The FBI’s response to Mr. Bryant’s inquiry indicated that it maintained no record of such an event, and that, circa 1974, the Bureau does not collect information regarding UFO sightings.