CIA-UAP-007, OSI Memo: Current Status of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOB) Project, Dec. 17, 1953
- Date
- Dec. 17, 1953
- Location
- Washington, D.C. (CIA Office of Scientific Intelligence)
- Agency
- CIA
- Release
- Release 03 (June 12, 2026)
- Type
- document
Summary
A memo from the chief of OSI's Physics and Electronics Division (signed Todos M. Odarenko) reviews UFO activity. It says the Air Force's interest continues "with apparently decreasing emphasis," that ATIC's Project Blue Book is run by one officer, one airman and a secretary, that about ten percent of sightings over the past year were "tagged as unsolved," and that the project was being transferred to Air Defense Command because "if it turns out that these things (UFOB's) are space ships or long range aircraft from another country, ADC is the... Command that would have to take action." It also covers a camera-and-grating program, Navy, Army, Canadian, British and Swedish activity (partly redacted), and notes a decline in sightings that, the paper says, "could be attributed to actions following these recommendations" of the January 1953 panel.
Note
An internal status report; the space-ship remark is quoted from an Air Force officer, and the memo notes it sat beside his statement that policy had not changed.