Project Grudge: Sighting of Flying Discs on 9 August 1949 at Hebgen Lake, West Yellowstone, Montana

This document is a consolidated report from the Office of Special Investigations regarding a series of sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena in August 1949. The primary incident occurred on 9 August 1949 at Hebgen Lake, Montana, where a local guide reported seeing seven 'flying discs' traveling at high speed. The witness claimed two of these objects crashed in the vicinity. Following this report, the OSI conducted an investigation, which included interviewing the witness, searching the wooded area where the objects allegedly crashed, and dragging the lake. These efforts yielded negative results. The investigator noted that the witness, while considered a reliable individual by his peers, was prone to exaggeration and that his account was likely embellished. Later, a physical object was recovered in the area, which was identified by the investigator as a plexiglass astradome from a C-47 aircraft. The report concludes that the sighting was likely a misidentification, and the recovered object was a piece of aircraft debris. The document also includes numerous supplemental reports of sightings by military personnel at Camp Hood, Texas, during the same period. These reports describe various lights and objects, many of which were attributed to natural phenomena such as meteor showers or were otherwise deemed insufficient for further investigation. The file serves as a record of the military's efforts to investigate these reports under Project Grudge, emphasizing the systematic process of interviewing witnesses, checking flight schedules, and analyzing physical evidence to determine the nature of the reported phenomena.