Minutes of Branch Chief's Meeting of 11 August 1952

These minutes document a meeting held on August 11, 1952, by the P&E Division to address the subject of 'Flying Saucers.' The meeting, chaired by Mr. Sullivan, included several staff members who discussed the necessity of establishing a formal project within the division to maintain current knowledge on the subject. The primary objective of this initiative was to enable the division to formulate informed opinions and provide support to the CIA. Dr. Odarenko suggested that the project should focus on building up-to-date knowledge through external contacts. Ray Gordon was designated as the Project Officer for the P&E Division. His responsibilities included investigating who was handling the project, compiling a history of relevant findings in meteorology and other sciences, and securing reports from the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC). The participants also discussed the division's role in responding to inquiries, noting that ATIC maintained a standard form for such requests and that the Air Force utilized local agents to investigate. The document concludes with a brief note in the distribution section, mentioning that despite the recent frequency of 'flying saucer' reports, an individual named Mr. Strong, who had traveled the area extensively, had not encountered any unusual phenomena.