Declassified UFO / UAP Document
Memorandum for the Record: Responsibility for Unidentified Flying Objects
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AI-Generated Summary
This 1956 memorandum establishes the OSI's internal procedures for processing and filtering U.F.O. reports. It mandates the destruction of reports deemed useless to the OSI mission and the consolidation of relevant intelligence within the ASD.
This memorandum, dated 9 February 1956, outlines the internal procedures for the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) regarding the handling of reports on 'Unidentified Flying Objects.' Referencing a January 1956 memorandum on non-conventional air vehicles and a 1955 ATIC report on Project Blue Book, the document formalizes the division's responsibility for these matters. The OSI established a strict triage system for incoming reports. Files deemed relevant to foreign weapons system research or development were to be maintained in the ASD. Reports that could provide information on foreign fundamental science developments were to be forwarded to the Fundamental Science Area for review, with a request for return to the ASD for filing. Reports that did not meet these criteria were to be destroyed. Furthermore, the memorandum mandates that a chronological file of all OSI correspondence and action taken regarding the U.S. U.F.O. program, as well as finished intelligence reports from the broader intelligence community, be maintained in the ASD. Finally, the document notes that raw intelligence and obsolete finished reports on U.F.O.s currently held in the Electronics Division were recommended for destruction to prevent the accumulation of reports that experience had shown could not be analyzed in a manner useful to the OSI mission.
The procedure stated in 2 a., b., c., and d. will prevent the accumulation of reports which experience and Reference 2 have shown cannot be analyzed in a manner useful to OSI in carrying out its mission.
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Official Assessment
The OSI division assumed responsibility for non-conventional types of air vehicles. They established a procedure for handling incoming reports based on their potential value for foreign weapons system research or fundamental science. Reports deemed useless to the OSI mission are to be destroyed, as is the raw intelligence and obsolete finished reports currently filed in the Electronics Division.