UFO FILES RELEASED

This 184-page file is Section 10 of the FBI Headquarters' central UFO investigative case file (62-HQ-83894), covering primarily 1966 to 1977. It carries multiple FOIA "Copied for" stamps from 1976 and 1977, confirming it was partially requested under the Freedom of Information Act before this full declassification.

The file opens with a September 1966 letter signed by Director J. Edgar Hoover, responding to a citizen inquiry. Hoover's office states the FBI is "strictly an investigative agency" that "neither makes evaluations nor draws conclusions" about UFO organizations — the standard deflection used to distance the Bureau from public UFO interest while continuing to collect related materials internally.

The bulk of the document consists of civilian UFO publications collected by the FBI, including issues of Flying Saucer News in Brief (1966), documenting active Flying Saucer Conventions, New Age conferences, and public discussion of contact with extraterrestrial beings. These materials were gathered as part of systematic monitoring of UFO-related civic organizations.

The later pages (approx. 130–184) contain 1977 inter-agency correspondence between the FBI's External Affairs Division and Lieutenant Colonel H. A. McClanahan at the US Air Force's Office of Information. This exchange confirms the Air Force formally notified the FBI of the termination of its UFO investigation project and transferred its official "UFO Fact Sheet" — marking the administrative end of official military UFO investigation.

What stands out is the gap between the public denial and what this file shows they were actually doing. The FBI was actively monitoring UFO organizations through at least 1977 while publicly maintaining it had no investigative interest. The Air Force correspondence provides documented evidence of the deliberate, coordinated wind-down of official programs.