The records were made public on Friday as part of a transparency initiative led by the Trump administration. Among the hundreds of files, photos and videos uploaded to the War Department website, an internal memo from 1966 stood out for its description of “crew members” associated with unidentified flying objects.
Small creatures in space suits
According to a 1966 memo sent from the FBI’s San Francisco office to Director J.
Edgar Hoover, investigators tracked reports of landing vehicles and their occupants. The document notes that “some witnesses reported seeing crew members who descended from the objects,” describing the entities as “ranging from three and a half to four feet tall, and wearing what appear to be space suits and helmets.”These accounts were part of a broader summary of 1965, which the bureau noted was “the year of the largest number of UFO sightings” globally.
Sightings included polished metal objects capable of flying in complete silence before accelerating to “amazing speeds”.
Advanced technology
The files showed the physical effects these objects allegedly had on their environment. Witnesses reported that the vehicle released force fields that interfered with power sources and electromagnetic equipment. In some cases, the ground beneath the objects was found scorched after they left.FBI records also indicate that the wreckage of the smashed saucers was recovered on three separate occasions. Laboratory analysis cited in the files described the wreck as an “unknown exceptionally hard metal” and a magnesium alloy. One particular material was noted to contain “thousands of 15-micron diameter mineral spheres throughout it” and shows clear evidence of micrometeorite impacts on its surface.
National controversy
The 1966 memo focused largely on the public frenzy caused by Frank Edwards’ book “Flying Saucers – Serious Business.”
The FBI monitored Edwards’ claims that the USAF “intentionally withheld information and provided misleading explanations because it feared mass panic by the public if the public were told the truth.”The document also mentions the political climate of the time, noting that future President Gerald Ford, then a congressman, was calling for formal hearings. This pressure eventually led the Air Force to commission a $300,000 study conducted by University of Colorado physicist Edward Yu.
He overlooked the investigation of phenomena.
Pressure for disclosure
This release follows an executive order from President Donald Trump directing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to declassify records related to unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).Despite the sensational nature of the reports, officials urged caution. The FBI memo serves as a summary of contemporary witness accounts and popular literature rather than a verification of the existence of extraterrestrial life.
